Hi Everyone!
I'll be 28 years old on July and I made the decision this month that I want to be a homeowner by age 30. So I need to improve my credit score. In the coming two years I'm hoping to at least get to a 750. I paid my credit cards off to only ten% utilization however I have a lot of student loans. I'm not sure how I can pay them down enough to matter AND save enough of a down payment as well. Any thoughts?
Starting Score: 8670
I'm very excited for the challenge! I joined MyFico last year, and I'm finally ready to garden a while. Super happy right now! 
Just got the alert my score has reached 644, time for a new goal. I am so glad I found this site.
Starting Score: 584
Hi AGuptil, How long did it take for you to go from your starting score of 584 to the current score of 644? Also did you have any negative items on your report?
It took 4 months, I have paid collections and charge offs, with the last reported delinquency about 2 1/2 years ago. 2 months ago I opened a secured credit card as that was a reccomended action (had no revolving credit). I keep my utilization around 10% and pay the balance in full. I would reccomend using the estimators before making any desicions. Additionally several of the collection accounts are about to age off my report which probably played a major part in the score increase.
I know I'm late in the challange, but I've been keeping track since Jan of 2013 when I had a TU score of 530....it just reached 550 as of yesterday. I know it's not all that good, but here's my very short story.
I had horrible credit my whole life....and it's been seven years since I last had negitive stuff put on my report. I just got all three credit reports from annualcreditreport.com and ALL is gone except one negitive pubic record, schedualed to be removed next month 06/13. With that, in Dec of 2012 I was offered a CC from NFCU and was approved for $5k and with all good payments so far, and utilizing it to it's 20-25% my score went up to 550 from 530. I'm kind of expecting it to go up next month or so when that last neg public record is removed....I hope anyways...what I wouldn't do to get into the 600's lol.
I'm getting my scores from Credit Karma and my Vantage Score went up too, it went from 654 to 724.....for whatever Vantage Score is worth, which I've heard is not much. With everything wiped clean, it's like I have no credit history...well only 5 months so far (which hurts my score), and the number of accounts is only one....NFCU for 5K (only one account doesn't help my score as well).
My payment history is Top Notch....albeit it's only been 5 months of 100% of on time payments, Derogatory remarks are about to be at zero instead of that one straggler which is being removed next month...so that being wiped off my report should be good for my credit score.
I just want to know how I can get it to go up from 550? The 550 score is according to Credit Karma which is "very poor" I'd LOVE it to be 650 which is "fair" or even 700+ which is "good" without getting more cards....they cause hard pulls which in turn bring down my score, I currently have 4 hard pulls...Verizon (got it with now deposit), NFCU (Savings, Checking, and Credit Card 5K), and Capital One (which declined me, lol).
Any help would be appreciated....I already know time helps, which I am patient, so that's not too hard. On time payments will always be 100% as I have automatic payments from my checking to my CC every two weeks, and the CC balance is always either zero or 20-25%
So, I'm new to this site and also a newbie on getting my credit on the right path. My goal is to pay everything on time, clean my report up, and become better educated on this credit thing, I would love to purchase a home soon. I can use all the help I can get, I will be absorbing all of you guys knowledge.
@H-Town_Tider wrote:Happy New Year, all! I started 2012 with below average scores, and until I found this board I didn't know jack with regards to the credit system and how it works. I have learned a ton this year just by reading these boards and doing a little bit of research. I had a successful 2012, but I have even bigger goals this year.
2012 Recap:
- Improved my scores from the mid 600's to the 730 range.
- Successfully had a 30 day late and medical collection removed from mine and my wife's credit reports, respectively.
- Reduced my CC utilization from 60% to 33%.
2013 Goals:
- Hit 760 across the board on my scores.
- Reduce my CC utilization to below 10%.
- Have the final two 30 day lates removed from my credit reports.
- Buy a new car by April. - Done as of 3/2/13
- Obtain my first mortgage.
Good luck to everyone on their credit journey this year! Credit repair takes time, but it will be worth it in the end!
One down. My scores are getting closer to my goal, but I'm not quite there. I'm on track for my CC utilization. Mortgage will now happen early to mid next year as we have opted to wait an extra year in order to save more money for a down payment.
