Hi All,
I found this forum in November, and so far the information has been great - really good stuff here that will help me clean up my credit.
I sowed my wild credit oats in the '90s (slow pays, charge-offs, etc.), and then realized I couldn't keep doing that - it was embarrassing to apply for a car loan, CC, and get denied. So, I paid everything that was derogatory and waited for it to clear; also, my last slow pay was in 2001. I've had 10 years of paying everything on time/clean credit, but still have very low scores (low 600s).
Since browsing these forums, I've realized my problem has been paying off a CC and then closing it, which resulted in not having a very long AAoA. I was caught in the subprime borrower category in 2007/2008 and had several CCs that were cancelled on me by creditors, which has resulted in an extremely high utilization %. And, I've indiscriminately applied for credit at every turn, not aware of how inquiries affected my scores.
My goals for 2012: 1). Apply for no credit/no inquiries in 2012. 2). Work on paying off my revolving credit lines with high interest rates (I have 14 total, and I hope to pay off half of these this year). 3). Keep making all payments on time.
Looking forward to being with everyone here this year.
TNTransplant
Starting Score: Jan 2012: EQ - 659, TU08 - 670, EX - ???