topic Re: May Check In Thread in Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge!

May Check In Thread

Mike_C — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:44:50 GMT

Good Morning Challengers!

As some of you may notice, I'm the new Administrator. Its been an interesting past month, so take a moment to thank KaLin and all the Mods for all their hard work during the interim. But it's May 1st, which means it's time for our fourth monthly check-in thread (though technically this is my first).

You've paid your taxes at this point, and some have already received a refund. How has the tax season affected your finances? Did April impact your goals, or are you happy for the new month and the new opportunities? Achieve any financial landmarks, or hit any dips along the way?

As always, let us know how you're doing! What have been your biggest accomplishments and obstacles so far in the myFICO Fitness Challenge for 2013? We're almost halfway done, so keep at it, and let's all cross together.

As a reminder, participation in these monthly check-ins is optional, but encouraged. The goal is to help keep you on track, so feel free to post your progress updates here.

Re: May Check In Thread

Revelate — Wed, 01 May 2013 20:41:42 GMT

On track to meet my goal of IRS resolution this year.

Mortgage has to be pushed off to next year.

Have all the tradelines I need currently; so it's just a matter of patiently waiting and not doing anything stupid and only chasing a few SP CLI's for future underwriting goodness.

Boring update, but sometimes that's what's needed in one's FICO plan. Flatlined around 660 currently other than seeing what a maxxed out tradeline does to one's score. Round 1 down (to 646 and back), round 2 this month .

Silly games to keep invested in my credit report. Hope everyone else is doing well in reaching their individual goals!

Re: May Check In Thread

Shogun — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:47:28 GMT

I'm broke but all the bills are paid! Have a kid graduating high school this month and getting ready to start college. Oh what hectic times.

Re: May Check In Thread

nickf4rr — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:32:57 GMT

I'm doing quite well! Trying to wrap up my old job before I take six months off to study for the CPA exam and re-start some of my own businesses.

One odd thing that happened: An old BofA Platinum Plus card that went into a Payment Plan suddenly resurfaced as an active credit card after I paid it in full! This is really great, since it's an old account...don't have to worry as much about AAoA dropping in the future.

I'm just waiting for one last TL to report PIF as well as some paperwork to delete a TL with a baddie before going to app for an AMEX card I'm lusting after.

I'm tracking my score changes in a thread over here....no news lately!

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:32:56 GMT

I just got approved for a mortgage!!! YES! I didn't think that was possible when I started this journey in January, yes you read that right! I don't even know what my scores were in January for sure but i know they were all below the 580 mark. My credit report work is almost done. I have obtained several new credit cards (I haven't had a credit card in 10 years!) and I have been approved for a total of $12000 in installment loans. I'm very thankful for this board and all the advice I've found on here from people who have done this before me. I'm even more grateful when I know I could have spent $$$ on having someone else do my 'credit repair' for me. I wish everyone a wonderful May!!!!

Re: May Check In Thread

nickf4rr — Thu, 02 May 2013 17:43:33 GMT

Woo hoo! Congrats LdyNRed!

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Fri, 03 May 2013 19:11:59 GMT

Doing ok here. I just completed my student loan rehab 2 weeks ago an am waiting for the new lender to pick up the loans. I negotiated a PFD and I am waiting for that baddie to fall. I also paid down 1 CC down to $0. I think May will be all about patience as I wait for results : )

Re: May Check In Thread

IOBA — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:37:58 GMT

Just received my 2008 refund, waiting for the rest of my 2010 refund, and have to file my 2012 taxes (getting a refund). But since I need to change of address, the IRS said to wait, because at filing time, they still owed me money from 2008 & 2010 & 2011. So got two out of the three. Thinking of biting the bullet and filing 2012 with a change of address despite that they still owe me some money.

Just learned that I may take on four more dependents while my youngest is trying so hard to be financially independent in first year of college.

But no complaints - we work hard to be here.

lol - I did almost tell off a high pressured sales man and his assistant that it's hard to be cash only! They both said, take out a loan, do the bill me later, take out a mortgage, write a check that would bounce, do a cash advance off of a cc, do a balance transfer from a cc, call someone for the money...and I said no. I have no method to pay for the purchase, therefore I would not be purchasing.

Ya know, it takes some effort to be cash only! They have no idea...

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Fri, 03 May 2013 21:58:59 GMT

I'm up to 655 (from 618 in February) on my Equifax. Hoping it goes up a little more mid-month when my credit card statement posts at $0.00 balance instead of the $20.00 balance (300 limit) it showed last month.

Re: May Check In Thread

dallas06 — Sat, 04 May 2013 01:20:17 GMT

Its May 3rd and here's my May check-in. My Credit score is 640 . My cc both have zero balances. I was able to put away $500 this month in a savings account. My goal is to save until I get $3000 and then borrow against it as a Personal Loan. I open my savings account with my Credit Union. I also was able to payoff and have a collection account deleted. I haven't applied for any credit since January. My May goal is to have my last Collection account paid and work on having it deleted. I think I'm on my way.

Thanks for the endless advise and support. Back to the garden

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Sat, 04 May 2013 06:10:43 GMT

Increased my score another 74 points this month! Had 5 negative tradelines removed from TU. Finally won the battle with a mortgage that was reporting incorrectly, and had one old student loan deleted and another updated to show no lates. That's a total increase of 153 points in two months, from 522 to 675. 700 club here I come! All of this 14 months post BK7 discharge! Goals for next month:

1. Send goodwill letters to the remaining negative tradelines
2. Stay in the garden ( very hard to do since I have made it to a whole other credit level )

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Sat, 04 May 2013 12:01:05 GMT

Congrats LdyNRed,

It so great to hear a success story because it is so encouraging. I am hoping to get approved for a mortgage next May or June 2014. Was your mortgage approval a FHA or conventional loan of you dont mind answering. I ask becaue you said your scores wer below 580. Good luck.

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Sun, 05 May 2013 05:03:22 GMT

I'm starting my journey. Better late than never! I have filed my taxes and am expecting a refund. I will be using it to pay on some of my debts and put the rest in savings. Looking forward to learning alot from you guys and improving my current situation.

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:21:49 GMT

and the trend going up has started! its not much but 7 points is a good start!..besides im in no hurry,i have 2 years to rais it to atleast 725!

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:57:40 GMT

Not much to report this month but I am super excited that my score is on the rise! I am still waiting for my official bankruptcy discharge paperwork so I can start rebuilding. I love this challenge, so much useful insight from everyone.

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Fri, 10 May 2013 02:49:30 GMT

2013 Goals -Proud of my status!

Began this journey with scores less than 550. Now TU 709, EQ 684, EX 718.

My goals for 2013 are listed below. My updated progress follows in red!

Increase FICO to 700 by June - Two out of three aint bad!
Make final progress on GW to remove old COs and lates from 2006/2007 Did all I can do. Will let stuff age off. Nothing not paid.
FHA Mortgage by May Closing in three weeks!
Refi auto after mortgage From 12% to 1.99% (Thank you credit union!)
App for Amex (Green), Southwest Rewards, local credit union cc (right after mortgage then garden) Apped for Amex Gold Delta Rewards and was approved! Credit union approved me for a Visa at 5k! Apped for Southwest Rewards and I got the "review message". Whatever! I have all that I want and need. About to sit in the garden with no intention of getting out!
Save - add $5k to add to emergency fund Working on this. Have been saving much more this year and hope to get to 5k in emergency fund by end of the year. Making good progress!

Re: May Check In Thread

AGuptill — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:39:45 GMT

OK so I am a few days late posting this but here it goes, score is now 646 (was 580s in january), got an alert the other day that a bad debt student loan I cosigned was finally reported the way it should be, (payed settlement last year and Sallie Mae was continuing to report as unpaid, got nowhere with DV process but when contacted by a new collection agency trying to obtain more money they actually resolved the matter for me). I hope to continue to pay my bills on time and keep the balance paid in full on my CC. Goal is now a USDA RD mortgage by the end of summer.

Re: May Check In Thread

cappaccinodagreat — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:18:17 GMT

I have kinda lurked for a while, but thought I would jump in now. I am focusing on credit repair and plan on being in the garden at least until Jan 2014. A couple of recent declines after a string of approvals, has let me know that I may be doing too much.

I dont know what I can realistically expect to score by the end of the year, but I am going to do my best.

I would love to get a Southwest Airlines Visa within a year from now.

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2013 05:03:28 GMT

My current scores are TU 591 (5/6) EX 622 (5/4) EQ 590 (4/27).

I have not seen big jumps in my score from my last check-in back in April. I guess you can't always have 40 points increase in a month.

I have one account that appeared in collection last month, but I am current in my student loan and I have no credit card debt. I have a 120+ day late on my student loan that I have send out a GW letter to have deleted and I received an email that they will review my account. Keeping my fingers crossed!

My next course of action is to send out GW letter to a very recent PIF collection. I didn't know much about credit reporting system and did not negotiate a PFD because of the misleading advice from my collection rep. Finally, once all my scores are around 620, I want to apply for a decent credit card as I only have 1 at the moment and is probably slowing my progress.

Good luck to everyone! Keep on going!

Re: May Check In Thread

Anonymous — Wed, 15 May 2013 02:53:55 GMT

Hi, Im new...I'm excited to finally get my credit back on track but at the same time I feel that this is an uphill, never ending battle! Didn't realize my scores were this low until recently and I'm just mad at myself for getting into this mess...