topic Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back. in General Credit Topics

I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

ah32 — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:37:50 GMT

I've had it. I'm ready to walk away from this credit bullXXXX and only buy things with cash. I'm tired of trying to make sure I use my card, even though I don't want to, to keep a balance between 1-9%. It's lots of fun on a $300 joke of a credit card. It takes seconds to have incorrect items put on my credit report and months to get it removed. FXXK this! I'm ready to close out everything and say to hell with credit! I'll rent and just continue to pay cash for everything. No more late fees because you think you have a 10 day window, but that it's really nine because if you pay on the 10th day you get charged. Thanks for the update Wells Fargo. Life sucks! I want to go back to the good old days where a person's name was all they needed. I'm a good person and I'm tired of feeling like SXXX! I think about credit on a daily basis! No more!

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:42:59 GMT

ah32 wrote:
I've had it. I'm ready to walk away from this credit bullXXXX and only buy things with cash. I'm tired of trying to make sure I use my card, even though I don't want to, to keep a balance between 1-9%. It's lots of fun on a $300 joke of a credit card. It takes seconds to have incorrect items put on my credit report and months to get it removed. FXXK this! I'm ready to close out everything and say to hell with credit! I'll rent and just continue to pay cash for everything. No more late fees because you think you have a 10 day window, but that it's really nine because if you pay on the 10th day you get charged. Thanks for the update Wells Fargo. Life sucks! I want to go back to the good old days where a person's name was all they needed. I'm a good person and I'm tired of feeling like SXXX! I think about credit on a daily basis! No more!

Breathe In....Breathe Out.....count from 1-10 real slow..............now what's been going on????

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:43:17 GMT

i feel exactually how you feel but then i think i want to in the near future buy a home for my son and my wife something i never had growing up. and the fact that if i dont get these negatives off it could end my career.

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

MidnightVoice — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:46:55 GMT

ah32 wrote:
I've had it. I'm ready to walk away from this credit bullXXXX and only buy things with cash. I'm tired of trying to make sure I use my card, even though I don't want to, to keep a balance between 1-9%. It's lots of fun on a $300 joke of a credit card. It takes seconds to have incorrect items put on my credit report and months to get it removed. FXXK this! I'm ready to close out everything and say to hell with credit! I'll rent and just continue to pay cash for everything. No more late fees because you think you have a 10 day window, but that it's really nine because if you pay on the 10th day you get charged. Thanks for the update Wells Fargo. Life sucks! I want to go back to the good old days where a person's name was all they needed. I'm a good person and I'm tired of feeling like SXXX! I think about credit on a daily basis! No more!

This might well require leaving the country

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:06:16 GMT

ah32 wrote:
I've had it. I'm ready to walk away from this credit bullXXXX and only buy things with cash. I'm tired of trying to make sure I use my card, even though I don't want to, to keep a balance between 1-9%. It's lots of fun on a $300 joke of a credit card. It takes seconds to have incorrect items put on my credit report and months to get it removed. FXXK this! I'm ready to close out everything and say to hell with credit! I'll rent and just continue to pay cash for everything. No more late fees because you think you have a 10 day window, but that it's really nine because if you pay on the 10th day you get charged. Thanks for the update Wells Fargo. Life sucks! I want to go back to the good old days where a person's name was all they needed. I'm a good person and I'm tired of feeling like SXXX! I think about credit on a daily basis! No more!

Oh no no no! We not going out like this at all. I know you feel frustrated, I think at some point we all on here have felt, or are feeling, just like you are now. But there's no way on this 'God's used to be green earth' that I'm going to let some complicated-a$$ formula and a bunch of creditors keep me from having the lifestyle I know I deserve. It will take a while, but I ain't got nothing but time. So I'll wait and keep it pushin. And this is why I defend using every darn loophole you can find to get yourself where you need to be. Because they surely are using every one they can find to stick it to us.

Don't you dare give up. Don't do it to yourself. Snap out of it this instant!!!

A little tough love, and I hope it works.

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:50:37 GMT

Hey, don't hold back, tell us how you really feel! ;-)

I know where you're coming from. Fortunately, you can win this battle.

The key to avoiding late charges on CCs is to manage and pay your accounts online. Contact Wells-Fargo. You can do this even on a low-limit card. Last month I had a balance of $1 on one of my credit cards, and $9 on the other, duly reported to the CRAs. How did I do it? Careful management and use of online payment systems. I could engineer my balances down to the penny, and so can you.

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Jontevius — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:51:18 GMT

I don't usually post I spend my time retaining alot of this information or at least what I deem vital, but your frustration concerns me. Hey I've been working witha $250 credit limit for the longest with Citi Bank and trust me it blows. I'm living on an account age average of 4 years and have numerous amounts of hard inquiries. I was denied back and forth for credit and credit increases. So instead I decided to play the credit game. I'm not quite understanding where everyone is getting the idea that keeping their utilization rate between 1-9 percent is what they HAVE to do to obtain good scores but hey I'll tell you it's non sense. Creditors see anything below 30% as good credit managment and usage. I use the low limit credit card for the same thing every month, to pay my 50 dollar cell phone bill automatically, the same time every month. And pay the balance off in full with the money you would have used to pay your phone bill with cash. I really recommend you check out phillip tirone's 7 steps to 720. It will explain all what seems to be a blur right now.

TransUnion - 722

Equifax - 712

Experian - 718

The best you could do is to create a budget and stick to it. I have student loans, paid installment loans, and a few revolving accounts. My debt to income ratio is pretty good, MYFICO offers great advice and tools such as the score simulations. Don't let the stresses and hardships of trying to obtain credit and build credit be the end for you. Take it one step at a time with what you can do. Hey i'll tell you what, I would like to think I have pretty ok scores but I still get denied because though we know the exact percentages the FICO formula uses, NO ONE but FICO knows the combination in how it is being applied. It's a strange paradox, in order to build credit you need credit but can't get credit without good credit history and credit scores. Just please don't become a cash only citizen, play the game a little longer to experience the power of GOOD CREDIT.

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

MidnightVoice — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:56:11 GMT

Jontevius wrote:
I'm not quite understanding where everyone is getting the idea that keeping their utilization rate between 1-9 percent is what they HAVE to do to obtain good scores but hey I'll tell you it's non sense. Creditors see anything below 30% as good credit managment and usage.

Hmm - I beg to differ:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=5874

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Tuscani — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:59:12 GMT

Jontevius wrote:

I don't usually post I spend my time retaining alot of this information or at least what I deem vital, but your frustration concerns me. Hey I've been working witha $250 credit limit for the longest with Citi Bank and trust me it blows. I'm living on an account age average of 4 years and have numerous amounts of hard inquiries. I was denied back and forth for credit and credit increases. So instead I decided to play the credit game. I'm not quite understanding where everyone is getting the idea that keeping their utilization rate between 1-9 percent is what they HAVE to do to obtain good scores but hey I'll tell you it's non sense. Creditors see anything below 30% as good credit managment and usage. I use the low limit credit card for the same thing every month, to pay my 50 dollar cell phone bill automatically, the same time every month. And pay the balance off in full with the money you would have used to pay your phone bill with cash. I really recommend you check out phillip tirone's 7 steps to 720. It will explain all what seems to be a blur right now.

TransUnion - 722

Equifax - 712

Experian - 718

The best you could do is to create a budget and stick to it. I have student loans, paid installment loans, and a few revolving accounts. My debt to income ratio is pretty good, MYFICO offers great advice and tools such as the score simulations. Don't let the stresses and hardships of trying to obtain credit and build credit be the end for you. Take it one step at a time with what you can do. Hey i'll tell you what, I would like to think I have pretty ok scores but I still get denied because though we know the exact percentages the FICO formula uses, NO ONE but FICO knows the combination in how it is being applied. It's a strange paradox, in order to build credit you need credit but can't get credit without good credit history and credit scores. Just please don't become a cash only citizen, play the game a little longer to experience the power of GOOD CREDIT.

No one said you need to be 1-9% for good scores. Being at 1-9% is just the "sweet spot" if you will.

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Jontevius — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:12:55 GMT

OK, understand that it's all about the context. I'm saying that it's not IMPERATIVE you maintain a utilization rate of 1-9 percent to receive positive results from your FICO scores. I'm simply looking at this as a realist. With a $250 credit limit I don't think I would enjoy "buying packs of bubble gum" every billing cycle to stay in that 1-9 margin. I'd rather put the card toward something useful where I can leave it and allow it to work itself responsibly paying a bill of some sort. And notice I said for a $250 credit limit. And your experiment still isn't thoroughly researched and proven to be what make works for every individual seeking credit relief. Thank you, Tah tah...

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Jontevius — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:27:05 GMT

No one said you need to be 1-9% for good scores. Being at 1-9% is just the "sweet spot" if you will.

Yes sweet spot in deed.... well it baffles me just 20 days ago before I applied for my credit card today in which the Inquiry did affect my score of course. I had scores of:

726 Trans

715 EQ

720 EX

These are with reported Utilz of 27% and just earlier I pulled my scores with a 0 % Util which I stated in an earlier post, the results of my scores after todays inquiry

722 Trans

712 EQ

718 EX

Based on the given theory posted earlier I should have expected improvement in my scores at least by 5 to 7 points per score even after taking into account the hard inquiry today. Seeing as nothing else changed in my report but the inquiry and my utilization rate. ....

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:34:28 GMT

I believe in the 1-9% utli. I have just recently been reading about the 1-9 and plan to get my cc's down to around that within the next two months.

However, I will say that I don't think that the 1-9% utli is written in stone, IMO, I think what Tuscani and others are saying, as well as the link back on Tuscani's post....if you we have bad or poor credit and we are trying to build our credit back up, it is a good ideal to follow those amounts as best as possible in order to practice managing our credit in a better/different way.

My credit balances are 30% to 50% max and Fico does have in a yellow highlighted box GOOD. But on the other hand, I do want to get my balances down to about 9%. Personally, I think it would look better for me in the long run.

It does take time...time that seems like a lifetime. But hang in there and pay on time. I am in the low 600's, but I plan to be in the 700 club by the end of this year, if not sooner. It will be much relief and seven long years.

But I have not given up, and neither should you.

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Jontevius — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:43:33 GMT

No one said you need to be 1-9% for good scores. Being at 1-9% is just the "sweet spot" if you will.

Yes sweet spot in deed.... well it baffles me just 20 days ago before I applied for my credit card today in which the Inquiry did affect my score of course. I had scores of:

726 Trans

715 EQ

720 EX

These are with reported Utilz of 27% and just earlier I pulled my scores with a 0 % Util which I stated in an earlier post, the results of my scores after todays inquiry

722 Trans

712 EQ

718 EX

Whoops there should be a 1 in front of the 0 as in 10% Util not 0% duhhh lol silly me..

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

ah32 — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:24:12 GMT

Sorry I freaked out. I just had another collection item added to my report. It was a ticket from 2003. I don't even know what it's for. I think an unpaid driving ticket. I called to find out many times, but I never got through to anyone. One time I was on hold for 45 minutes! Frankly, I can't remember the details, but I want to say I paid it over the phone by credit card. When I finally got through to someone, she said they had problems with their system and some payments were not processed, so she always suggests people call in to make a payment. Brilliant idea! I spoke to a supervisor and he said that he couldn't do anything for me. If I wanted to, I could write the courts and ask to have them remove it once I explained the circumstances. I know it's my fault for not paying the ticket. At that time, I was pressed for cash. I'm trying to fix everything now, but it just seems never ending. Just tired of this game. I was so excited to buy a house and now I know this probably brought my middle score below the needed 620. I just got my score there days ago.

Re: I've had it. I give up! I take one step forward and two steps back.

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 19:56:45 GMT

ah32 wrote:
I just had another collection item added to my report. It was a ticket from 2003. I don't even know what it's for. I think an unpaid driving ticket. I called to find out many times, but I never got through to anyone. One time I was on hold for 45 minutes! Frankly, I can't remember the details, but I want to say I paid it over the phone by credit card.

If you think you paid it, then DV them. Make 'em cough some validation. Do it right away so it's timely.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=4328

Dispute it with the CRA. Tell 'em you paid it.

Contact the court and see what you can find out. Tell 'em you recall paying over the phone.

Would it have been paid with a CC you still have? Do you still have the old CC statements? If not, you could try contacting the CCC and inquire about scanned images or copies of old statements.