topic Re: Finally locking in and rebuilding credit in Rebuilding Your Credit

Finally locking in and rebuilding credit

OphKit101 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:47:56 GMT

Hello Forums!

As a background: I was pretty stupid in my early/mid 20s with credit cards/personal loans. I opened credit cards, maxed them out and just paid the bare minimum to keep them open. With personal loans, I thought I could get a loan to pay off my credit card balance since they had lower rates, but I'd end up using the cash from the loans on other things, leaving the cards to collect interest plus I was paying the bare minimum on the loans. Things went from bad to worse when I lost my job and stopped making payments all together on my credit cards and personal loans, leaving them to be charged off. I eventually got a new job but since my financial literacy was at a 0%, I assumed since they were charged off I didn't have to worry about all the accounts and ignored them. My credit score tanked to a 527.

Fast forward to more recently: I got a new job about a year ago that required me to have a minimum credit score of 600. They told me the credit check was usually initiated after a trial period of 6 months (when my job became permenant). I knew I had to get there no matter what so I threw myself into research on all things credit. I opened a DMP to settle some of my larger charged off accounts and opened a secured credit card (that at the time I didn't realize had a pricey AF of $180 since it was charged monthly), and financed a new car (high interest rate but got approved). This brought my score up to 587 within a couple months but I was still shy of the necessary 600. Eventually I was able to open one more credit card (non-secure, $400 cl, mission lane) that had no annual fee that brought me over the edge to 601 on my equifax. My credit score got approved at my job!

Present day 2026:

I've been able to raise my scores to their current levels (EX 632, EQ 633, TU 636) by chipping away at my car loan, always paying off my credit cards in full and paying down my charged off accounts. I closed out the secured credit card (Cleo secured card) and increase the CL on my Mission Lane card with on time payments (from $400 ->$1400) and opened a new credit card with Capital One (Savor Card for good credit, $4000 CL).

Goals for the year: Bring down my revolving utilization by paying off my charged accounts. Refinancing car loan, ($10k balance at 18% interest, originally opened loan with a 500 credit score) and bringing my credit score up to 685 (my dream is to have a Capital One Venture X card)

As it stands my revolving utilization is 41% EQ, 36% TU and 40% EX.

My charged off accounts with balances:

Sync/PAYPALL: $1,698 out of $2,200 CL, 77% Utilized, falls off 2029

WELLS CC: $1,569 out $1,700 CL, 92% Utilized, falls off 2029

Barclays CC: $2074 out of $2500 CL, 83% Utilized, falls off 2029

Current DMP plan set up paying each down monthly but I'm thinking about putting my year end bonus to clearing the 2 highest one's first

Excited to see what the year holds!

Re: Finally locking in and rebuilding credit

1lifeisworthit — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 10:20:28 GMT

Imagine how much lower your charge-off balances would be if you hadn't gotten that car loan?

I'm glad you were able to keep your job. So many people don't believe that the credit score is sometimes a factor in employment. Nice of you to share.

I'm glad you closed that AF card. That was smart.

When your charge-offs are paid, they will stop updating as unpaid. That'll be good for your score.

What company has your DMP?

Re: Finally locking in and rebuilding credit

SusanJA — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:53:46 GMT

I think you could get up to 700+ this year if you play things right! Congrats and good luck!!

Re: Finally locking in and rebuilding credit

SeanA — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 23:40:51 GMT

@OphKit101 wrote:
Goals for the year: Bring down my revolving utilization by paying off my charged accounts. Refinancing car loan, ($10k balance at 18% interest, originally opened loan with a 500 credit score) and bringing my credit score up to 685 (my dream is to have a Capital One Venture X card)

Excited to see what the year holds!

I hope the year is off to a good start goal-wise! I'm rootin for ya!! Partly because I'm in a similar boat. Btw, using a budgeting app has really helped me chip away at my debt without going crazy. Have you tried that? I like wallet hub since I'm already monitoring my credit there, but I know there are a lot of good options. A good budget and a higher credit score can make those goals a lot easier to acheive.

Re: Finally locking in and rebuilding credit

E36 — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 17:30:23 GMT

I have similar charge offs that fall off in 2029. I saw a jump in my score after I settled with them and zeroed out balances.

my utilization is around 7-8%. My revolving credit limit is $29K

Currently score is around 690-710

I also burned synchrony and they let me get a Venmo card. It's great that you did not burn Chase, Amex or Citi since they keep internal blacklist records that take a while to accept back people that burn them.

If you have less than 5/24 and your credit score is boosted, maybe you can get a Chase in the future. Chase is great for CLI. Amex is also great for CLI.

I had a Capital One Savor for Good Credit (when I got it it was called savor one) with a SL of $3000. I used it as my main card for a while. In month 13, they raised the limit to $4,500. I'm on month 24 now and they've denied me CLIs for recent delinquency (although all my reports recent delinquency was the charge off back in 2022) That's never stopped them from giving me cards or CLI in the past.

Re: Finally locking in and rebuilding credit

MichaelMyer — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 20:25:58 GMT

How much did your score go up after you paid off the chargeoffs?

Re: Finally locking in and rebuilding credit

Skywalker — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:34:07 GMT

@OphKit101 wrote:
My credit score got approved at my job!

Excited to see what the year holds!

Great job on locking in! Recovering from that's impressive, and if you keep it up as the charged off debts age I could see you hitting safely the 700s, though I'm no credit expert. I'm following a similar path of trying to agressively pay down debts this year and am sitting at similar credit scores to you, cheering for your success!