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Hello My Fico,
As 2012 winds down, I always like to take a day off and review the past years events. Personal, family, professional, financial, health, and religion are the topics that I reflect back on. And for financial, credit is a large portion of it.
Looking back, on January 1, 2012, I had 2 credit cards to my name. A Bank of America secured card for $200, and a Capital One secured card for $300. Currently, I have:
NPSL American Express Gold Premier Rewards (My credit spending ability exceeds 40k.)
37.5k JP Morgan Palladium
25k American Express Blue
15k DCU Visa
13.2k Ameriprise World Elite Mastercard
12.3k Bank of America Privileges Visa Signature
9.1k Citi AAdvantage Visa Signature
8k Discover More
7.5k Chase Sapphire Preferred
7k Capital One Venture World Mastercard
6k American Express BCP
5k Capital One Visa
3.5k Barclays Apple Financing Visa
Store Cards
.5k Nordstroms
1.2k Walmart
10k Best Buy
Vehicle loans
38.8k Hyundai
14.2k Nissan
6k Kawasaki
All of the above accounts were obtained in 2012. (I know, I have major gardening time ahead!!!)
My credit scores went from the low 500's to mid 750's this year. I started with over 17 baddies on my credit reports, and now I am down to 2. In the past, my credit was so poor, I was getting declined for secured cards, cell phone leases and apartment leases. I was so sick of it, my goal in 2012 was to get them all removed this year, but I'll get this in the beginning of 2013. For those of you starting credit repair, my advice is this.
1. Read EVERY single posting on the credit repair forum. It took me two weeks to do so, but I had more knowledge about credit than 99% of Americans, even more knowledge than the credit analysts.
2. Live, breathe, and sleep credit repair. It must consume your life.
3. You must truly want it. I started lurking on credit repair sites from 2008, and started it a few times. But last year, I decided 2012 would be the year I finally finish it.
4. Utilize the backdoor phone numbers. The backdoor numbers are an incredible tool for you to take advantage of.
5. Keep a paper trail of everything. I have a separate folder that I put copies into.
Credit repair really works. But its not easy. Be prepared for months of hard work. You may feel like progress is slow, when you gain momentun, they fall off rapidly.
Good luck MYFICO, and make it a great 2013!
@Anonymous wrote:Hello My Fico,
As 2012 winds down, I always like to take a day off and review the past years events. Personal, family, professional, financial, health, and religion are the topics that I reflect back on. And for financial, credit is a large portion of it.
Looking back, on January 1, 2012, I had 2 credit cards to my name. A Bank of America secured card for $200, and a Capital One secured card for $300. Currently, I have:
NPSL American Express Gold Premier Rewards (My credit spending ability exceeds 40k.)
37.5k JP Morgan Palladium
25k American Express Blue
15k DCU Visa
13.2k Ameriprise World Elite Mastercard
12.3k Bank of America Privileges Visa Signature
9.1k Citi AAdvantage Visa Signature
8k Discover More
7.5k Chase Sapphire Preferred
7k Capital One Venture World Mastercard
6k American Express BCP
5k Capital One Visa
3.5k Barclays Apple Financing Visa
Store Cards
.5k Nordstroms
1.2k Walmart
10k Best Buy
Vehicle loans
38.8k Hyundai
14.2k Nissan
6k Kawasaki
All of the above accounts were obtained in 2012. (I know, I have major gardening time ahead!!!)
My credit scores went from the low 500's to mid 750's this year. I started with over 17 baddies on my credit reports, and now I am down to 2. In the past, my credit was so poor, I was getting declined for secured cards, cell phone leases and apartment leases. I was so sick of it, my goal in 2012 was to get them all removed this year, but I'll get this in the beginning of 2013. For those of you starting credit repair, my advice is this.
1. Read EVERY single posting on the credit repair forum. It took me two weeks to do so, but I had more knowledge about credit than 99% of Americans, even more knowledge than the credit analysts.
2. Live, breathe, and sleep credit repair. It must consume your life.
3. You must truly want it. I started lurking on credit repair sites from 2008, and started it a few times. But last year, I decided 2012 would be the year I finally finish it.
4. Utilize the backdoor phone numbers. The backdoor numbers are an incredible tool for you to take advantage of.
5. Keep a paper trail of everything. I have a separate folder that I put copies into.
Credit repair really works. But its not easy. Be prepared for months of hard work. You may feel like progress is slow, when you gain momentun, they fall off rapidly.
Good luck MYFICO, and make it a great 2013!
Well said and well done. This year in Feb I was at 633 TU, now I am at about 741 TU. I sleep credit also but I can't eat it.
Congrats on the credit. May I ask the motivations for applying for so many cards with AFs? Are you going to spend enough to offset the costs?
I realize that many forum members here shy away from cards with AF's. Ultimately for me, having poor credit for such a long time didn't prevent me signing up for cards with AF's. Compared to the AF's and limits of the secured cards such as First Premier and Applied Bank, prime AF's are cheap to me! I don't mind paying the AF because I feel that credit cards have two purposes. #1 is to use them and pay off in one month. #2 is to keep them open as insurance. Who knows what might happen in the future? Paying $50 for an AF for a credit line of 10k is perfectly reasonable for me, and cheap!
However, in the future I might close or PC some cards with AF's. I'm still in the free first year for most of them. Except the Palladium. It cost me a hefty $595. I don't know what I'll do next year wit this one.
wow, what an amazing comeback.
If you dont mind, I am curious to know what your annual income is.
Anyway, Congratulations!!!
I believe my income was a factor with credit being available to me. My income jumped from 25k to over 130k yearly. (I was still in school last year)
2012 was my credit repair year also, but it's also the year I started actual credit.
I just had collections from sprint, my old bank, and a car repo. I never had an actual credit card in my life, EVER.
I started by paying off my collections and got my first CC from Capital One in July. My repo fell off in October and I was back to a thin file again.
I applied for a DCU Platinum Visa in November and I will be getting my first Fico Scores this January. I can't wait to see what it is!!!
All my life I only depended on cash and I wasn't getting anywhere. The things I could do and get was so limited. I knew if I ever wanted to buy a house in my life I'm gonna need credit and that's why I'm here now.