Ok everyone, story time!! This is my first post, but I’ve been studying and reading post after post on the forum for like the past 2 months straight. For starters, my credit was piss poor, dating all the way back to 2014. At that time, February 2014, my credit was at a 589 and I had just got approved for 20k auto loan from SECU bank at 8.99% for 72 months. Prior to that I had 2 active credit cards (BOA student – 1k, Capital One $300), and one closed account (Barclays 1.2k – closed due to returned payments). Moving on, but some things changed for me that same year, I ended up going to law school and in my first semester got into an accident where the car was totaled. I was scared because I did not know if I would be approved for another auto loan due to my, credit score, my drop in income as a result of going back to school, and a fresh state tax ($2,700) lien that was applied early that semester.
With all that said I was approved by chase bank for a 17k auto loan at 10.5% for 72 months. Between 2014 and 2015 I struggled with bills while being in school, and maintained high credit utilization across all my cards, even sometimes going above the limit. For the most part I was making the minimum payments on time. Fast forward to 2016, I applied and was approved for my first bad credit credit card, capital one ($400 limit). Started using it immediately, filling it up in the process and not attempting to bring it down much. Not much occurred that year except for a $100 CLI on my cap one, just the same struggle to keep up with bills like rent, car note, insurance etc. In 2017, I was a 3L in law school and my time got a tad bit more flexible so I got an additional part time job and was able to save money and decrease some of my balances to a degree. At this point I was saving for a ring for my fiancé to be and clean up my credit a little bit. At the start of 2017 or late 2016, my credit was somewhere around 518 on all reports. It was abysmal and shameful.
Anyway Graduation comes around, and I had saved up enough to purchase my fiancés ring and had kept up with payment for my cards for the first time in a while. However, right after graduation was the start of bar prep, meaning loads of studying and not much working. I began to suffer again. My credit had not even rebounded, and I was back to missing payments, and going over on credit limits to survive the summer. One of my ideas mitigate some of the pressure I faced in my financial crisis was to pay my credit card bills right before settlement date and immediately max them again. I was hoping to finesse my situation by improving my credit score, even though I was constantly strapped for cash. The problem with this method was that I was playin Russian roullete with my bank accounts, I would make a payment on a credit card even if there was no money in my account, hoping the bank would just accept the ACH transfer. Some times the bank would and sometimes it would not. This lead to both my credit one and capital one card closing on me on the near future.
Now after the Bar exam, I got offered a permanent position with my job. The position is what they call a career ladder, and I was offered 65k with approximately 20k increases over the next 2 years. In the mean time I picked up a $16 per hour weekend overnight job and just started hustling because I was going to get married the following year (2018) and I had to pay for that, save for my family’s future and fix my credit. By the end of summer 2017 I was back closer to that 550 credit score. It started moving up rather quickly from there because I was paying attention to closing/settlement dates and making sure the balances was zero. I remember my score got up to like 619 and dropped back to like 580 because I accidently paid too late and left a hanging balance on one of the cards. While trying to overcome debt I add in another part time job, driving for lyft, earning a few more bucks that would allow me to live a some what decent life while most of my money was going towards paying off debt, saving and wedding expenses. Fast forward to around January of this year, and my credit is still improving, all my scores are touching the 600’s at this point, albeit very low 600’s.
At this point im reading the forums every day and attempting to implement the things I see. Between January and Early February I had both my cap one and credit one accounts close due to returned payments. Both were oversights, and just impacted me more because of the previous times I had returned payments. Before I could even receive notice of the cancelled cards I had paid both of them off. But right before my last credit card closed I was upset at myself and knew I had to do something so I immediately got another bad credit credit card, First Premier Bank ($500 SL). This the worst credit card a man can get it. It had a $125 fee to open it. Oh well, I knew I needed something for the CRA’s to report on, so I did it. At the time I didn’t know if I would get approved for anything else with my history. But even before getting that card, I had recently become a NFCU member based off a lot of good things I read from the forums. I knew I wanted to use my membership to get a credit card, but I didn’t want to do so that early knowing what the credit union might see if they pulled my report. However after my last 2 cards closed, I said I better try my luck and thought there would be a slight chance based off the info I saw on the forums. So about a week after I app’d for the First Premier Credit Card, I app’d for the NFCU Green Cash Rewards card and got approved for 1k. I was so excited, it was the first time that I had got approved for a credit card with a 1k SL since Barclays.
I was approved with like a 620 equifax score. I started using the card immediately and being diligent with it. When it came to improving other areas of my credit like collections and other baddies, I listened very hard to what the forums had to say. I started to calling collection agency’s asking requesting PFD’s. I also disputed all of them. No one accepted the pay for delete, but when it came to one of my disputes the collection agency verified my debt to the CRA’s but then immediately deleted it from the CRA’s because they sold it to a different collection agency. At this time I was immediately notified that something fell off and my score improved immensely. The creditor who bought the debt sent me notification of the collection and I immediately paid them based on an agreement that they would not add anything to my credit after. They agreed. My scores improved to 675 each on my TU and EQ, but my EX still suffered at 621 because it hadn’t been updated with the dropped collection and still had my tax lien. I decided to tackle my tax lien next knowing that the forums taught me how to have it deleted once I paid it. I was able to get personal loan through mariner finance for 2 years at an outlandish 24% APR. I used the money and paid off my tax bill immediately and typed up a letter to them to have it removed.
While waiting for the tax to be removed, I was hooked on getting more credit cards to continue my rebuild and to help lower my uti when the time came that I had to carry a small balance. So I looked at the forums to find other cards that had solid approval odds for lower than average credit. I didn’t see much but found info about pre qualifying for credit cards, so I did so for a bevy of credit cards. Only positive results were Discover. I app’d for discover and was instantly approved for 2.4k. I was floored, it was my highest limit ever. I was in so much disbelief I called to confirm. Right after this good news I then find out that the State Tax lien was being removed from my credit report. The only bad news is that my TU score dropped some how due to tax lien deletion.
But here is where my rebuild story takes the cake. I had just been approved with the discover, I have been handling my finances nicely and getting accustomed to everything I need to. Today I was at home and it was a snow day, and I was just looking up various things for my fiancé and I’s honeymoon plans later in the year. I keep seeing Delta’s skymiles card program as I look at flights but try not to allow it to tempt me because I haven’t ever been pre-approved for an AMEX. I some how just start looking on the forums to see data points to determine when it would be feasible to apply. I used the credit card data point database to look up some amex’s and see some people in the 620-30 range getting approved. Even though this should have inspired any form of confidence, I tell myself, you only have about 6 inquires total on all your credit reports, some don’t even have that much, might as well shoot your shot. So I did, and I app’d for the Delta Blue Skylines Reward Credit Card and BAM!!!! Instantly approved. I couldn’t believe it. AMEX let me through their prestigious doors. The SL was crappy at 1k, but I intended to grow and never carry a balance. But then I started reading the perks of the card and saw that I had to pay things like foreign transaction fees and the actual flight perks like free checked bags and priority check in didn’t come with it. I called Amex and asked if I could upgrade the card, and they told me that you had to wait atleast 13 months to upgrade a no annual fee credit card to an annual fee credit. I was bummed. So about an hour later I was back on the forums reading again and I try to see how I can finesse the situation. I see a lot of talk about AMEX being friendly with hard pulls, and how they will use one hard pull to determine things like credit apps and CLI’s that aren’t remote in time. So with greed in my eyes I take a steph curry like 3 pointer and app for the gold skyline rewards card thinking theres no way. BA-BA-BA-BAAAAAM!! Approved. At this point im on a high like no other on this snowy day. Both cards were approved with an EX pull showing a score of 629. my EX score should really be much higher than that, but they haven’t updated things like the delete collection account and the deleted Tax Lien.
So as of today I have F premier CC ($500), NFCU (1k), Discover (2.4k), Delta Amex Blue (1k) and Delta Amex Gold (1k). I plan on using them responsibly and growing them as fast as possible. I don’t plan on really ever carrying a balance, atleast for the forseable future. My current Fico 8 Scores are EQ-675/TU-656/EX-618. I only have one collection on my account them im still trying to get a PFD, and a couple lates from a year ago. But I am chugging along.
I apologize for the LOOOOOONG story, but I know there is someone out there like me who can be encouraged in their rebuild process. I have read read read the forums through and through, and thought it would be selfish of me not to add my own experience which can help someone else.
PLEASE FORGIVE TYPO AND GRAMMAR, I was typing fast and didn’t bother to proofread.
