I wanna share my rebuilding story with ya. about a year ago, my credit was really **bleep**ty; I tried to finance a 2017 car but I couldn't get any approval from any bank. the dealership run my credit like 17 times before a bank finally decided to approved me for a car loan. I get an approval from Westlake Financial services, but the APR wasn't the best(18%), I was ignorant didn't really know how APR work, plus that was my first time financing anything and my credit score wasn't the best back then(TU 540, EQ 540, EX 520). after I buy the car, I started to rebuild my credit so I can give myself a chance to refinance the car in the near future.
I went online, start watching YouTube videos about credit, how to dispute negative items such as( collection, Charge off, ect).I learned about adding positive accounts to my profile, I also find about FICO FORUMS too. Since I already had 2 positive acounts on my report( line of credit($500) from NFCU and the Auto loan from Westlake Lake($16300), so I decided to add selflender($1000), My Jewelry club(5000) Discover it secured (300). my score jump to 560ish within 2 months.
in September 2018 which was within the same 2 months windows, I decided to applied for a Navy Cash Reward CC, I instantly get denied. At the moment of denial, I realized I still got a long way to go. I go ahead let all my accounts seasoned for about 9 months before I apply for any new credit. During that 9 months period, I was able to get 3 collection accounts remove also a charge off from Credit One. my score jump to 635 across all 3 bureaus. I was on my ficoforums reading about other people personal story about their rebuilding process, how NFCU was giving second chance to people that was at upper 500 FICO score.
since my credit score has improved quite a bit, last June I finally decided to pull the trigger. I went ahead and applied for the Cash Back Reward with NFCU once again after 11 months of rebuilding. I was kinda nervous but optimistic at the same time. I go ahead and press the sumit button. The application take about a minute to load, then I see the congratulations message with the green top that have the white check mark that says" you have been approved for a visa signature cashrewards" your Credit limit is $20,000. I was so shocked and excited because I didn't expect to get approved for that much. In the same months my Discover it Secured card graduate from $300 limit to $2000 I was also excited about that too cause it graduate in 7 months plus I was getting my 300 dollars deposit back 🤑.
From there I knew I wanted more and I finally can see the light, so I decided to wait 91 days After my approval for the Cash Reward Card. Yesterday I decided to refinance my bad auto loan from Westlake Financial through NFCU. I opened the apps login then start the application for the refinance. I pressed sumit then I get a message that say "my application is under review", it says they'll call me if they need more documents from me. so I didn't wait for their call, I called them instead. I talked to a lady she get all my car information and all my previous loan information. she says I should get a response from navy fed within 2 hours, so I wait 2 hours I get an email when I open it I see a message that says" Approved! sign your loan Documents" i was so Happy. I checked the APR it was 8.5% I get even more excited cause my previous one was 18%, to cut it down to 8.5% was a victory in my book.
last night before I go to bed, I opened the apps; I was like let me roll the dice again on another card since its been over 91 day since I get my Cash back reward. I applied for the Flagship Reward, I pressed the sumit button I wait like a minute, after a while I see the congratulations message with the green top that have the white check mark that says" you have been approved for a Visa Signature Flagship Rewards" your credit limit is 15000 I was so happy I couldn't even fall asleep. to get 2 approval from navy federal within a day is freaking awesome, it feels good.
After I look back at my whole rebuilding process, it kinda give me chill knowing that a year ago I couldn't get approved for anything. Within a year I make so much progress, now I have 3 ligit unsecured credit cards and I refinance my car for a better rate. I realized everything is possible in the credit world if you learned how to build it and use it the right way. rebuilding credit is a process, it's a marathon if you can space yourself stick to the process you'll get where you want eventually. NFCU makes my rebuilding process a lot faster than I expected. I want to thank NFCU for helping me achieve my goal a lot faster than I expected. NFCU is the best credit union in the country