This is a wonderful post! For those of you who are rebuilding, keep in mind that it takes longer to rebuild properly and it takes longer to achieve that 800 score than it does to earn your degree. I had great credit until 2006 but I let my ex husband ruin that for me with his NOW mentality.
I wish I could have that year back but I can't. I wish I could undo my past mistakes but I can't. So now, its taken me 6 yrs to get the prime cards and to get the mortgage with the great rate, and I'm proud but there is more work to be done!
Thanks for posting your story. I hope the ones with the NOW mentality will listen to your wisdom and try to slow down a bit in their rebuilding!
I wish I could have that year back but I can't. I wish I could undo my past mistakes but I can't. So now, its taken me 6 yrs to get the prime cards and to get the mortgage with the great rate, and I'm proud but there is more work to be done!
Thanks for posting your story. I hope the ones with the NOW mentality will listen to your wisdom and try to slow down a bit in their rebuilding!
FICO 8: 
Goal: Gardening!
Goal: Gardening!
@JenniferinFL wrote:I started college back in 1998. Quit my second year because I was working for Walmart at the time and they told me I would be making $70k as a comanager in a couple short years, so why finish college? Then it never happened, I never got promoted beyond hourly management. It was always going to happen next time and next time never came. Finally got laid off and then offered my job back at minimum wage.
So, now I'm back in school..lol.. Requirements changed for my degree too, I'm doing a lot of catch up work at the local community college. I start back at a regular university this fall to complete my last two years. I did get my associates degree in December, figured I might as well get it in hopes of it improving my employment prospects in the meantime.
I'm a bit saddened by 'old me.' I had prime cards, good ones too, but never benefited from any of the rewards because I always carried a balance. There are companies I will probably always be blacklisted from. Some of those are the best rewards cards to be had at my income level..lol..
It took years to get myself into this mess and it will takes years to dig my way back out.
I re-did my sophomore year at my local community college, and then finished my upper level work at the very same university that I had left back in the 80s. It felt very much like coming full circle. In all, it was a very healing experience.
And the same thing with credit rebuilding. Like you, I messed up when I was young. Getting back in with Amex has not only been of practical value for the quarter century worth of backdating, but also for the emotional lift of feeling like I've made it back into the good graces of a prior prime creditor. And I wholeheartedly agree with your last sentence. As I stated in my opening post on this thread, your credit history is a reputation. As such, it can be trashed in the blink of an eye and then take a long, long time to restore. But it's comforting to know that negative history eventually fades and drops off, and that with time and work a reputation can be restored.
Please know that I wish you the very best for your future, both academically and creditwise! 
Awesome, awesome post tinu!!!!! If I can only get this through my daughter's head!!! I dropped out of college my sophomore year back in 1996. I had my daughter as a high school senior so things were tight. I was there on a full ride and blew it! I eventually went back and have since aquired an A.A.S., B.S, and M.S. So I did make good on it eventually, but way later in life while trying to work full time. The point being, I made it harder on myself. When I was in school the first time though, I got a lot of cards (cause they throw cards as these college kids). I got in debt over my head. I ruined my credit, lost a full scholarship and overall just blew alot of opportunities. I have been talking to my daughter so much about starting small and maintaining good credit. She just started college last year and is in a similar situation to my first time around. Lord knows, I don't want her to experience the same struggles I went through. She doesn't get it yet, but I hope so much that she does because if you start off right, you can build your way there. Not only that you can keep your debt as low as possible and build a score to boot if you stay on the right path! By the time you graduate you can already have a decent portfolio with a good credit history even if the limits are low! Now I have student loans out of the "ying yang" so to speak, lol and I wish I had maintained the cards I had way back in the day. I think I am going to send this link to her so she can read it. Thank you so much tinu!!
Yes! Every little bit helps. Sometimes they take it in better when someone else tells them:-) She is still at the "Mom doesn't know what she is talking about stage." Hopefully though through time and experience she will learn. I was never talked to about credit or credit responsibility. I learned from gathering information a piece at a time from others, like in this forum! So I try to talk to her. I just really appreciate your contributions here from the gardening posts to the other insight you provide. It's invaluable whether you know it or not.
@tonyaether wrote:Yes! Every little bit helps. Sometimes they take it in better when someone else tells them:-) She is still at the "Mom doesn't know what she is talking about stage." Hopefully though through time and experience she will learn. I was never talked to about credit or credit responsibility. I learned from gathering information a piece at a time from others, like in this forum! So I try to talk to her. I just really appreciate your contributions here from the gardening posts to the other insight you provide. It's invaluable whether you know it or not.
Neither was I. I was taught nothing about credit while growing up, but then again I was a kid in the 60s and into the 70s, when credit was less common. Now, it's practically ubiquitous. Because of this, and because one's credit score has come to have such an impact upon so many areas of modern life -- getting a mortgage, determining car insurance rates, in some cases determining employment opportunities -- I really hope that a comprehensive class on credit management eventually becomes a standard part of a young person's secondary education.
And thank you so much for your kind words. I do appreciate them.
Great post. way back in the olden days when i got my first credit cards, before computer automation, the cc companies would send out books to vendors every week with lists of all of the card numbers that were not to be honored. Point being, it was way way easy to screw yourself up since as long as you were not in the book, you were ok to charge. Learned lessons the hard way the other thing that your post remindes me of is my mama. She went back to school in her mid 40's. My dad was dying and she still had six kids at home. When she finally retired when she turned 64, she promptly joined the peace corp. We can all remake our lives to be what we wish of them, but it is not usually easy, and rarely quick.
the other thing that your post remindes me of is my mama. She went back to school in her mid 40's. My dad was dying and she still had six kids at home. When she finally retired when she turned 64, she promptly joined the peace corp. We can all remake our lives to be what we wish of them, but it is not usually easy, and rarely quick.