@Anonymous wrote:Thank you, I had a charge off decades ago but my activity remained stalled indefinitely... To make a long story short I was in an abusive situation for many years, dealing with severe depression and didn't have control over my finances - severe control & financial abuse. When I finally got out I had to start from scratch and build from scratch.
Thank you for sharing your story with us; I can imagine it was hard to do. I've dealt with severe depression throughout my life and know how crippling it can be. I'm happy to see that you managed to get out of a very abusive relationship and regain control of your life and finances.
You're already doing a great job of rebuilding your credit! Good for you! 
That thing about needing to have a loan in order to have good credit....yeah, no, not really. I haven't had any kind of loan in years, and I'm doing great. Any loan I ever had aged off my credit reports a long time ago. So don't focus on that. I mean, if you actually NEED a loan--like to buy a car--then by all means get one, but don't just do it for its supposed effect on improving your credit. Instead, focus on paying your current accounts on time, get their balances into a healthy utilization rate, and watch the calendar. As time goes by you're going to see your limits increase, either spontaneously or as a result of asking. And mainstream, unsecured cards should be just around the corner!
@SoCalGardener wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you, I had a charge off decades ago but my activity remained stalled indefinitely... To make a long story short I was in an abusive situation for many years, dealing with severe depression and didn't have control over my finances - severe control & financial abuse. When I finally got out I had to start from scratch and build from scratch.
Thank you for sharing your story with us; I can imagine it was hard to do. I've dealt with severe depression throughout my life and know how crippling it can be. I'm happy to see that you managed to get out of a very abusive relationship and regain control of your life and finances.
You're already doing a great job of rebuilding your credit! Good for you!
That thing about needing to have a loan in order to have good credit....yeah, no, not really. I haven't had any kind of loan in years, and I'm doing great. Any loan I ever had aged off my credit reports a long time ago. So don't focus on that. I mean, if you actually NEED a loan--like to buy a car--then by all means get one, but don't just do it for its supposed effect on improving your credit. Instead, focus on paying your current accounts on time, get their balances into a healthy utilization rate, and watch the calendar. As time goes by you're going to see your limits increase, either spontaneously or as a result of asking. And mainstream, unsecured cards should be just around the corner!
Thank you so much!
In the meantime, do what you can get those 2 maxed out Cap 1 cards paid down to at least below 89% until. Even if you have to move money around and bump up the average on some other cards a little, those two being maxed will hurt you the most, as far as scoring goes.
A maxed out credit card (anything above 89% utilization) is almost as bad as a late payment as far as FICO scoring goes.
If don't already, I'd sign up to some credit monitoring sites to keep an eye on everything and see how utilization and other things affect your scores. Even the free VantageScore sites (like Credit Karma, Wallethub etc) are useful tools, even if they don't give you your actual FICO scores.
@JNA1 wrote:In the meantime, do what you can get those 3 maxed out Cap 1 cards paid down to at least below 89% until. Even if you have to move money around and bump up the average on some other cards a little, those two being maxed will hurt you the most, as far as scoring goes.
A maxed out credit card (anything above 89% utilization) is almost as bad as a late payment as far as FICO scoring goes.
If don't already, I'd sign up to some credit monitoring sites to keep and eye on everything and see how utilization and other things affect your scores. Even the free VantageScore sites (like Credit Karma, Wallethub etc) are useful tools, even they don't give you your actual FICO scores.
If you don't know your real FICO scores, sign up for Experian's free service... it gives you a real FICO score (as opposed to vantage scores which are "for entertainment purposes only.). You can try their 3-bureau service for 1 buck to get all 3 scores... just make sure you cancel within 7 days.
