Fantastic job
Wish you continued success . If you dont mind adding more or less your income as a datapoint to help future readers appreciate it.
Wish you continued success . If you dont mind adding more or less your income as a datapoint to help future readers appreciate it.
Huge thanks on the 1% tip, carrying a balance (but not my high revolving one while still topping 780....) is something I would never have thought of. A balance is a balance, and it's important. I wonder because the cards need to make money off us and ">0" as the criteria is the ticket. I had one card I paid off in full every month, and charged everything on it. I don't think it had any impact.
Pretty sure my score is about 200 now, was just served for 1 of 4 cards I can't pay - no income, lost house to mold, lost retirement to neurological damage and lung disease that social security disability conveniently overlooked. The appeal will go through June 2019 and I was 3 weeks from the homeless shelters. Middle of winter, best time. 
Of all the people with extra rooms in their houses they don't use, none are willing to RENT one for a so-called friend about to hit the streets.
I'm "uncollectable" as I have no income, no home, 1998 car was "totaled" by insurance after I was sandwiched in an auto accident and I at least fixed the frame damage. No retirement (market high was 300k at one point but not when I withdrew with penalty), encephalitis barely held in check by 4 years of anti-fungals, an HOA that wouldn't fix the roof leak - pretty much a raw deal. I obtained advice as I felt like such a criminal, not paying my bills.... There are good attorneys out there, but I don't forsee ever renting a basic studio much less an apartment, nor getting a vehicle should mine call 20 years good enough.
Credit is so unbelievably important for anything now. My landlord (friend who decided to rent me a room while I sell all my sports gear and belongings waiting for SSI to deny me....sigh.....) well, she's talking quite a bit about selling her house in a couple months. She owns it outright. ((I owned a house once......and then a condo.......))
My advice to you with your working the cards down to what sounds like an unsecured card? REFINANCE YOUR CAR! 12% is insane. See if you can get in a credit union after your flury of activity settles and you can probably get 3-5% loan. They are the best option, but mine's taking me to court now :'(
Find or make a spreadsheet that slaps on that 12% per month, then enter what you pay each month, and you'll see you pay like $4 towards the car and the rest towards interest. The percentages flip, like a teeter totter, over time. But as your car loses value weekly, you're not paying to own that value and will be "upside down" should life decide other plans for you.
Again, thanks for that 1% tip! I can't research much (master's degree, career, and now a simple shower, feeding the dog, and going to a doc appointment somehow eat up my entire day? Go mold! (plus a lucky gene combination) Mother nature's most effecient waste managemnet system!) I see no end so I'm not looking, but 1% will be my mantra..
Good luck!