My Credit Rebuilding Story - 100 point swing since March 2018.

[Anonymous]

Greetings!

I'm new here and loving the forum. Such great information! I only wish this was available 20+ years ago when I got my first credit card. Bad habits formed, a marriage & divorce, loss of my first home and many bad choices later my credit was destroyed. 500 fico scores, collections etc (by some kind of miracle I thankully never had to BK though I did look into it). I 'gave up' and accepted (in my head) that it'd be next to impossible to ever get credit again. 10 years passed of living almost 100% off cash (I am fortunate to have great job in sales and make excellent $$). 

About a year and a half ago I came across some of the credit help smartphone apps and started to take an interest in my credit.  I honestly hadn't even checked my scores aside from buying a car and a about 4 years back I did get a low limit Capital One card which I made all payments on time and kept the balance low. I got excited to see each week if my low 600 scores would go up... a point here and there gave me hope.  Cap One gave me a nice increase up to $2500... and then to $6500 earlier this year. Scores were going up into the mid 600's. Got another card from Capital One and paid them off religiously. Things were looking good. 

In Feb of this year my TransUnion was at 680... then dropped to 621 in March (my balances got pretty high but I knew I was paying it back down over the next couple of months).  I then steadily came back up to 697 in June... oh so close to the 700 mark I had in my head for so long as unreachable.   Fast foward to a couple weeks ago and it shot up to 721... and 722 as of today. Equifax is now at 701 and Experian 697. Truly astonished that I managed to get into the 700's... I honestly never thought it was ever going to happen. All my bad decisions and those challenges really beat me down mentally and I had such a negative outlook... embarrassed... ashamed. 

Today I decided to pull the locks off my credit and see if the Credit Karma app suggestions/odds were real (it had been over a year and a half since I last applied for any credit - I 'credit' the 'locks' I've had enabled with keeping me from applying sooner). I wanted to get another card and transfer a small balance to get my utilization down and of course my credit line up. I went for the Chase Freedom card (I bank with Chase but no other cards/loans etc).  I completed the app and hit the submit button... my heart beating fast waiting for the "you'll receive a letter in 7-10 business days" response I've seen so many times before. However, to my surprise I was approved!!!  Not only was I approved but they gave me an $11,600 initial credit line with 0% for 15 months on purchase and balance transfer. I'm still in shock...  

I then decided, after reading many people talk about applying for multiple at once, to try my hand at an Amex 'Cash' card with the same 0% intro for 15 months. Credit Karma said I had 'excellent odds' and they were right... approved again! Not the big line like Chase but still a $2K limit. What a day! 

I've since put the lock back on my credit and won't be applying for anything for another year or more. I seem to be figuring things out and it feels amazing. I will never make the same mistakes again after living so long without the safety/security of having credit available if I truly need it. I have $2700 in balance between my two Cap One card and will be transferring that to the Chase card and pay that down by the end of the year. My utilization is now under 13% with $21,700 between all four card (plus $500 Amazon store  that I pay off each month). 

Anyways... just wanted to share this story. I hate to sound like I'm bragging but I think that's kinda what this forum is for... people sharing their success stories in rebuilding/managing their credit. Hopefully it will give someone out there lurking the board like me the hope that they too can turn things around as it is never too late. 

Thanks to all those on here sharing such great information, advice and insipring stories. I think all 18 year olds should be required to spend an hour on here a week.. I sure wish something like this was available for me in '94 when I graduated high school! 

Cheers, 

TK

[Medic981]

I think that more time should be spent teaching about credit scores, credit reports, and responsible credit management in high school personal finance classes. Many adults have no clue about credit until they run afoul and are unable to teach their children good credit habits.

[Anonymous]

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@Medic981 wrote:

I think that more time should be spent teaching about credit scores, credit reports, and responsible credit management in high school personal finance classes. Many adults have no clue about credit until they run afoul and are unable to teach their children good credit habits.

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+1 

Preach!

[Queen_Etherea]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Anyways... just wanted to share this story. I hate to sound like I'm bragging but I think that's kinda what this forum is for... people sharing their success stories in rebuilding/managing their credit. Hopefully it will give someone out there lurking the board like me the hope that they too can turn things around as it is never too late. 

Thanks to all those on here sharing such great information, advice and insipring stories. I think all 18 year olds should be required to spend an hour on here a week.. I sure wish something like this was available for me in '94 when I graduated high school! 

Cheers, 

TK

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I've been desperately wanting to apply for the Chase Freedom card. I recently got all of my late payments (from 7 years ago) deleted from my report and the collections were deleted as well. A new one was added last month (which has since been deleted) so it dropped my score quite a bit. My utilization was a bit high on my last report, but I've paid down all the balances on all my cards. $300/$1200 on my Wells Fargo Secured card and $0/$500 on my Capital One, so I'm thinking that should REALLY help! I'm still waiting for Equifax and Experian to delete my dad's card from my report. I was an authorized user on his card and he wracked up $15,000/$16,000 on his PenFed card. That's another one I really want to apply for.

I am seriously so happy for you! It's so hard to be patient about these things, but you've managed to climb back up the ladder and I know that wasn't easy. This forum has helped me tremendously as well. I wouldn't have known about the early exclusions or the whole utilization rate thing! I feel 1,000,000 x more informed about my credit now, and have even managed to get my boyfriend's scores in the high 700's!

[Civil]

I totally agree with you but america likes to feed off debts so they are not going to push for it