Well ladies and gents, I've actually been meaning to update this thread for quite some time now. Seems like I got the original headline wrong though...because my FICO has been bullish for the past couple months now. So yeah, I may have a big mouth (or a quick pen; "the moving hand, having writ, moves on" but I'm also big enough to eat my share of crow, and I've got to dish myself out a plateful now.
Last year at this time, I was probably in the mid to upper 500s. I had only two positive TLs, one closed. I couldn't get approved for squat. I had a full-blown case of credit leprosy. When credit card companies saw me coming, they'd cross the street to avoid me. When I applied for credit, the credit card providers probably donned anti-radiation gear when they saw my name on the form, and fished the application out of their inbox with tongs. So yeah, I was pretty hot under the collar. I was feeling rather used and abused. Read my early posts in this thread and you'll see what I mean.
Today I got another ScoreWatch...my Equifax, which had probably been around 550 at this time last year, has hit 607 (was 600 at the beginning of the month). My TU, which had likely been in the 570s, is 643 now. My Experian, which last year was in the 580s, was 685 at the start of this month. Actually, my Equifax score chart is looking a bit like Al Gore's hockey-stick chart, having increased 30 points since January.
BofA graduated my secured card, and gave me a $1000 CL. I now have two more unsecured cards (CapOne and Orchard). CapOne is about to raise me from $300 to $500. Orchard I just started with, but mid-summer I'll ask them for a CLI, too.
The last major threat to my FICO was child support. I was $450 behind, and the State was going to report it. At the time, I told them to go fornicate with themselves and hung up--I'd been planning to leave the country anyway. I figured I'd never win the FICO game anyway, so I said to hell with it, let them nuke my credit, all they'd be doing was "making the rubble jump."
But then my Kenyan fiance told me she talked to her pastor, and he told her God had great things in mind for me, that not too long from now $450 would be chump change. He and her both said to just settle this and move on. I resisted the idea at first...the idea of letting the government have anything from me without fighting tooth and nail galled me at a level most people could not understand.
This morning I got a ScoreWatch alert...my FICO jumped from 600 to 607. And I realized after all this time that what I was doing was actually working. The tail was actually wagging the bleeping dog! And what if the African pastor was right, and things for me took off...six months from now would I be kicking myself for letting a $450 debt knock my FICO down again? I thought about the other times in life I'd gotten charge-offs, usually because of the same "to-hell-with-it-ism" that the child support case was giving me now.
So after I got the ScoreWatch, I called the child support people. Paid the arrears in full. It sucks--that was the money I'd been saving, flushed right down the crapper--but I'm now square with them. So there'll be no judgment hitting my CRs later this month. They'll report the child support as an account in good standing. And that will also reduce the garnishment order by about $38 per paycheck, since they'll no longer be garnishing extra for the arrears. And my ex will probably be able to buy the PlayStation 3 and get herself a new video card!
I don't know if I did the right thing. There's a part of me that still thinks I should have given the State the finger, cashed out all my credit cards, and booked myself a one-way flight to Mombasa. When I told my fiance what I did, I thought she'd be angry I spent all that money, but she actually told me I will prosper so much in the next year that $450 won't even matter. This woman has believed in me at times when no one else did--including myself.
I don't know. I'm almost broke now, but I've confirmed that you can, through hard work and knowing the system, and applying a few basic principles, dig yourself out of a credit hole and boost your FICO. As soon as I'm done with this helping of steaming crow, I'll be back to post some more...but I'm going to kick some barbarian butt on Rome Total War for an hour or so to relieve my frustrations. I'd like to thank everyone here who encouraged me, including Barry.
Message Edited by TheNewWorldMan on 05-10-2007 05:00 PM
Will just keep plugging away