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What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

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HindSight_20_20
Frequent Contributor

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

@BrutalBodyShots
Ugh ! I think the rebuild in your case is much more common than I first believed.
The number of people who simply 'don't check their CRs is still astoundingly high.

A simple miscue of even a nickle can destroy a trade line if left unchecked for months. I'm glad you caught it and were able to fix things.

Goal Score: EX 700|TU 700|EQ700

Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge



HiltonHonors AMEX 2K | Amazon Store CC $800 | Bed Bath & Beyond 2K | Lowes CC 11K | Cap 1 Secured $500 | Cap 1 Plat $300 | Cap 1 Savor 1K |Citi Secured $200 | Target $500 | Kohl's $1K | Truist Cashback 4.5K | Penfed Power Cash Back 3.5K |Apple Pay CC 3K | Venmo Sig Visa 7.5K | SECU 13.5K | Bragg Mutual FCU 10K | Best Buy Citi Visa $2.5K | DiscoverIT CB 11.5K
Message 21 of 62
iced
Valued Contributor

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

For me, it was my first marriage. She was a black hole - I would bring in close to $200,000/year and still lived paycheck to paycheck with her. Didn't have $20 to my name for lunch, but she sure had a collection of random things she didn't need. Couldn't save for retirement, couldn't save for next week, had to hide money.

 

The best financial decision in my life was getting a divorce. In the 6 years or so, I've built up savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The answer to the old line about why I pay alimony is because it saves me money.

Message 22 of 62
Girlzilla88
Valued Contributor

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

@HindSight_20_20    Yes thank you I actually bounced back to 755 end of last year but took advantage of it by refinancing my high apr on my car and opening a few unsecured cards and updated my secured to unsecured Smiley Very Happy     Now I'm in the middle 6's soon to be low 700's and about to get a Home Smiley Very Happy     After that I look forward to bouncing it back up to 700's to get my dream car so yes thank you for the praise and if anyone has questions I'll help however I can!







Message 23 of 62
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?


@HindSight_20_20 wrote:
@BrutalBodyShots
Ugh ! I think the rebuild in your case is much more common than I first believed.
The number of people who simply 'don't check their CRs is still astoundingly high.

A simple miscue of even a nickle can destroy a trade line if left unchecked for months. I'm glad you caught it and were able to fix things.

Agreed 100%.  The only way I ever found out about the situation I was in was from auto shopping and having my credit run.  Every other time in my life I'd gone for a loan my scores pulled were always 790-800 or so and I always got the comment "your credit score is great!"  This time, though, I was told my score was in the low 600's, which completely caught me by surprise.  The dealership told me about 2 of the dirty accounts they saw on my CR, so I contacted those lenders and figured out why.  I then started monitoring my reports and found this forum where I was able to read about GW letter writing and such.  If it wasn't from the dealership telling me my score was bad, chances are I wouldn't have found out on my own.  It would have taken my next loan app to make me aware.

Message 24 of 62
EW800
Valued Contributor

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

Great topic!  

 

It was a perfect storm of extremely bad judgement on my part and bad luck, happening pretty much at the same time.  My wife and I were admittedly not smart and had way to much credit card debt in 2010 and 2011.  I kept all payments up and still had decent Util thanks to high CL's, so our credit scores were pretty good, in the range of 785 or so. 

 

In 2011 the company I was working for went through a really rough time.  Basically we were forced to relocate to another part of the country for me to remain employed, and that came with a decent pay cut.  I will forever second guess whether it was the right decision to accept that deal, however that is in the past.   We could not sell our house to save our lives and had a horrible mortgage company that would not even consider working with us at any level.  With the paycut and moving to a more expensive part of the country, it was tough to keep our heads above water on the extremely high credit card debt, therefore we ended up having a foreclosure and credit card settlement at the same time.   Our credit scores went down to the 515-520 range in a hurry.

 

The good news is that what we went through really got my attention and that of my wife.  We immediately cut a lot of expenses and lived very basic for a couple of years - I will use the term that we basically ate rice and beans for a couple of years, but not quite that bad.  While saving all we could, we sent every dollar that we saved from the one settled credit card account, along with the money we saved from the belt tightening, and began paying down all the other credit cards.  At the same time, my wife took a second job and pretty much every dollar of that went to the credit card companies.  After about two years of a LOT of discipline, hard work and tears (literally), we actually got every dime of credit card debt paid off, other than the one settled account.   We have now been about 5 years of zero credit card debt, with just about $20 to $25 showing on one account each month.  I am pleased to report that although we are not living quite as tight as we were, we have since taken a lot of the money that would have been going to interest for the credit card companies and have been saving that money.  

 

Thankfully our scores slowly but surely rebounded back to the 800 range where they are now.   We owe a LOT of our recovery and rebuild to the key contributors of this forum.  Thank you!  

 

Year 2012: All Scores in the 520 range, during a foreclosure, CC Settlement and high UTIL. Very ugly days...
April 2023: EX8: 840; EQ8: 832; TU8: 842 -- Middle Mortgage Score: 822
In My Wallet: Discover $73.7K; Cap1 Venture $48.7K; Amex ED $38K; Amex Optima $2.5K; Amex Delta Gold $18K; Citi Costco $22.5K; Cap1 Plat $8.4K; Barclay $7K; Chase Amazon $6K; BoA Plat $21.6K; Citi TY Pref $21K; US Bank $4K; Dell $5K; Care Credit $6.5K. Total Revolving CL: $296K
My UTIL: Less than 1% - Only allow about $10 a month to report, on one account. .
Message 25 of 62
HindSight_20_20
Frequent Contributor

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

@EW800

Wow! Great comeback! 850!?! 💯✔

Goal Score: EX 700|TU 700|EQ700

Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge



HiltonHonors AMEX 2K | Amazon Store CC $800 | Bed Bath & Beyond 2K | Lowes CC 11K | Cap 1 Secured $500 | Cap 1 Plat $300 | Cap 1 Savor 1K |Citi Secured $200 | Target $500 | Kohl's $1K | Truist Cashback 4.5K | Penfed Power Cash Back 3.5K |Apple Pay CC 3K | Venmo Sig Visa 7.5K | SECU 13.5K | Bragg Mutual FCU 10K | Best Buy Citi Visa $2.5K | DiscoverIT CB 11.5K
Message 26 of 62
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

This is a nice thread. I have had credit since I was 19 and I’m 35 now. I was married young and we were broke so a lot of expenses went on credit cards. I then allowed someone to take a mortgage out in my name and that ruined my credit further because there were serious lates. In my twenties, my score was probably in the low 600s. I had no credit cards at that time because the one I had balanced chased me and closed the account. Years later, I had to get a new car and had to take an interest rate of 13%. At that point I knew I had to make a change. I began to research credit and how to clean it up. I began sticking to a strict budget and saving. Eventually I qualified for a small limit card from Capital One. I was in their steps program back in around 2012. I eventually had CLIs and obtained a Quicksilver card that went through several CLIs. After my divorce, I still had a couple collections that were aging off, but had to get rid of just one collection from a car insurance bill that he didn’t pay that I didn’t realize was still in my name.

I began lurking this forum and sending out GW letters to some of the collections I owed. I also did some PFDs. I also paid my credit cards down. By 2015, my scores were low 700s and I bought my first house. I then bought household items on the cards since I was no longer seeking a mortgage. Carried high balances since 2015, but was always on time with each payment of my mortgage, cards and anything else. I recently saved up enough to pay my cards down to 0 and I put a large chunk of cash onto both cards. My scores went from mid 700s to mid 800s in just one month. Now I’m just maintaining and enjoying being in the 800 club.
Message 27 of 62
HindSight_20_20
Frequent Contributor

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

Smiley Surprised @Froreal3

 

You mean you actually let someone put mortgage in your name, they messed it up and you managed to come from under that? Wow!

 

Cap1's step program is nice - it is helping me rebuild right now as well.  These stories give me hope and help out a lot.  It's tough rebuilding and cleaning up credit reports all over again.  My sights are on the 700's across the board by fall 2020!  We will see, thank you for sharing!

 

I know someone will see this and find hope as well!


Goal Score: EX 700|TU 700|EQ700

Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge



HiltonHonors AMEX 2K | Amazon Store CC $800 | Bed Bath & Beyond 2K | Lowes CC 11K | Cap 1 Secured $500 | Cap 1 Plat $300 | Cap 1 Savor 1K |Citi Secured $200 | Target $500 | Kohl's $1K | Truist Cashback 4.5K | Penfed Power Cash Back 3.5K |Apple Pay CC 3K | Venmo Sig Visa 7.5K | SECU 13.5K | Bragg Mutual FCU 10K | Best Buy Citi Visa $2.5K | DiscoverIT CB 11.5K
Message 28 of 62
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?

I had a whole host of things that caused me to have to rebuild. 

 

First, I didn’t know anything about FICO scores, utilization, variable APR, or how devastating cash advances were (this was BoA 2008 - I ended up paying through the nose because they didn’t apply to high interest balances as long as you had a lower one). Then I had to leave my cushy job at Comcast because of panic disorder that spiraled out of control so I ended up with a job that paid about half what I was making. I filed BK and stupidly reaffirmed my car. When I ended up having to file for SSDI benefits in 2011 which started a fight until 2014, my credit was racking up collections from wireless carriers and medical bills plus I had my car repossessed in 2012 when I could no longer make the payments. 

 

But now I am doing quite well for someone with SSDI as their only income - I have a $65 med collection on two reports, I’ve got nothing except my BK (falls 8/2020) and that med collection left on TU while EQ and EX will be losing the baddies that boosted my TU 54 points last month in July and I will be looking at 760+ across all three bureaus if I just garden until 2020 like I planned. 

 

Considering that I didn’t go for my first card post-BK til 2014, I’m happy with my progress. 

Message 29 of 62
EW800
Valued Contributor

Re: What Caused You To Have to Rebuild?


@HindSight_20_20 wrote:
@EW800

Wow! Great comeback! 850!?! 💯✔

Thank you!  I had never planned on or even dreamt of hitting 850.  It just kind of happened with the long history turning positive, very low Util and having the two open auto loans with very low util on them as well.  

 

Thanks again!  

 

Year 2012: All Scores in the 520 range, during a foreclosure, CC Settlement and high UTIL. Very ugly days...
April 2023: EX8: 840; EQ8: 832; TU8: 842 -- Middle Mortgage Score: 822
In My Wallet: Discover $73.7K; Cap1 Venture $48.7K; Amex ED $38K; Amex Optima $2.5K; Amex Delta Gold $18K; Citi Costco $22.5K; Cap1 Plat $8.4K; Barclay $7K; Chase Amazon $6K; BoA Plat $21.6K; Citi TY Pref $21K; US Bank $4K; Dell $5K; Care Credit $6.5K. Total Revolving CL: $296K
My UTIL: Less than 1% - Only allow about $10 a month to report, on one account. .
Message 30 of 62
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