I will save the long sob story and just say 7 years ago my wife and I bought our first home soon after we ran into some trouble due to an illness. I did everything i could to keep the finances straight and through the struggle we never missed a payment on our mortgage or our vehicles. I did however let a few cards go bad and missed about half a year on my student loans. My wife made a full recovery and we are back on our feet. I was really afraid to look at my credit for years. About two years ago i started to follow this forum. I had already been back on track for 24 months with my student loans so i decided to look at my credit. My score was a 575 and the wife was about the same. I worked the last year to make sure that i paid every bill on time like I had been doing for for the past two years. My credit was climbing but it had stalled for 5 months at 610. I knew to get over the hill I was going to need to get a credit card. I make good money our family income is about 100k and we live well in our means. Small house, modest used cars we just were hit with a bad situation in our late 20's. This weekend after reading the forum i applied for a Capital One card and was approved for the Classic Platinum with a 2000 Cl. I was shaking when I hit the submit button. When it came back i smiled and told myself never again will I go back now it is only forward for my family and our credit. I have a plan and know it will work. I plan to use 30% of my card a month and pay it in full every month. I plan to do this for about 6 months and then apply for another one until i get my credit over 700 for the first time. Any and all advice is welcomed to help me with this.
I have a charge off for $1500 Care Credit that will be on my record until 7/17
I have a charge off for $197 on a 26,263 loan through HSBC Auto that I did not know about will be on record until 2016 <-- Gap insurance for a wreck did not cover
I have one account in collection for $276 for Comcast that will stay on my record until 2018
I have a mortgage through Wells Fargo that is in good standing never missed a payment
I have a car note through wells Fargo at 8% that is in good standing never missed a payment.
I have student loans through wells Fargo made the last 24 payments on time they are reporting current and paying as agreed.
Questions when should I apply for another card? And which ones should I try. I curruntly only have three hard inquiries on my report.
I don't ever remember receiving anything from comcast or the collector what can I do?
I did remember receiving a bill for the $197 for the car but was under the impression that the gap insurance was going to pick it up. <-- this was during my wife's cancer so memory was shaky.
Thank you for your help and encouragement i have read hundreds of post on here and am glad to finally be able to post one myself. I think what hurt me the most is i did not have the knowledge on how credit works. Now i am getting that knowledge.
