Hello

[flywatersmallie]

Hello, brand new here... Just wanted to weigh in and share my story or at least chapter one. Early on (like many of us do) I viewed credit as essentially free money. I got my first credit card from one of those fly by night outfits at age 18, never bothered to pay, charged off. Bad credit car loan, never bothered to pay. You get the idea. Anyway, last summer at age 34, I FINALLY decided to do something about it. I applied for a car loan and got it albeit with huge interest and a $3000 downpayment on a $8000 vehicle.(at something like 22%). My FICO score, per the car dealer was at a steller 512. Since I had the second chance, I figured I would make the most of it.  Pay on time, every time and see what happens. I let it ride for a year. Last week, I decided to see if I could get a credit card. Basically laughed at before, this time, I got a screen that says I am approved. Card showed up today. Just a $500 CapOne card but a huge victory. So now, I have 2 lines of positive credit reporting, all old baddies are either gone due to time or paid off. Time to garden! I still have a lot to learn and a long ways to go but... My FICO score today is 626. 100+ points in a bit less than a year works for me, I must be doing something right! Signed up to learn how to fine tune this thing. Hope I can add something as well

[myjourney]

---

@flywatersmallie wrote:

Hello, brand new here... Just wanted to weigh in and share my story or at least chapter one. Early on (like many of us do) I viewed credit as essentially free money. I got my first credit card from one of those fly by night outfits at age 18, never bothered to pay, charged off. Bad credit car loan, never bothered to pay. You get the idea. Anyway, last summer at age 34, I FINALLY decided to do something about it. I applied for a car loan and got it albeit with huge interest and a $3000 downpayment on a $8000 vehicle.(at something like 22%). My FICO score, per the car dealer was at a steller 512. Since I had the second chance, I figured I would make the most of it.  Pay on time, every time and see what happens. I let it ride for a year. Last week, I decided to see if I could get a credit card. Basically laughed at before, this time, I got a screen that says I am approved. Card showed up today. Just a $500 CapOne card but a huge victory. So now, I have 2 lines of positive credit reporting, all old baddies are either gone due to time or paid off. Time to garden! I still have a lot to learn and a long ways to go but... My FICO score today is 626. 100+ points in a bit less than a year works for me, I must be doing something right! Signed up to learn how to fine tune this thing. Hope I can add something as well

---

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new CAP1 card

Your rebuild is coming along fine so keep up the good work and thanks for sharing your story as i'm sure it will help someone else

[myjourney]

Fogot to add if your in the credit steps program you should see a CLI

In 6 months write the EO an email asking for another CLI search the forum for the info and the CAP1 card will grow rather fast 

Good luck and best wishes

[mauve]

Congrats on taking charge!

You should go to annualcreditreport.com and pull your 3 reports. You can do that for free once a year, per federal law. Make sure you save them as PDFs. Then go through them and look for inaccuracies, see when things are scheduled to fall off, see how much you owe and to whom, and start posting about specific items to get some assistance on them.

[flywatersmallie]

Thanks to you both for the warm welcome!

My Cap1 card  is with the "credit steps" so I will keep that in mind down the road. Thanks!

Thanks for the tip! Of to get my credit reports right now!