I began my rebuild last October, less than six months ago, with a $500 Care Credit card. I had been unemployed for a year two years prior and pretty much everything that could go wrong *DID* go wrong, short of bankruptcy. We're talking scores in the 530s, 120-day lates, charge-offs, collections, and almost a repossession of my car!!! My scores were around 620s at the time I got the Care Credit card.
Guys, I know it's rough and feels hopeless, but it's not. It's amazing how resilient your credit profile can be. My FICO 8's are sitting at 720's for TU and EQ, 680 for EX after less than six months. If you are "fortunate" enough to have any collections with Midland or Portfolio Recovery Associates, they will delete the collection for negotiated payment amounts. You can settle with them, like I did, for 40% of the original balance, and poof! They'll be gone within a month. No goodwill letters or phone calls necessary.
As you can see from my signature (which needs to be updated but it's mostly accurate), I went from worse-than-nothing to having several premium cards with limits that have increased to a pretty solid amount in less than six months.
Once you get the card, that AZEO thing they talk about here really does work if you're in the rebuilding phase. Let the card report a small amount and pay it off monthly -- that gave me a 15-point boost across the board.
I've posted my rebuild story here elsewhere, but I felt like it would be worth y'all's time to see it again to remind yourselves that it gets better.
