I started trying to rebuild my credit in July 2010 after my credit union offered me an auto loan at 13%. Pulled my credit report, paid off all collections and past dues. Score rose to low 600s and there it sat. They were high enough for me to get a VA loan to buy a house, but they werent climbing.This fall, I got frustrated not having a card with a high enough limit to pay to attend an annual medical conference and instead had to use my debit card, then wait to be reimbursed. So I started lurking on this forum, saw people getting cards approved I thought were out of my reach, getting goodwill removals and getting denials reconsidered, but I assumed that wouldn't work for me. In early December, my equifax score was 654 and I decided to move from secured to subprime by applying for a capital one no hassle rewards card. Got approved, but $750 wasn't enough for a plane ticket, let alone a $1000 registration fee. So at the beginning of january i got ambitious and replied to one of those southwest airline preselected offers. Got denied and could hear the laughter floating across the internet. Reason for rejection was a collection account. Assumed it was a Verizon collection from August. Then, I came across a tip about planet feedback on this forum and used it for a complaint about the Verizon wireless collection that I'd been unsuccessfully challenging for months. Got a call back from Verizon the next day and "boom" deleted. Feeling inspired, I sent a gw letter to campus partners about a student loan I defaulted on, then paid off. Second "boom", deleted. Decided to shoot for the moon and called the chase recon phone number listed in the sticky about the Southwest card. Told the nice guy about Verizon being deleted, told my story and after holding for 10 minutes, he said, "you are approved with an initial credit limit of $5000." took me a minute to realize he didn't say "declined". Took me another minute to pick my jaw up off the floor. Now, once this card gets here, can close the first premier secured card, stop checking my score obsessively and join the gardeners club. Thanks to all on this forum for so much useful info. And to those thinking these things will never work, as the title says, it doesn't hurt to ask.
In wallet: Ink Plus 10k, AMEX TE 25k. In bag: CSP 16k, USAA WMC 15k, Hyatt 13k, United MPE 12k, AMEX HHonors 3k. In SD: Cap 1 QS 5k, Discover IT 7k. FICO 08 says my EQ is now 844, was 510 in 2010.
Starting Score (08/11/11): TU08: 643
