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I've been very, very guilty in the past of burying my head in the sand and hoping all of my financial issues would just go away. It's taken me many years to realize that magical thinking is not, in fact, useful to resolve issues.
ImTheDevil pretty much covered everything I was going to say.
I would recommend getting secured cards if you can qualify. I used Opensky because no one else would let me in, but eventually started going for USBank, Citibank, and Discover secureds, because they graduate. You can check to see if you're prequalified with Citi. (Edited, because you already have Disco... reading comprehension fail on my part - d'oh).
I think that going for goodwills and building up positive tradeline time is all you really have at the moment. It's an annoying slog, I know, but patience is a virtue.
And welcome, from another YNAB user. It really did change my financial life when I started using it. When I started on my FICO journey, I had scores in the 540s. My mishaps were older than yours, so I was able to recover a little faster. Keeping control of my finances was really the most important piece.
This is awesome! Thank you very much. I will apply for OpenSky and use it as you recommend. And will ensure I stay at 7% on the Discover card balance. And I appreciate the link you sent--wondering whether that will work for accounts I've already paid off? Can't hurt to try!
Thank you! YNAB has been life-changing, honestly. It's the only budgeting app that made sense to me, so I use it consistently and I'm far more willing to take on the financial monster I've created. And thank you for sharing your starting score--hopefully, with better choices and behavior, my scores will look more like yours in time. I look forward to more ease in life without this stuff always hanging overhead.
@Anonymous wrote:Thank you! YNAB has been life-changing, honestly. It's the only budgeting app that made sense to me, so I use it consistently and I'm far more willing to take on the financial monster I've created. And thank you for sharing your starting score--hopefully, with better choices and behavior, my scores will look more like yours in time. I look forward to more ease in life without this stuff always hanging overhead.
I tried SO many different budgeting systems and schemes (computers to ledgers and different programs), and I was so happy when I found YNAB - it just works super well for me. I recommend it to others, but the caveat is that anything that you're willing to stick with is the best system.
I used to keep my starting score (542, actually) in my sig, but I felt bad, because I was getting PMs from people asking how I had gotten a higher score so fast, and your credit journey is so personal and can easily be so different from everyone else's. I felt like I was not helping since not everyone had 6 year old bad tradelines, a lack of credit, fraudulent accounts that were easily removed, collection agencies that were willing to goodwill remove derogatory info, etc. Just know that while it's really irritating to have to wait out some things, in the long run, as long as you work with your finances and make smart choices, you'll be OK.
I've been using YNAB for ~18 months. My credit scores have gone from the mid500s to high700s, my spending has reduced dramatically, and my net worth is up 90% (I was wasting a lot of money). My biggest "frustration" (for lack of a better word) is that I didn't find YNAB 10 years ago. But that's OK - better late than never, right?.
Aha--I thought the GW letters were PFD by a different name. I get it now. Then I will start writing and sending those out!
And thanks for the additional info on utilization, and suggesting a spreadsheet to track cards--that's a terrific idea. Definitely learning that tracking data is an important compenent to getting things back on track.
Very much appreciate the time you've taken to respond and provide guidance. It's obvious from reading all of the different threads that there are a lot of very helpful people here.