My wild and crazy credit rebuild: August 2019- June 2020
First I’ll list the time line of the cards I currently have. Then below that I’ll give an extremely detailed account of how I went from 100% utilization with a credit limit of $10,200 to 0% utilization and a limit of $85,500 in 10 months!
November 2007:
-Wells Fargo Platinum Rewards $5500 (Joint card with my wife)
-My Best Buy Visa $1000
-Best Buy Store card $2700
July 2013:
-AU on Capital One Platinum Card via wife $1000
October 2019:
-Wells Fargo Platinum automatic CLI from $5500 to $7500
December 2019:
-Wells Fargo Propel $5500 (Balance Transfer of $2200 from Best Buy Store card)
-AU on Amex Blue Cash Everyday via dad $10,000
-Automatic CLI on Capital One Platinum from $1000 to $4000
-Called Capital One after CLI and Product Changed card to the CO Quicksilver
February 2020:
-Navy Federal CU More Rewards Amex $9300
-Chase Slate Card $4400 (Balance Transfer of $1400 from Wells Fargo Platinum)
March 2020:
-AU on Amazon Prime card via wife $4600
April 2020:
-Amex Blue Cash Preferred $10,000
-Called Chase and did a product change from the Slate card to the Chase Freedom Unlimited (wanted the Freedom but they said it was too soon)
May 2020:
-Requested CLI with Navy Federal CU More Rewards from $9300 to $17,300
-Wells Fargo Platinum Rewards converted automatically by WF to a WF Visa Signature card.
June 2020:
-AU Navy Federal CU Cash Rewards via wife $5500
-Discover it $13,500
The Journey of rebuilding my Credit Profile
July 2019:
-I had 4 open cards, 3 were mine and 1 was my wife’s. My cards were as follows: Wells Fargo Platinum Rewards $5500 (joint with wife), My Best Buy Visa $1000, and Best Buy Store card $2700. My wife had a Capital One Platinum card $1000.
-I have had several credit cards dating back to 1994 when I was in college. Some I closed because I no longer needed them (didn’t know yet to leave them open). Some were closed for inactivity such as a Home Depot card that was opened June 2007 and got closed in June 2017 for inactivity! Ouch!!! Others were closed because I didn’t use them responsibly back when I was in college in the 90's. Fast forward to 2019 I had 4 total cards remaining including my wife’s that all were reporting 100% utilization. We would use them each month and pay off a little then use them again. One of my Fico scores was showing at 583 in July 2019. I decided enough was enough, time to start using my credit cards responsibly. I had been through a rebuild years earlier when we wanted to buy a house but I eventually fell back into bad habits of using cards as a loan for stuff I couldn't yet afford instead of how they should be used.
-So around the last week of August 2019 I started watching youtube videos about the upcoming Apple credit card. I wanted that card so badly. More than I’ve ever wanted any credit card. I knew that I would be denied if I didn’t clean up my credit profile. I then made a decision that I was gonna work to pay off all my balances. I binge watched as many youtube videos as I could on all topics surrounding credit cards, but especially videos on improving and rebuilding your credit. I learned a lot about the importance of utilization. I also came across the snowball method via several Youtubers and also Dave Ramsey himself. My wife and I had a combined $10,200 in credit limits but were using all of it. We had some money in savings too. I decided to take $1200 out. I used $1000 to pay off My Best Buy Visa and then $200 I applied to the Capital One Platinum card.
I had figured out based on our budget how much I could pay aggressively each month towards lowering our balances. I took the balances from the Wells Fargo and Best Buy Store Card and divided those balances by 24 months. That would be the minimum I’d pay on those each month meaning, the longest I’d be in credit card debt would be 24 more months. Then I applied everything else I could spare to paying down the Capital One card, using the Snowball method!
-So in August after seeing the Apple card had been released and I had been invited to apply for it by Apple I applied and was instantly denied. The reason given was “You have recently been past due”! They also listed my Fico score as being 611 (I believe this was a Fico 9 score). Now the only past due account I had was from May 2017 on my Wife’s Capital One card. I have no remembrance of what happened that month but we let it go 30 days past due for some reason. Other than that we had 100% payment history on all our other cards. I called for reconsideration but they said they can’t override what the credit bureaus show. I pulled my TransUnion report and then called them for an explanation on why I was being denied. The only past due payment they saw was the May 2017 late payment too. To me that wasn’t recent but I guess to Goldman Sachs it was. Oh well I said, I’ll keep working on improving my scores and lowering our debt.
By the end of October the Capital One card had now been paid off. We began to use the Best Buy Visa and Capital One cards responsibly as a debit card to pay bills and make purchases and then paid them off by the closing date. Although the Snowball method says to pay the accounts off in order of lowest credit card balance to highest I decided to work on the Wells Fargo Platinum card next since it had a limit of $5500 and it could be used anywhere and my Best Buy Store card could only be used at Best Buy. So from October until February 2020 we continued to pay off the Wells Fargo card.
In December I decided to apply once again for the Apple Card. I got instantly denied again. Same reason as before you were recently past due. I tried getting a reconsideration but to no avail. At this point my score was showing 696 on the denial email. Wells Fargo though who provides a free monthly score was showing my Fico 9 as being 717. I decided to apply for the Wells Fargo Propel the very next day after Goldman Sachs denied me and I was instantly approved for a starting limit of $5500. When applying I was offered 0% APR on all purchases and balance transfers for 12 months! I decided to take them up on their offer and I transferred my Best Buy Store card balance over to the Propel. I had to pay a 3% transfer fee but that was nothing compared to the nearly 26% interest I was paying on that card with a $2700 limit nearly maxed out.
One of the tips I kept seeing over and over on Youtube was having someone add you as an authorized user to their account. Still in December 2019, I decided to ask my Dad if he would be willing to add me to one of his cards. He agreed to add me to his Amex Blue Cash Everyday which had a limit of $10,000. That was perfect because I had hopes of eventually getting my own Amex someday!
In January 2020 I joined Navy Federal Credit Union. Now in February I was one payment away from finally paying off the Wells Fargo Platinum Reward Card. I decided since all of my cards except the Propel were below 30% utilization that I would once again try for the Apple Card. If you’ve read this far you likely already know the outcome, instantly denied for recently being past due. I decided to call Navy Federal Credit Union and see if I was pre qualified for any cards. They said I was pre qualified for all of them. I went with the Amex More rewards. Decided to apply myself on the NFCU app in case they said no, lol, so I did and I was instantly approved for $9300 and also was given the lowest possible APR at the time 11.15%. Felt good although I had no plans to ever carry a balance again!
Feeling pretty good about my instant approval, the very next day I applied for the Chase Slate Card. During the application they offered me 0% APR on all charges and balance transfers for 18 months with no fee to transfer any balances. I decided that I would transfer the rest of my Wells Fargo balance onto the Slate card and then just pay it off once I got paid again. For some reason I was thinking that might help my approval and also help me get a higher credit limit. I got instantly approved for $4400 and my balance transfer was accepted. As planned as soon as the balance transfer was completed 2 weeks later I paid it off.
I continued to work on paying down the remaining credit card debt on my Wells Fargo Propel card and FINALLY in April of 2020 the final payment was made. What a relief to log in to all my accounts and see a $0 balance or a small balance that easily would be paid by the closing date. The other cards added through this journey can be found in the timeline (Amazon Prime card, Amex Blue Cash Preferred, NFCU Cash Reward, Discover It) For those that made it this far thank you for your time! The journey was all started by my determination to get an Apple card but ended in me STILL not having an Apple card but me gaining so much knowledge, me and my wife improving our financial situation and us going from a total credit line of $10,200 to now $85,500 in just 10 months! Now I know what to do and not do! I finally get it and I’m using my cards responsibly!
Congratulations on your success! Thank you for sharing your story. You've done great in a short amount of time.
Nice.Your score may have gone up 10 points while typing this and me reading it. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J/K. Congrats! 
Great work, wishing you continued success 
@AllZero wrote:
Congratulations on your success! Thank you for sharing your story. You've done great in a short amount of time.
Thank you so much! I appreciate it! Also you're welcome!
@FireMedic1 wrote:Nice.Your score may have gone up 10 points while typing this and me reading it. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! J/K. Congrats!
I know right!🙈😄😂😂😂 Thank you so much for the congratulations and taking the time to read it! I appreciate it!
A-a-a-apple, A-a-a-apple, A-a-a-apple...
