NEVER EVER EVER thought I would see this!

[Anonymous]

Congratulations!  What were the major things you did in the last couple years to go from where you were to where you are at now?

[Anonymous]

I remember many years ago I had an HSBC non-secured card that also reported a strange limit.  I think it was $319 or $408 or something crazy like that.  I wonder if I still have PDFs from my old credit reports from so long ago.  My credit limit was that amount, and it really made little sense.

I also remember closing that account when they charged me an over-limit fee of $35 or something even though I had zero balance showing.  One of my charges ended up hitting my card 3 times (only one of them actually posted) but for whatever reason HSBC decided that 3 $120 authorizations meant I was overlimit.  That was probably 13 years ago, though.

[Anonymous]

Good Job man.

I hope to be there one day

[Anonymous]

I cant give enough congrats to you for this. Very happy for you. .And thanks for posting this. You give those of us still fighting the good fight something to look forward to. Seeing this makes me anxious to get there. 

[Anonymous]

Congrats! That's inspiring for me to  read on days when I  feel like nothing is changing, I can't wait to get there, I just need to be patient. Congratulations again! 

[Anonymous]

Wow congratulations...you give me hope...

[Repo-ed]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Congratulations!  What were the major things you did in the last couple years to go from where you were to where you are at now?

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Well, the biggest thing was waiting the full 7 years for my vehicle repo to fall off my reports. While waiting for that to happen, I sent out GW asking for a write-off from Amex to be removed, and they did + issued me a Amex Zync card (anyone even remember those?) and have since issued me more than 20 amex cards. In fact, I'm on my 8th Delta Gold Skymiles card wth a $20k limit. They also recently issued me 2 business CC's with $5k and $15k CL's (only have the 5k CL card open presently).

I sent GW's to have a few "minor" write-offs removed as well as a few late payments removed. Some took MANY MANY letters to finally happen, but they eventually worked.

The other thing was to then grow my file. I was NOT shy about applying for cards. Even Barclay who is SUPER INQ senstive has issued me several cards despite my INQ's (I try to keep them balanced among the 3 CRA's). I coveted all of them and made sure to treat them right. Always allowing a small balance to report and NEVER carrying a balance from month-to-month. Basically what everyone else around here does to grow your score.

I purposely opened a personal loan as well as leased a car to diversify my CF, which both seemed to have helped.  Really the only thing holding me back is the low AAoA which is attributed by both the fact that 2006 is my oldest reporting account(s) from amex and so many INQ's.  I have tightened up my apps QUITE a bit this past year, but lets be honest, it's hard. I get that. I've not paid for a plane ticket in 3-4 years and that's my trade off from not having a perfect FICO. 

I got the best lease deal with a mid-700 FICO and I don't ever plan to purchase a house, so at this point, I'm just participating in a FICO measuring contest.

Here's what's nuts. I'm not sure what the highest score is you can achieve, but even at a 804...I still don't think I can hit perfection despite my current path. Crazy, right?!

[Repo-ed]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Good Job man.

I hope to be there one day

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I can PROMISE you, you will

Time will take care of everything. Just be responsible going forward. Don't dwell on the past. Learn from those lessons (not mistakes) and do your absolute best to not repeat and make sure to pay it forward by helping others achieve the same results.  Because of this forum, I've gotten to where I am and I LOVE helping people in person get the right information to get them headed in the right direction (you can only lead a horse to water...and that's what I aim to do whenever I can get on the topic of money with friends and strangers alike).

[Anonymous]

Your point about GW letters is important -- I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and emailed and faxed and wrote some more.  Eventually, all the creditors removed lates.  All of them!  Just took writing and writing some more to get it done.  I think the last creditor finally removed all my lates (up to 90D multiples) because they were sick of my letters, lol.

I'm curious, now that you're at 800+, how many accounts do you show utilization on?

[Repo-ed]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I cant give enough congrats to you for this. Very happy for you. .And thanks for posting this. You give those of us still fighting the good fight something to look forward to. Seeing this makes me anxious to get there. 

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From the looks of your signature, you're on a short final (that's aviation talk) and about to land in the promise land.  Looks like you've done some time like me and many before us and accomplished goals through great effort too. Grats!