In three months, I have paid down about $7000 (out of $14500) of CC debt, both new and old, including two charge offs (and saved another $5000 in emergency funds) and my scores are healing sooo nicely.
JAN 2019 - EQ/608 TU/635 EX/604
MAR 2019 - EQ/675 TU/686 EX/664
My charge offs were recent (this summer) and reporting monthly, so paying them off made my scores jump almost 30 points each, although there have been little rises throughout the weeks.
I have a recent 30 day late on another account (also this summer) that is bringing my score down, not to mention the remaining $7500 of debt killing my UTIL but I intend to hammer away at that this spring. I don't have plans to finance anything in the next five years, so I can live with waiting for all the bad stuff to fall off. Just wanted to leave some encouragement here for anyone curious about paying charge offs.
To add - I paid the CO accounts in full. Did not want to settle as they are Chase and Barclays. I'm sure they won't even look my way for a decade but at least, when they finally do, they'll see they got their money.
I've also drastically changed the way I manage my finances by budgeting with YNAB. I was already doing a bit of budgeting on my own the old-fashioned way but YNAB really brought some clarity into the picture. It's helping me save, it's helping me not over-spend, and my goal is to get to a point where I am no longer hyperfocused on my paydates.
Congratulations on getting your credit file back on track.
You have made some really good progress and already have a nice jump in scores.
Keep hammering away at that CC debt, get into the routine of PIF each month on the cards you are still using, and watch those scores move on up into the 700's.
You have made some really good progress and already have a nice jump in scores.
Keep hammering away at that CC debt, get into the routine of PIF each month on the cards you are still using, and watch those scores move on up into the 700's.
@Priory_Man wrote:
Congratulations on getting your credit file back on track.
You have made some really good progress and already have a nice jump in scores.
Keep hammering away at that CC debt, get into the routine of PIF each month on the cards you are still using, and watch those scores move on up into the 700's.
PIF with money I already have (and not money I'm waiting to receive) is a strange new concept for me but it feels great. I'm just giving myself a couple of months of not using a credit card for anything over $100, so I can ease into it gracefully. 
Once my scores started going up a while back it became a bit of a rush and I dreaded using my cards, so I did my best not to, even now as soon as I see any sort of balance on my CC's I get twitchy and feel the urge to pay it off.
Anyway congrats again on getting yourself moving in the right direction and good luck on getting where you want to be.
Anyway congrats again on getting yourself moving in the right direction and good luck on getting where you want to be.