Thanks, guys, for your encouraging remarks.
So here's a bit of an update. This year hasn't been as much of a struggle as it has been for other people, which means I've been lucky enough to focus on this rather than, say, putting food on the table. I feel I've made some decent progress:
EX: 637 (+85 from August '19, +67 from September '19, +71 from January)
EQ: 635 (+85 from August, +65 from September, +52 from January)
TU: 669 (+94 from August, +94 from September, +46 from January)
Unsurprisingly, TU remains my highest score, though EQ and EX continue to grow as well. Overall, however, I am pretty happy with how I've been able to grow my scores despite the recent nature of the charge offs.
BofA was SIF, which might hurt underwriting on future big loans but there was no way I'm passing up on settling with them for something along the lines of 60% of what I owed.
I now have three cards, on which I am sure as **bleep** not making the same errors as I have in the past. I've not paid much attention to when they report to the bureaus, so my utilization is not helping my scores, but I'm paying them off in full each month.
SDFCU Secured: CL $500
Mission Lane: CL $850 (their six-month CLI left much to be desired)
Cap1 Quicksilverone: CL $3,000
I read SDFCU graduates secured cards now, so hopefully I can keep going and build up my scores enough to do that. Mission Lane was a dumb move, but it's helping my utilization -- I'll probably close it when it comes time for the annual fee, because paying for a card that has no benefits is pointless, especially when it's not my oldest card or my highest CL. CapOne was a really recent development -- and incredibly shocking, considering I still have four payments left on my charged off card. I chose the QS1 over the Platinum because, even though it has the $39 AF, I spend enough to more than negate that (and my new apartment rebates the processing fees when you pay rent on a card, so that's a no-brainer). Once I pay off AmEx 2, I'll apply for the Optima which, while having an annual fee and no rewards, will let me get back in good graces with AmEx and give me a third card once I cancel Mission Lane.
I'm going to keep on with where I'm at, and try to get my util down to 0 before they report too the bureaus and see if that bumps me up at all.
