April 2019 Check In Thread

[Anonymous]

Hello,

My Scores are improving.  

Don't know why TU is still the lowest one.  I reviewed the report and ordered one directly from TU to compare. TU uses the VantageScore and is modeled a bit different.  I see re-aging and the reporting of delinquent accounts which were included in the BK in 2013.  After disputing, TU stated to me if the creditor states it's correct, it's correct.  So, I'm working on them about that. 

Got approved for a Walmart Store Card 1K.  I was surprised. 

[Anonymous]

April check in.

I saw some decent improvement on my Fico 5  Equifax this month.  I think it is because I have changed my spend a little recently.  Moving more over to 0% APR card and giving up some cash back doing so.  More cards reporting zero balance.  This will probably not be for too long, but may as well use the 0% to my advantage.

Other than that, not too much new to report.  In a week I wil get my Gold spade.  Just PIF all non-zero APR cards and keep it going.

[Anonymous]

Another month down. Just working on being a better me. Working to raise these scores above 700. Seems I get stuck right at this 690 area. But continuing to trust the process. There are far worse situations I could be in. Positioning myself for a better financial future both credit wise and financially. Working to ensure my kids have lives that I only imagined when I was their age. Things are looking up. 

[Anonymous]

Started the path towards buying a house last year, found that my score was just about 716 at the time, utilized close to 90%.  Began to look into debt consolidation loans as a quick fix but was denied due to the high use of credit.  So slow and steady is the game plan for now.  All the best to all in the challenge this year 

[NuMeNuDay]

Good Afternoon All:

I am a little late to the 2019 myFICO Challenge, so I will recap my progress sicne the new year has started. 

I am working on my Debt Free 2019 goals. My goal is to be debt free by December 31, 2019 (approximately $82k, I am not including my student loans yet).

I have been given a great opportunity at work that will allow me to obtain this goal and so I moved overseas in Africa (Uganda to be exact) February 1, 2019 and began my journey to becoming unburdened by debt! (And building my business!)

Time to SHOW MY WORK(plans):

February 2019: 
This month was all about moving, planning (scheming LOL), and living in my new life.
I started by:

1. Bringing all my credit cards up to being 'below' the credit limit amount
2. Setting up my finance plans to allow for auto bill pay
3. Creating a budget and making the plans to utilize my income in the most effective way
4. Becoming acclimated at work
5. Learning to live my life in my new home in Uganda

March 2019:
This month was about making sure everything was in place to implement my plans.
I started by:

1. Finalizing my budget, which includes listing all my expenses, planning all my payments, (paycheck and monthly work stipends) and having a realistic TRANSPARENT view of my credit card (and auto loan) balances
2. Transferring money into my new auto-pay account (and setting up all my paycheck transfers to ensure there is always money in there)
3. Starting learning more about business and how to build it and making my business plans
4. Building my design skills up (I am a graphic and web design student) and getting my business hustles started
5. Paid off 2 credit cards (Approx. $3,000)
6. Saved $1,200

April 2019:
This month is the start of the full on board debt repayment. The details slow down and the process begins!

The current April plan includes:

1. Paying off Approx. $4,500 (two credit cards)
2. Finalizing business details to bring in additional income
3. Saving $1,500

All together my scores are slowly improving. I think I will be in the position of paying down the debt fast and not receiving the large jumps in scores,. I will most likely see small jumps here and there and then my score will rely on my usage and payments, which I am okay with.

Good Luck to everyone on their April journey! 

[calyx]

Mid-April update:

My auto-loan is now reporting, the first payment is at the end of this month.  Interestingly, after that reported, the "Installment balances" negative reason went away from my reports and I now have a + for "installment balance significant paydown," which is weird, because I nearly doubled what I owe?   I had installments paid down to ~85% and with the new loan, it's "up" to 90% (new loan payment on the other loans hit the same time the addition hit for the new loan).  Whatever.   Next month it will be ~89% - I know installment loans mean less to FICO scoring, but I still track the report.   My goal is to reduce debt, more than having high scores.

Thanks to the FICO Phobias thread, I've decided to let most of my accounts report naturally (which includes ~1000 on the new CSP).   One of the accounts is at 38% (so above the vaunted 28.9% util), and I'm reporting 3 out of 6 at this time (4 of 7 if you count my AU).  And my scores are still climbing (769 TU/718 EX, 698 EQ), so for anyone scared to let things report - maybe don't worry so much about AZEO, but as always, YMMV.

I'm still fighting with EX.  I contacted them for an early exclusion, and instead of an exclusion, they opened a dispute (which is what I was expecting, at least, I expected the notification), and then updated the accounts incorrectly.  /sigh   So now I have newer negatives than before, and I feel like smacking them.

And finally, my credit union allowed me to upgrade my checking account.    When I applied last year, my scores were so low they wouldn't even give me a regular account - I had to go with the basic, no checks, no interest one.   When I applied for my auto loan, I also asked for an upgrade on the account - it was granted and the new debit card arrived.... I also managed to lose my PIN letter follow up, but hey, it's not an emergency since I have credit cards, now!

I expect that my next "real" increase in score will be in June (3 months AOYA), but I'm still hoping to argue that EE out of EX (the natural fall off date is July).

[Anonymous]

Update just paid off a Card that was close to 80 % utilized.  Left with an installment account with 3 payments left, plus one other card that I am chopping away at, will zeroed out in 3 months.   Interested to see what this does to the mortgage score, from what I gather, having a zero balance CC should give me a nice bump.  BOA reports on 5/9 will see then  

[800FICOGoal]

There's not much for me to report this month. My scores fluctuate as usual due to any balance changes (always under 8%).

Last month I had a few milestones with two accounts and two inquiries aging to 1 year. May is when the big things start to happen for me. My forclosure should fall off of my EQ report, three inquiries will age to 1 year,  and my AAoA will hit 1 year. 

So I'm hoping for some big point gains starting next month.

[calyx]

Update to the experian saga after speaking to a supervisor (again), is that the pooch is royally screwed.   Somehow the DOFD has been set all the way to November, instead of July.  I'm just going to leave it alone, because it's a nightmare at this point.

And my CSP reported - util at 7%util, which puts my overall at 11%... I appear to have lost a few points, and I'm fine with that.   I don't need them at the moment, so I'll just keep letting everything ride.

[LakeLife]

Working to get my scores to 800 accross the board.  I had a splurge the past few months, so I'm sure with gardening and good habits I'll be there.  I did just do a BT to pay for a cruise, so my utilization went from 7.x to 9.33  I know that will put a ding in me over the next few weeks.  It will go down fast though.  Once I get to 800s, I plan on keeping them there for the rest of my life.  Should be doable.