August 2020 Check In Thread

[Curious_George2]

August's numbers are in and I kept up my streak of hitting my goals every month I'm been posting here. My goals were: Stay healthy; stay employed; stay in the garden; get Util under 9%.

Staying in the garden was actually pretty easy. I went on an app spree in the spring and there isn't really anything that tempts me now. I've been moving my spending around to optimize usage of the cards I've got, and that's been fun enough that I don't feel any strong desire to add another card. My plan is to stay app-free until late 2021, when I intend to buy a house. 

I didn't exactly cheat to get my Util under 9%, but I didn't get there in the ideal way. My balances barely moved this month, so the thing that put me over the edge was a $5k CLI from BofA. Maybe that's why the FICO gods chose not to reward me much. EQ went up 6 points, but EX didn't budge. (TU doesn't count since it thinks my Util is a little higher.)  That's OK. I'm still confident the results will show up in FICO scores over time if I can stay on the good path.

My goals for the month ahead: stay healthy; stay employed; stay in the garden; keep Util under 9%; put some spend on CapOne card to start prepping for its next CLI opportunity in November.

[Anonymous]

Soooooo I'm sitting here in my first home that I closed on August 10th. I began on this forum feb 2020. I decided in February that I was gonna buy my first home and was ready to do what I needed to do but really wasn't sure how long it would take. So I went to a first time homebuyers program through hud. TransUnion mortgage score on February 12 was 548. Single mom of 2, salary 77k. 10 k of delinquent debt, 7 baddies, student loans rehabbed 2 years ago, 4 credit accounts never late since opening. Sooo I bust my butt, paid the 10k of debt off with negotiations for pay for deletions, 6 baddies removed from reports, last state's current and paid. Had a repo car, requested early exclusion, granted, saved thousands. During that time my kids and I moved back home with my dad so I could work and not spend any money on bills, grandpa let us live bill free . Sad because I'm a nurse and Covid helped me reach my goals faster with all the mandatory overtime. Fast forward from feb 2020 to June 2 2020 mortgage score went from 548 to 708, was pre approved for my mortgage on June second for up to 320k for a house, July  5 th put in about my 10th offer and it was accepted. Automated underwriting no issues , closed on my home August 10 th . Approved for 5 k from lowes after closing and Wells Fargo upgraded my 300 secured card to a 1k platinum card. If you set your goals and go for it, you can do it. I purchased my first home during a pandemic that had me out of work and sick for 3 weeks in April cleaned up my credit in 4 months, I couldn't believe it myself. And no I didn't use any credit repair agency, I used this blog to help me 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous    your story of accomplishments is awe inspiring and out right amazing! You truly "kicked butt" and kept on going not looking back! WOW

Thanks for sharing an 'it can be done story with hard work and dogged determination' ...! Your Dad's help was timely and certainly shows parent's can be of assistance!

Glad you are here and as you progress into the next steps of finance and credit, feel free to ask questions or share comments in the various threads. There are many posters in this Forum with considerable "boots on the ground" knowledge!

Welcome! 

[CreditBones]

Hello y'all!

Newbie here, but still, serious enough to join the 2020 challenge, and even though is the last day of August, I can log my progress coming from July.

I began to study my scores, credit file, CC usage & payment behaviors in the second week of August, but, I had already been using CK (cluelessly) since August 2019. I did know I had some delinquencies I had to tackle, but I didn't know myFICO existed, I didn't know the difference between VS3 and FICO, I didn't even had a clue how to strategize in order to rehabilitate my credit file. So, for the last 2 weeks I have been gathering and organizing data, and now I kinda see the patterns, and how it all has improved in one year by using all my CCs like debit cards, and paying all before their bill end cycle dates. However, I was lucky enough to have found this great FREE forum a couple of days ago, with great people willing to analize the data, and great people willing to share their real life credit insights!  (((BIG THANKS!)))

Scores from July to August:
772 -> 781 - EX FICO 8
718 -> 763 - EX FICO 9 (via Wells Fargo)
694 -> 694 - EQ FICO 9 (via PenFed)

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745 -> 745 - EQ VS3 (via CK)
760 -> 760 - TU VS3 (via CK)

710 -> 710 - TU FICO 9 speculation

Note:
I have no FICO for TU yet because I haven't found a free app that provides it, nor I am a card member on the banks that provides it, and I am not ready to purchase myFICO yet. However, reviewing how my 694 EQ FICO 9 (via PenFed) compares to 745 EQ VS3 (via CK), I can speculate that with a 50 points difference, my TU FICO would be close to 710, given that my TU VS3 (via CK) is 760.