January 2019 Check-In Thread

[Crysis]

Picking up this challenge with a start in the 470s... not much place to go but up.

I have some unpaid collections accounts I will be working on PFD.  Most are small.  

I have one active TL- an auto account, which I will continue to pay on.  I'd ideally like to shrink the payments if possible.  

Overall, I want general better financial health, and I have a plan of action to make it happen.  May 2019 be a year of health, joy and prosperity for everyone.

[Anonymous]

@Cysis you may want to get a secured card to add a positive line to your CR.

[calyx]

Joining in for the year.   My goal is 740s, which feels reachable.

I started in the 540-560 range in June or so last year, no decent bank would give me even a secured card, so I started with an Opensky account and kept going from there.   I had a fraudulent account removed in August, consolidated my student loans in August as well, and I opened up a USBank & Citibank secured as well as a Discover in Aug/Sept/Oct (my first cards since a store card in 1996 that is now closed). 

I'm nudging up against 700 now.   
Some inquiries should fall off 1/31 and 2/6, my installment should be <88% (I know there are probably not the same threshholds for scoring, except for the 9%, but it keeps me focused to aim for them), I will try to EE my only derogs in March with TU and April with EX.  EQ will wait til September.   I've been gardening since October, and I will continue until at least April, if not longer.

By the end of the year, I should have no derogs, but I'm also hoping to grab 2 or 3 more rewards cards, which will hurt my account ages, I know I'll take a significant hit on that.  

I'm in a good financial place (that was what I started last year in March when I happened to stumble upon MF while researching things), I have no debt other than my student loans, I PIF my cards and my main two goals are to reduce my SL by 10k and and get a couple of rewards cards, particularly one for travel (CSP) since I'll be flying a bit in the next two years.

It should be interesting - and I can't wait to see how others do as well.

[Anonymous]

I did a LOT of credit inquires last year (A little dumb as it did hurt my score slightly from dropping my avg age of accounts). This year I am happy with my current portfolio of credit mix. So i am going to sit on my hands and let them all MATURE. which will allow my avg age of credit to come up and give me back some of those points i lost. The only thing i am planning credit wise.. is a house. So i am paying down debt (which will also increase my score), and stacking a down payment and hopefully end of year beginning of next year i will be in our own house. That is the only credit item that will be added to my portfolio. Other than that Its going to be a boring year credit wise. When i get the house, my overall cash flow will increase as I wont have the HIGH rent im paying now. So thats my plan for 2019.

[Anonymous]

HI!

So, I have fallen by the wayside - went right back to doing the things that got me in a rut... I have spent close to $4000 in credit card this season and I am really bumped. My scores have plummeted - this spending includes an abroad trip I made with my kid for honors program - father promised to contribute but didn't so I had to take on the entire bill and I also wanted to buy some things for myself this holiday season which I did.  So I'm back to paying down those debts again. I also did a lot of inquiry this past year, I'm not looking to add any more cards as I'm finding it hard to manage the ones I already have. My goal is to pay down my credit card debt in about a couple of months - I hate debt. My highest scores this year were Transunion 661, Equifax 654, and Experian 660. Today my scores are as follows:

TU 616

EQ 614

EX 640

So back to the drawing board. Good thing is that I have nothing in collections on my credit. I have paid everything in full and I have some inquiries due to falling off this month and next month to balance out a lot of the inquiries I made this year. Pray for me. 

[Anonymous]

@emtwo: I'm with you on not seeking more cards as it becomes too much to manage.
I guess I should've mentioned that one of my goals is simplification (of life in general). 😬

[HindSight_20_20]

I will 'not' do 2019 without a myfico challenge!  

Looks like I'll be doing a lot of reading this weekend on this thread as well. My current scores are all in the mid 500's right now and my plan is to be sitting at 620 across the board by December 2019.

I've rebuilt my credit before using these forums and then 'life happened'  so I'm starting almost from the beginning. Rebuilding my life this time as well as my credit so thanks to all of you for journaling your stories as they will help me along for sure.

I did just recently (Nov 2018) manage to aquire the Discover it Secured, a Cap1 Secured, and a Cap1 25/300 as well as a Citi Diamond Secured to start things off with.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to introduce myself.  I've been coming to the forums off and on for at least 6 years, but really focused for about two years now, and finally signed up.  My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in Feb 2016, and I lost him the following March.  During this time, my credit went to hell.  After he passed I used advice from the forums combined with Dave Ramsey to get out of debt/ start to rebuild.  I purchased my dream home in August, so my goals for this year are to stay in the garden.  No new apps for 2019.  I really just need to grow the tradelines I have- they meet all my needs, and let everything age.  My only debt is my house and a small loan on my car.  

I have the following tradelines:

Wells Fargo Secured $10,000 opened July 2017 (SD w/occasional small purchase)

Discover IT $5,000 opened July 2017 (Daily driver, teenagers are AUs)

Costco Citi $3,000 opened Jan 2018 (Daily driver)

Discover Miles $7,000 opened Dec 2018 (just received this card- probably taking over IT's spot as my daily driver- at least for this year)

AMEX $1,500 Opened Mar 2018 (teenagers are AUs, but none of us use the card much at all)

Wells Fargo Propel AMEX $1,000 opened Jan 2018 (cell phone bill autocharges and PIF every month)

Maurices (store card CapOne) $500 opened March 2018 (I like their "mom clothes" and get store rewards and credits- my splurge)

*Amazon $200 opened Sep 2017 (never use- all my Amazon stuff goes on Discover IT)

*Ollo $800 opened March 2018 (never use...not even sure which drawer the physical card ended up in... monitor online to make sure no funny business ends up on the account)

*Lowes $1,000 Opened September 2018 "just in case I want to make improvements to my house...."

Capital One $6,750 opened November 2014 (sock drawer, oldest account, charge a meal or ice cream on it every couple of months)

**Car Loan owe ~$2,000 on ~$18,000 original balance opened November 2018 

Wells Fargo Mortgage owe $220,000 on $223,920 original balance opened August 2018 

*probably going to close these out sometime this year.

**Now that mortgage is reporting, will pay this off sometime this year- probably 2 or 3Q.  No rush, paying less than 4%

Fico 8 Scores:  682 Experian, 695 Equifax, and 659 Transunion

Hoping to be solidly in the 700's club this time next year!

Summary: No HPs, prune a bit, and let everything age!

[Squishy]

Is this where i join the APPoholic Hippo Meeting ?

some time around last November i went APP happy. I over did it with the SCT. and i did it wrong too. i got hit with HPs for each of the APPs. now with about 22 inquiries on my Experian. i guess i will be here for atleast 1year and hopefully i can withstand the APP urge for 2 years.

while in the garden i will be closing off a few accounts that i applied for. these accounts are buy in credit lines of 5k. they sell you useless krap that are usually over priced. i wish i had known of this wondeful forum before i went on the APPing Spree. im learning alot here. i would like to thank everyone for there contributions to this forum.

2019 - dec 31. 2020  gardening. hopefully.

A.)closing 3( 5k)  tradelines . and store cards which i dont use.

B.)giving my 5 secure CCs time to Beef up and graduate. 1. BofA started with 1k now already at 3k. 2. us bank-300 3.discover-500. 4. TDBank-500. 5. Citi - 250.

C.) letting these Age some:

Penfed 10k

Cap1-300

Cap1-QS1-300

ollo-1400

[Anonymous]

I am just starting my progress here, but I originally started when my credit was seriously hurting in the mid 500s.  I hope to hit 700 this year... hopefully!