November 2021 Check-In Thread

[Kenny]

I know you are all hard at work with your credit goals.  Have you progressed as far as you hoped?  Were there any unforeseen expenses that cropped up and may have thrown you off schedule?

As a reminder, participation in these monthly check-ins is optional but encouraged. The goal is to help keep you on track, so feel free to post your progress updates here. This is a no-judge zone; feel free to say what's keeping you up at night or give yourself a Kudo for having it all together.

Did you hit any potholes or speedbumps? Achieve some milestones, either small or mighty? Change your goals or add new ones?

Let us know how you're doing! 

[Anonymous]

AS we work towards the end of the year and some Holidays ... it is a good time to review the last year and make sure we have achieved our goals.

Not to late for that one last sub or paying off debt?! Stop by and inform us as you pass through

[Junejer]

Not too much different from last month. I paid off two of my 0% balance transfer cards (Discover and Citi). My EX FICO moved up to 795, EQ to 779 and TU continues to lag behind at 736. TU still has that baddie on it until February.

Even though I paid off my Citi card, they chose not to report last month (for the first time since I got the card). My hope is that they will report the zero balance this month, leaving me with AZEO. I will be interested to see if the AZEO gives me that five point bump on EX to get me to the 800 club.

[Anonymous]

All my scores jump around between 30+ to 50+ points from September to current. The average score is usually around 760+ to 780+.

I was having all above 800+ for a week only around Oct 27th. Exp just turned above 800 for a week.

Oct 27th Fico 8 EQ 805, TU 808, Exp 803

Nov 3rd  Fico 8 EQ 797, TU 812, Exp 800

The reason why my scores drops today was because of a paid loan which is being updated on their database. Apparently EQ and Exp are both more sensitive to the loan just like my other past loans.

Just early this year, I only had around 720+ to 730+ if I am not mistaken

Inquiries EQ=3,  Tu = 1, Exp=2

Actually it was EQ -2, Tu, 2, Exp 2
Since I just applied for 3 credit cards,  EQ-2,Tu-2,Exp-5    

Before: Utilization 8-9%.

Nov 8th, 2021
Current (when updated): 7% (technically 6.6%)

Current Scores drop. EQ 795, TU 820, EXP 782

Fun story:

My Citi Rewards card (used to be Citi Diamond) used to be invisible to EQ, TU  and EXP for several months in 2018. No report to credit agency. I only found out later before I pulled a trigger on my mortgage application. I was kinda stupid so I kept contacting Citi, EQ and TU and EXP to update the report because I wanted to lower down my overall total cards utilization before since that account was 0 balance. In the end TU and Exp added that account on their database but not EQ. Thus on on my EQ, my total overall accounts limit is lower. Looking back at old doc, just realized that Exp was not in the report either not just EQ and TU. It has been a while. I remembered now that I contacted all three of them through phones and letters. At the time Citi Diamond was $10,500 or $10,800 but my limit was lowered to current limit $8780.

Currently only TU and Exp reporting this card but not EQ. Used to be a GHOST card when nobody reporting them. So what do you think is happening on the story above? Weirdest thing ever.

[Junejer]

Update: I got an alert from EX last night stating that my score is higher than it has ever been since joining Experian. I've learned that's their code for I have a score increase. So, I logged on this morning to discover that my EX FICO 8 score is 800. It was so exciting to get this little bit of good news this morning. That happened and Citi still has not reported my $0 balance on the account.

Edit: next goal is to get EQ at 800. Only 19 points to go.

[800scoreplease]

This month I got my aggregate utilization below 30% and gained some points. I am practicing AZEO, not intentional I just paid off my cards one by one and now I am on the last card this card. I am still on track as far as my pay off plan goes. 

[Caramelhunnyva]

Still making on time CC payments and trying to stay afloat. Havent applied for any new credit!  

[Anonymous]

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@Caramelhunnyva wrote:

Still making on time CC payments and trying to stay afloat. Havent applied for any new credit!  

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You will get there. It is all above time and patience. You got this!

[Anonymous]

Just joined. I've never had a credit card before and have only ever had car loans as far as debt goes. My parents said that if I couldn't afford to pay cash then I didn't need whatever I was looking at so I never gave credit another thought. This year I decided I wanted to start looking into getting a garage (they usually come with a house attached so I guess I'll have to get the whole package) so I started my research. I quickly found out that I needed good credit and since I hadn't had a car loan in over a decade, I essentially had no credit. My FICO was 574 😱.

After reviewing ways to start building credit I decided that the Discover Secured card was the best trade-off for me. I gave them $500 and received my gray card about two weeks later. Since I'd read up on credit utilization I was petrified to ever have any balance at all so I paid everything the nanosecond it posted. I talked with Discover who reassured me that unless I ask them to, they won't report outside of the 11th of each month for me. Then I started using it in place of my PayPal debit card since they both give 1% cash back and the Discover card takes 24hrs to post my payments whereas the PayPal card takes five days to fund from the same bank account. After realizing that the Discover card could easily be a replacement for the PayPal card I called Discover and asked to max out the deposit and sent them another $1,500. I now use the heck out of it — making sure to have a zero or nearly zero balance by the 11th. My score has gone 574 > 611 > 635 > 639 in the three months since.

I don't know what a realistic 12 month goal is so I put 670 in the signature as that doesn't seem unattainable in that amount of time and would nudge me into "good" credit. My ultimate credit goal would be to hit the top category, so 800+? Some interim goals are:
- get to 670

- get a Citi Double Cash Card
- get a Costco credit card
- get a house

Since I'm new to this game (and I really think that's an accurate discription), any constructive feedback/suggestions would be appreciated.

[Junejer]

Way to go @Anonymous! That is a great move in a few months. I don't think 670 is unrealistic at all. Once you reach that FICO on one bureau, make sure you check the other two to ensure you have attained it across the board. I would only add that you should allow a small balance (like $20 or something really minor) to report and then pay it off after the statement closes. That will ensure you are maximizing your potential score. You don't want $0 to report. Do some research on this site about that. It will make more sense after you read up on it.