September 2015 Check-in Thread

[Anonymous]

Still holding the fort down by not applying for new credit. My FICO Scores (in my signature) have remained stable for about two years now. Will be loosing another HP end of this month (car purchase). Likely will hit the Discover luv button for a limit increase where no HP or SP inquiry is made. Will not take a hit. Truth I have too many accounts. Would like to trade in my FNBO Cards for a Chase AARP and a Barclay's Ring MC as for my spending pattern the two proposed accounts fit my spending pattern. The FNBO Cards do nothing for me but provide high CLs with 1:1 or less rewards. Hit the Discover CLI and received an increase with no SP or HP. FNBO noticed me my FNBO Discover Card rewards were changing to 1:25 on all purchases and the old rewards plan is gone effective to 10-16-15 (yeah).

[grneydangl]

Sometimes I stay off these boards so I don't tempt myself with applying for new credit.  Well it's happened for me, the first time I've ever personally seen any of my scores above 700!!!  EX continues to be a splinter in my heel since it's the only CB with a collection on it.  I at least figured if my EQ and TU scores jumped so much, EX would jump some, but not yet it seems.  I have changed my goal scores because I really hope to keep on this upward trajectory. 

Still waiting for the new job situation to be finalized before moving and putting in my notice at the current job.  I have decided (at least for right now) that I will get my 2004 car with 132,000+ miles on it repaired instead of buying new.  Hopefully I can save for either a nice down payment or enough to buy a newer but not new car.  Love you all for your insight and strength!

[grneydangl]

And of course I spoke too soon.  Got an alert today, EX jumped up 14 points so I had to change my goal on that one too.  I would like to get to 700 but I'm trying to be realistic here... Small boost in EQ too which has always been the most gracious.

[awal]

Congrats to everyone who is seeing improvements.

I'm starting to see noticable improvment in my scores as some of my very old baddies fall off. I don't have a yearly goal, but I'm hoping to see 720 across all reporting agencies by end of year.

[Anonymous]

And in this corner....

I am Dean Corso and my goal is to have and maintain an 850 credit score by 2017 or sooner. I made uninformed choices in college and have just avoided touching my score. Now it is time to build a credit infrastructure for my future. 

Strategy: Phase 1 Get a secured card.

                              Pay all my fixed rate necessary bills with it.

                              Pay it off every month.

                Phase 2 Obtain a higher paying /more secure job

                              Keep rate the same on card

                              Save excess cash

                Phase 3  Anyone have any ideas on what would work. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Starting Fico 639

[Anonymous]

I hear you.  Same thing for me the last couple of months, if something could go wrong it did.  I am hoping that not much more can break and not as many larger expenses are going to pop up.

[Anonymous]

This is my first month to check in, and so far so good I guess.  My scores haven't reached what I'd hoped for September so far, but I was REALLY uninformed about what I needed to do ~ and knowing what I do now, I'm pleased with my progress.  I'm still planning to apply for a HELOC by the end of the month.  If nothing else, if I go into a local bank they can provide me with concrete information as to what I need to wait for.  Information online is all over the place.  No solid credit scores, income guidelines, DTI's, anything to say "ok, now is the time".    But, I've resolved myself that I may have to charge my son's extra school costs this semester, and wait a while longer to rebuild the scores again.  I have limited income, so, it takes some time. 

I 'really' want to apply for a couple new cards and increase my available balance, and I have used really really good self-control not to!  LOL!!!  It would help in the long term, but I'll wait and see what I find out about the loc.  I hope to put in my apps later this week when I have another day off, so that I have time.

I still come up with new questions everyday that I am searching out in the forums. 
I am so very glad that I did apply for a credit cards after my BK because I had no idea I really would need the credit history. 

I created a spreadsheet for myself after hearing a couple people used them.  I have all my credit information in one nice easy to read place with the correct formulas to update as I change the amount, and as the date changes. Very helpful!  I'm so glad they talked about it here!

Age - Date Opened - Account Name - Crd Limit - Amt. Owed- %- Avail. Bal. -Due Date -Closing Date -Last  Pymnt - (reporting dates) EQ TU EX -Interest Rate- Min. Pmt
Total BankCard, Total Store Card, Total Revolving, Total Installments, Total Debt, Total Income, Oldest Account, AAOA, Total Payments, DTI

On another page is where I'll be after the HELOC, and the third page has all my credit score updates.
(whoever it was that was talking about using spreadsheets ~ thank you!!!  I've always been good at them, but just never thought to apply it here. ?? why ?? )

Thanks for all the help!!!  I plan to just keep chugging along. 


PS.  Since it took a few to come up with the correct formula to update the age of account, and therefore the AAOA, I will share it here in case anybody else needs it.

The age of the account:
=(YEAR($E$1)-YEAR(B12))+((MONTH($E$1)-MONTH(B12))/12)

The absolute value E1 is the cell containing the current date =TODAY()
The column B contains the date the account was opened just typed in and formatted as Mo-Yr
June-15

The AAOA is the average of the all the ages.  Since the different types of cards are in different sections, it has the multiple sections listed:
=AVERAGE((A4:A8),(A12:A14),(A20:A21))
AAOA 6.47

Age Date Opened Account Name
9.00 September-06 Capital One Preferred
10.50 March-05 Capital One Master Card
9.25 June-06 Capital One Visa
0.25 June-15 Banterra / Elan

Cell D34 is Oldest Account  Jul-98      
=MIN(B4:B26)      

17 yrs.
=(YEAR($E$1)-YEAR(D34))&" yrs."

[kt1010]

This is the first month of the challenge for me.   I'm working on some PFD with my baddies.  I opened 2 Capital One cards in July. I was able to pc my Platinum MC to a QS MC.  I also have $100 cli available for both cards but I'm going to put some more usage through them PIF each time to see if that gets me a better CLI.  I've been paying down my util on my VS and  my EQ jumped 25 points this month doing this. My other scores haven't updated. 

[Anonymous]

Hey All =-)

So I haven't participated in a monthly update, until today =-). 

I started with a score of, I believe 493, like 3 months ago.

Opened a Fingerhut Fresh Start account. Was approved and made a purchase. If you're unaware, on this program, you need to make a minimum 3 payments before paying your item off, on time, then you will be granted a regular revolving account. On the first, I'll be making my 3rd payment, minimum due $15.27, balance of like $53(ish). I could pay the entire balance, but from what I've researched and commonly seen, when you make more than the minimum 3 payments, you start off with a higher credit limit. For that reason, I'm going to pay $20 tomorrow and pay the remaining balance next month. 

Also, I was approved for a Capital One Secured Card, requiring $200, but will put $250, doing this next week. 

Over the past 3 months, my score has risen to TU: 543, EQ: 540... All due to properly managing my Fingerhut Account. I expect another increase upon opening my Capital One. I'm super excited and feeling awesome!

Looks like I should hit my goal BEFORE the end of the year.