Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge 2018!

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, 

Super excited about the myFICO Fitness Challenge 2018. Wish I had signed up with FICO earlier hate I'm starting the challenge close to the end of the year lol. My financial goals are to start saving an emergency fund, vacation fund, work on my credit (in which I just started last month). I'm hoping to raise my FICO score to at least 650 by June 2019. I'm also looking to be a homeowner during 2019 year. I hope to achieve a lot and be able to pass it down to my kids as well as family and friends that may be struggling. I'm hoping to receive a lot of encouragement from everyone. 

[Anonymous]

Way to go, better late than never.

[Anonymous]

Yes so true.

[Anonymous]

relative new comer as well... as the year is over, i was able to achieve my goals that i had set out for myself. my 2019 goals will be even more agressive (purchasing my first home!)

at the beginning of 2018, my finances were stagnant, and my credit crumbling. high 600s to low 700s. I went on the straight and narrow and crushed it, putting me in a good place to acheive my lofty 2019 goal. I need to continue on the trend of keeping things calm and steady and aging/improving all existing accounts. As well as continue to pay down my student loans as I try and save up for a downpayment. 

in the past month, i was able to gain so much valuable info from this forum and the wonderful members who advise on a daily basis!

a secondary goal is to help others as you have helped me.

Thanks again,

Rick

[Anonymous]

I'm just adding my story to the Fitness Challenge even though it's late in the year. 

I see all your other sigs with scores "before and after" and I get so encouraged. I want to encourage others (I hope!) with my score increasing in 2019!

My "baddies" are high utilization and a lot of debt, as well as one 90-day late on one card. Also, I just settled with a bank (not with collections—no charge off). I hear that settlements with the bank are not good, but better than waiting for the debt to go to collections.

The goodies are that I have a lot less debt now. The settlement wiped out a lot of it. However, I do have a few other cards which are 90%+ utilization, but they have always been (and will continue to be) paid on time. I should be able to get them paid off within a year (I am fairly hopeful). Once I get ALL my debt paid off, things should look up, but the baddie of the 90-day late will still haunt me. (I will craft a goodwill letter in the future!)

Right now all I have is one secured card ($200) that is approved (hasn't even come in the mail yet) from Green Dot. I have applied to a few other store cards (as well as Capital One secured) and nope, nope, hell nope. The 90-day late is still too fresh, I guess. I will have to "garden" with my one little Green Dot card for a while and try again in a few months. (Though I could get an OpenSky card sooner, but probably I should space out my card applications a little more.)

What I hope to do is to document how much my score budges as time passes with this 90-day late and the balance of my remaining debt going down. 

Thank you, everyone, for your stories of encouragement! Bless you all and here's to a much more successful 2019!

[Anonymous]

Hello!  I am soo happy to be here

I am taking this challenge to increase my Scores and increase my credit awareness as well.  I want to be able to gift this knowledge to my children to give them a better start than my parents gave me.  We are looking to purchase our firsts home in a few months (we have to move from our rental and the rents seem to be more than what a mortgage payment would be).  My husband is a Vet, so the plan is to apply for VA loan with our scores at least at 580+. 

Hubbys starting mid FICO is 505 - he has no cc, business credit thru T-mobile.

My scores are 606, 566, 532 (FICO 5,4&2) - My biggest problem is my credit util is at 98%, but I plan to pay that down to $0 on friday (its only $300 card).  My car not with Cap1 is current, but I had a 30 day late (1 day late) in Oct 2018.  That's it in a nutshell

[Anonymous]

Trying to bring the new year in right. The last month of the year, I am taking the challenge. Started the credit journey in October 2017 with poor credit scores. All in the 500's. Fast forward to today, sitting with mid to high 600's. Starting with a $750 secured credit card, now carrying over $40,000 in credit in a little over a year. Gained over 100 pts on all credit reports and going into 2019 optimistic. Starting with realistic goals, wanting 700 across the board. It can only grow from there. I have been hiding out for a while from the forums. But back and ready to bask in the wisdom again. 

[ThaDude]

I read all 257 posts prior to mine. I truly love a community that is this supportive, its not all niceties but neccisities! Started out beginning of 2018 for the most part. 540-550 across the board. Yuck i knew better. Started working it out got all three scores above 650 as high as 715 but had a setback then the holidays were upon us. Sheesh. Now my goal is to get 99 pct utilization down to like 8.9% on my Visa of 10k and 0 out my secured card. Got married, now we looking for a place to set our roots! As of today I am at 657 EQ 651 TU 677 EX.

I am working on a budget now to pay down atleast 1/2 of the 10k visa balance in 2019.. My fico simulator got me at 720s if i pay dow the balance 350/mth til august 2019. Ironically the bday is in September and thatss when hopefully our home comes in to play. Goal for 2019 to be under 50 pct utility and above 750 across the board. (aggressive)

Only baddies I have is the 99pct utility (never again) and high inquires most due to fall
Off 2019 and 2020.

[CrimsonMoon93]

Finally decided to create an account in hopes that I can finally turn my financial life around. In 2016, I had a 707 score at 22. Now at 25, I'm down to 465. Most of this came from bad decisions but also just life happening. I have a new job making roughly $30k and I'm beginning a 401k. 2019 will be a good year.

[Priory_Man]

I'm certainly a bit too late for this year, let's say I am getting a head start on next year. As far as goals, I'd like to raise my scores, I have made progress over the last couple of months I have jumped up on average 35 points on all my FICO 8 scores, I would like to get to 780+ by mid next year, I'm currently sitting at or around 710 - 725.