Take the myFICO Fitness Challenge for 2013!

[Anonymous]

  GOALS   

YEAR	PATH TO GOAL
2013	To continue my quest to raise my credit score significantly to 700+ by paying off some old debt -- just paid off a judgment, and a OC debt of 56.77 this week; attempted to pay the CA, but the account had been returned to the OC, so paid them. OC is on the credit report.
2014	Continue to plug away at paying off old debt Pay off car loan Secure revolving cards and allow them to raise my score Consider first mortgage

[maximiliano]

I'm so thankful for the information I found on this board. I found the board three years ago and did a lot of research on how to improve my credit. It wasn't until this week that I realized how much the advice I got from here has helped me. My score went up by 90 points in the last year alone, and I was approved for my first auto loan (I was seriously afraid that I was going to be denied). Now I feel a lot more confident about my credit and I will start to research mortgage loans

Here's my journey:

2005-2010:

• Defaulted on my student loans
• Stopped paying the only credit card I had
  
• Overdrafted my WF bank account
  
• Couldn't answer my phone really because I was trying to avoid so many CAs.
  
• Dept. of Education started garnishing my tax refunds
• Started researching ways to improve my credit

2011-2012:

• Found myFICO and read as much as I could about rebuilding my credit
• Opened a secured Capital One card, and a Macy's card
• Opened a Best Buy and a Kay credit card.

2013 so far: 

• Finally addressed my defaulted student loan.
• Consolidated my student loans and haven't missed any payments for almost a year.
• Slowly paid off my balance on all credit cards.
• Applied for an Auto Loan and was approved at a decent rate.

Future Goals:

• Research and obtain my first mortgage.
• Continue to improve my score by contacting WF/sending GW letter
• Continue to pay my student and car loans on time.

[ptilda]

I'm a latecomer, but better late than never, right?

Just found out after several years of being virtually silent & leaving my credit alone, I have much better credit than I anticipated. Ex hubby had demolished my credit about seven years ago. Currently I am working full-time, making well under $40K. In grad-school with over $100K in student loans & although they are deferred, I've been paying as I can. Recently married to a wonderful man who is not from the U.S., so he has no credit (or even a SSN yet) here.

I want to pursue getting a new-ish car in the next year

I want to get a good chunk out of my student loans next year.

This past week I was surprised at my FICO score, and got 4 small credit cards, 2 from retailers (Amazon & Walmart). Other than that, the student loans are the majority of my reports. I have 2 negatives on them, but am disputing both (for valid reasons). I also have an old account with a credit union that is out of town, but which I've had good experiences with & will try to see about getting another small (but slightly larger) personal loan just to put the money in the act & set up auto pmts to pay it back. Those are my current approaches, but I'm new at this, so I'm eager to learn!

[bethany]

3 points higher... little bit by little bit...

Your FICO® score has gone up to 648 on November 28, 2013.

[notfancy]

Hello all. I updated my signature, and I'll add my credit cards later this month once I have every thing a little more situated! I borrowed someone's very nice format from a few posts above.

Here's my journey:

Pre 2009

• Defaulted on a car loan
• lost my job
  
• ignored bills and debts.
  
• had my savings wiped out by a family member

2010-2012:

• Got a new car loan but had some lates. It is paid off and not reporting on my CBRs but I'm afraid to have it added due to lates
• Opened a secured Capital One card, and then an unsecured Cap One Card
• Went back to school and started a much needed career change

2013 so far: 

• Paid on student loans til I went back to school, now they are in deferment
• Haven't missed a single credit card payment
• found this forum
• working on opening a few new cards, which I have, and credit limit increases for the ones I have now

Future Goals:

• Get a new car loan
• Improve my scores by responsible credit use
• Maintain my watch on my credit scores and reports.
• Pay off my credit cards and obtain a Prime credit card such as Chase, Amex, Discover, etc

[OneDay_750]

Hello everyone.  I'm new to this site and although we're at the end of 2013, I'm looking forward to learning and contributing to this site for many years to come.

I have a 14-year credit history which is full of horror stories.  During most of my life I have not made responsible use of credit and have certainly paid for it.  I'm determined to reversing that course and getting things right overtime.  I have entered into a $14K debt settlement payment arrangement and have five mid-size collection debt that I'm working to correct.  Some of the derogatory items will begin to fall off in late 2014, but I have a long race to undo all the self-inflicted damage I have caused my credit report and FICO score.  I appreciate your encouragement and advice in advance.

[09Lexie]

You are all doing wonderful. Choosing to join myFICO and taking the fitness challenge is a great start to get your credit and finances under control.

[MrsPalombi]

I guess I'm a little late to the game, eh?

My husband and I have a goal; we want to purchase our first home by the end of 2014!

I'm currently deployed for work (as a civilian who works to serve our armed forces), to an undisclosed location in southwest Asia; as an incentive to deploy, my organization pays bonuses and you typically get a temporary promotion for the duration of your tour.

While I'm gone, my husband has moved in with some friends of ours who bought their first home this year, and we moved out of the condo we were renting.  Most of our stuff was put in storage, and he pays the utility bills at our friends' house where he is living.  Combine this with my temp promotion, bonuses, and the fact that room & board are covered for me for the year I'm gone, and we are making significant headway in our finances!

We have a combined total of $9830.51 in credit card debt, out of $20470; this puts us at a 48% credit utilization, needing to pay down about $3700 more to get to the 30% threshold.  I will be able to do this over the next 2 months, if not sooner!

Also, our Front End DTI is currently (if not counting my temporary job data, but falling back on my permanent grade & pay) at about 18% if we get a home in the price range we're looking at, which is about $200/month more than what we were previously paying for the condo rent (including principal, interest, taxes, & insurance).

Assuming the same, and keeping the same monthly debts we currently have, our Back End DTI would be 36%.  However, once the credit cards and my car are paid off 100%, the Back End DTI will be 26%!  At that point, all that will be left is my student loans!!

Anyway, the bad parts of my credit score are attributed to:

1 Medical collection from an annual well woman exam in October 2008 that was supposed to be covered by my health insurance (although the collection account itself states June 2012 on my credit report)

4 Late payments on Revolving Accounts (1 from late 2007, 3 from late 2009, 1 from late 2012)

1 Late payment in an Installment Account (a student loan account that never sent me a statement or bill! Early 2013 -- It has now been sold to ACS who thankfully has online access and regular statements).

So this is where I am No idea how to even start with disputing the medical collection or the late payment on installment account -- I tried disputing directly from the myFICO report, but it brings you to the individual CRA page, and they ask for a file number or report number - which I don't have, since I got my reports via myFICO!  Guess I'll have to pay separately to get them again through the individual CRA's; just wish I had known this before paying the $54.95 via myFICO.

[bethany]

Your FICO® score has gone up to 650 on December 6, 2013.

[TimoneilD]

Obviously starting crazy late for this year, but more than happy to begin again in 2014!  I started this year with no real knowledge of what my credit score must look like.  A bit of a nightmare when I finally had it figured.  I started lurking here and on Credit Karma and trying to get my back up and taking the plunge into Pandora's Box.  Well, it was worth than I thought, there were a number of derogatory marks on my credit report, any number of collections on there, among other things.  So many of them turned out to be rubbish and sure it was disheartening, but I figured there was no time like the present for getting my house in order.

Back in July, I started with a Capital One Platinum Mastercard (which I was shocked I could get), and I've been building my portfolio since.  My garden is now blossoming nicely.  I started with my annual credit report from all three reporting companies and this is where I found the carnage.  With that knowledge in hand, I went about settling some old debts and getting things back in order.  After about three weeks of struggling to get these reporting companies to take some debts that indeed weren't mine of my report, I then enrolled with a monitoring service (mint's pay one I believe it was), and went from there.

After the Platinum card, I got a couple preapprovals from Credit One and I knew I had to have a Walmart store card if for no other reason than getting a legit look at my TU score.  Now I've got luv from Cap One, Credit One, and Walmart, all within the last month or two, none of them asked for (all right, Credit Steps accounted for the Cap One CLI).  I got the Cap One card, the Credit One card (which added gas rewards a month after I got it, sweet), and the Walmart card all with a 566 pull from mint's report.  From there, it was time to utilize and pay every month and see what I could figure.

From then to now, I've just been putting in work, small purchases paid quickly and even with the Christmas season, the highest my utilization has been was around 47% (not ideal, but fixable at least).  It stands at 28% right now and dropping due to a recent app spree.  I knew it was time to start looking at other cards when CK kept popping up ads for average and good credit score cards rather than the usual secured cards.  I know CK's pull is a fairytale and it never went higher than 622 all that time.  It vascillated from 566 one month to 619 the next and all over the place in the interim.  While that was going on, Walmart's TU was telling me I was a steady 639-645.  The tri-score I was getting was telling me anywhere from Experian's 702 to TU's 450.  Boy was I confused!

In the last month, I finally went on the app spree I was dreaming of to kick things into high gear.  Best Buy MC (which I'm not enthused about on second read), Kohl's store card, Old Navy store card, Amazon store card, Playstation Visa, Target RED card, First Premier approved me (I didn't approve them!), Firestone store card, Barclay's rewards card, and a Vicky's store card too.  The idea behind all this is to find a home for the money I'm going to spend anyway, a home that will work for me in the meantime.  It's working splendidly!

Anyway, I say all that to say this: in the tailend of 2013 into 2014 big things are coming for my household!  I plan on utilizing for essentials, collecting rewards, paying in a timely manner and getting that score to where it belongs.  According to Walmart's TU I'm up to 633 from 566 just 7 months ago, so it's all good for now.  I'm aware that I'm going to take some hits from all the pulls (and there are a lot!), but in the next two years my wife and I want to buy a home and there's no time to waste in rebuilding that credit.  My goal for the coming weeks, months, and years is to get that mortgage, get our first new car, and start saving like madmen!

Thanks for reading my late night rant, and wish me luck in 2014!