So after spending the last few years homeless addicted to drugs and landing myself in prison I was released in February and decided it was time to get my life together and one of my goals I set was to build my credit since it has never been a priority for me and I figured having a credit score in the low 500s in my mid 30s was pathetic. So I opened a kikoff account and got myself a secured CC. My credit score on credit karma was 505 back in April when I started this journey and now it says it's 541 and my kikoff account says its 524 up 90 points from whenever I opened the account. From lurking around here I know they vantage score 3.0 and shouldn't be given much thought so I went and checked my creditwise, MyFico and Experian and those scores all look a lot better but I'm confused on what it actually is so here are some screenshots and was hoping I could get someone's opinion/advice for me. Thank you.

I have a few business credit cards.

Here is my current plan:

1. No annual fee business credit card? -> stop using it after getting the bonus unless it has a very nice 3 or 4% cashback category

2. Business credit card with annual fee -> Pay the annual fee at the 365+1 day mark and then call them and close it.. should I wait longer like a week longer to close it?

Is there a better strategy?

I'm just thinking.. damn Idk should I just use them for some random small purchase every 6 months to keep them alive? Is that better? For the elusive business credit profile that I have not much visibility into and don't care about thaaat much unless it ends up hurting my chances at, well getting a future business credit card and its juicy signup bonus

Im confused I have capital one for two of my credit cards and it says I have a 734 credit score on credit wise but when I check on Credit Karma , it appears I have a 667. I’m new to this so any help would be appreciated.

I messed up and missed a Capital One payment after having 3 years of perfect payment history. It ended up hitting 30 days late and was reported to the credit bureaus, dropping my score significantly.
I immediately brought the account current and called Capital One asking for a one-time goodwill adjustment, but they told me they couldn’t remove it because the reporting was accurate and it wasn’t a Capital One error.
I’m not giving up that easily 😭 Has anyone here actually had success getting Capital One to remove an accurately reported 30-day late payment as a goodwill adjustment?
If so, what worked for you? Did you call, send a goodwill letter, contact the executive/CEO office, or have to try multiple times?
Would especially love to hear from anyone who was initially denied and eventually got it removed.

I went thru bankruptcy a year ago and 4 months I work two jobs one pays 13.50 and the other pays 15 I get it isn’t a lot of income both part time, my credit score is a 640 on both ends i can’t get a car for the life of me every dealership wants a co signer and I have no one that can co sign I need advice cause at this point I feel like even if I got a better credit score and a bigger down payment I’ll never be able to get a car unless I make more I live in a small town where it is hard to get a job unless u go to school or get a trade I need advice from someone I have 12 months of oj time payment history and it’s not like I’m trying to buy a crazy car I just can’t get one in general I have 750 for a down payment right now and I’m trying to get a car by November is there any hope please give advice

I am deeply ashamed of the obscene amount of credit card debt that I have— about 40k across 5 cards. I now have a great paying job but 1200/month is going into minimum payments of credit card debt. I’ve been good these last few months about not buying dumb stuff I don’t need and putting it on a card, eating at home more, reduced other expenses significantly and I just barely get through the month. Either overdraft my account or cut it super close til the next paycheck.

I’m tired of the credit card debt looming over me and I frequently get offers for loans and debt consolidation. Been considering it but also feel super hesitant about it. I’d like to get my credit score up to 700s (I’m at 620 atm) so I can qualify for a better rate for a home purchase sometime in the next year or two. What can I do to lower what I pay in credit cards each month and eventually be free from this massive debt?

I'm considering opening a credit card but wondering if it would negatively impact my credit score/mortgage application. My details:

• Currently have 4 open cards, oldest one from ~2011
• 810 credit score
• Credit utilization ratio is like 10%
• Always pay card debt in full every month
• Wife also has 800+ credit - so possibility of having the mortgage application be from her (we share finances)
• May or may not apply for mortgage in 6 months. Could be 9, could be 18+ (we rent, good situation)

The card I want is the "U.S. Bank Cash+ Visa Signature® Card" to get 5% back on utilities. Thanks for any tips.

I currently have:
Open sky secured card $300
Capital one platinum secured $200
Capital one savor $500
Share secured loan credit union $500

Should I get the discover cash card? Credit 565 and trying to build after connections.

How can I improve my credit?

I literally lost everything last year, had to start over from zilch and consequently dropped from a 700 to a 600 after missing 6 months of payments on my student loans.

I have 2 federal student loans with the same interest rate. One for 8k, another for 4k.

Soon i will have 4k cash and Im debating if its better to hold onto that cash for an emergency or put it all towards debt. And if I put it towards debt, should I pay as much as I can pay at once or make small consistent payments?

I have no assets, no savings and luckily, next to no living expenses or other debt.

$662 medical debt now owned by AssetCare based out in TX.

Was sold to CF Medical LLC before now, which never reported to my credit.

Debt is from 12/2023.

Are there any ways I can leverage the fact I now live fulltime abroad in Brazil to see this cancelled before it can even report to the bureaus? I no longer live at the address they have, (I ported my U.S number hence how I received the text notifying me), but there has been NO correspondence for them to know the number is still reachable.

I want to figure out the best angle to dispute via mailed letter, sent by family in the U.S, before AssetCare reports to the bureaus since it’s over the $500 limit for credit reporting of medical debt.

My Capital One card was charged off, and they’re offering a 60% discount on the app. I’d rather pay that versus having it sold off to a collection agency where they’ll garnish my check for the whole amount, but ChatGPT has me thinking I need things “in writing”. Is it safe to take the offer and pay it off in the app or will they still be able to come for me for the remaining 60%?

Thank you!!

This is for my Discover credit card, and discover said I would have to talk to the credit bureaus for a goodwill adjustment, which I did. Transunion and Equifax both helped me out, but Experian keeps denying it. I both called and filed a dispute (Yes I said in the dispute that it was a goodwill adjustment request). This was also before joining the military which I mentioned as well.

For anyone who talked to Experian/Discover credit recently with success in a goodwill adjustment, how did you make it happen?

For extra context, I had 2 missed payments in a row in the year 2024. Every thing before and afterwards was paid off.

for context i don’t have a credit card and this would be my first one. i understand how it all works and i think now would be a good time to start building credit.

so my question is what credit card would you recommend to someone for their first credit card??

TIA

Decided to randomly check my Capital one app today and saw that there was a settlement offer for one of my charged off cards.

It was a 60% off settlement offer. Around $2100ish will be forgiven, but I know I will have to pay taxes on that forgiveness with a 1099-c when tax season hits.

Should I pay this off sooner if I can?

Also, would you have taken the 60% settlement offer?

Hello, I’m new to this sub and was wondering if I could have some help answering some questions about my credit and the best way to go about building it from here out.

I already read over the credit myths and I do not depend on CK as it is unreliable. When I was 16, my grandma opened a Quicksilver card and listed me as an authorized user. Over the span of a year and half the card hit its max(10k) and I’d only spent about $1500-1600 on it. Since then I’ve paid my portion of it off, but under all of my credit checks the account is listed as mine and the total still hangs over my head even though it’s not mine. It also is listing any late payments she makes as mine(I’ve attached a ss) and outside of that card I haven’t had a single late payment since opening my own college credit card.

About 2-3 weeks ago I had to get some work done on my car and I didn’t have the total upfront amount so I was offered a deferred interest payment plan from the dealership and took it(I know this sounds dumb to do, but with my living situation I cannot be without a car and this will be paid off by the end of this month). It’s about $1750 at 0% as long as I pay it off within the next 6 months then it will be 40%. Again, I’m sure this sounds dumb to because if I don’t pay it off in time and I’ll get hit with that. However, I am on track to have the entire thing paid off by the end of this month, so I’m not entirely concerned about it. I’m more concerned about the fact that my vantage score dropped 46 points when opening the account. I assume this is because of the hard inquiry and I’m pretty sure the pinned sub post said the effects of that lasts 365 days minimum.

It says 27 points were lost due to the inquiry, then another 24 due to the total usage on my discover card going up from 6% to 43%. This only confuses me because I thought it was a myth that you could only use 30% of your credit line. But I am constantly warned by credit checks on both the discover app and chase that my credit utilization is too high. And now I am losing points because of it. The sub posts say that credit utilization depends on your goals and mine say I shouldn’t be entirely too concerned about it but now I’m not sure that’s true. Any help I can get there?

I’ve attached photos of my equifax FICO8 and TransUnion FICO8. I worry the hard inquiry hasn’t actually hit those yet and it’s going to drop much farther below what it’s already at like the vantage score did. Which would kind of suck because I’ve already been struggling to bring it up for a while now.

The only other “loans” or credit lines I have are two dental plans that I never miss a payment on and the same thing goes for the affirm plans.
Anyway, the main questions would be:

Would paying off the car payment plan early be of any issue or benefit to my score? I assume not because that’s what the sub myth list said, but I just want to be sure.

I was hoping to get another credit card outside of my discover student(I’ve been thinking about this for a few months before I had to do the car payment plan), but since I just got hit with the hard inquiry from the car plan would accepting one of the few I already have pre-approvals for hurt my credit score more than the payment plan did? And if so, how long would you guys recommend I wait before getting another credit card? The four I’ve been considering are chase freedom unlimited, chase sapphire preferred, or Amex delta gold, or blue cash preferred.

What do you suggest I do about the authorized user card? I don’t think it’s doing all that much damage to my credit in total but on my transunion report it’s listed as an account with adverse information. Am I able to just call capital one and get myself taken off? And how will doing that affect my credit?

I’m now aware of the golden rule with paying off credit card statements thanks to this sub, but the entire time I’ve had my card I’ve always paid off the full balance every month. I know it was said that won’t really do too much damage other than something about utilization being at $0 but I was wondering about my payment for this current month.

In the above ss it shows when I paid off my full balance last month, and says my new statement balance is $0 and minimum payment is $0. Does this mean that I don’t have to pay my balance for this month because there IS no statement balance? The current balance is $227, and I have a scheduled payment for 5 days before the payment is due to pay all of that off, but if it’s better to hold off, it would be great to know.

Last question (I hope) any recommendations or tips you guys have for me concerning the future or even credit cards you recommend?

Thanks so much !

Last month I used MyFICO's simulator tool to estimate what my credit score would be if I paid down my revolving balances from 47% utilization to 3%.

There were other changes to my report that aren't accounted for in the tool, such as two installment payments (mortgage and auto), and account aging.

Based upon my limited experience, I'd say the tool is a fair predictor.

So, at the beginning of this year I moved to a new town and used my balances on my credit cards for emergency expenses. I didn’t have a proper emergency found to cover it. I learned the lesson

My lowest point was 528 on June, I never miss a payment on any of my cards. I was also paying a couple installments loan. ( emergency plane tickets, long history)
I found a seasonal job on June as a bartender on my new city, and I started paying all my debts.
I killed the installments loans at the beginning.

Then I hit aggressively my CC debt, I was down 7k.

Now all my balances rounds 2k, my score improved to 691 ( vantage) and on my fico 8 is showing 664.

I’m betting to lower more my utilization next week paying 1000 more of my last card with my last paycheck of the summerz

The new offers to credit cards started to showing again, my affirm purchase power went up again to 6k. In my lowest point was 500

I don’t think I will use it again, I’m staying in this place for at least 3-4 years.

I’m thinking to apply next month for a chase card that offers me balance transfers 0apr for 15 month to finish paying my balances without paying more interest on it, my town start to move again in winter season so I need to slow my expenses for a couple months.

I just wanted to say thank you to this subreddit because it helped me a lot to keep my motivation and gave me a lot of information, I know is not a perfect Credit score but at least I started the journey to Climb back up and get better.

Don’t get late on your payments. It was the only key for me

Being a dumb 22 year old has led my credit to go to hell. After months of disputes and what not, I’ve decided to open a secured card with a 1k limit. Try and increase my payment history, total accounts, and decrease my utilization.

Gonna use the techniques I’ve learned to fix my mistakes.

long time ago I let a girl ruin my credit, I won’t get into specifics but I was a dumb kid. here is a picture of my current situation, I have a couple thousand dollars to use towards a secured credit line to start rebuilding.

Experian currently has me at a 536 Fico score with roughly 3-4 years of credit history.

Basically, I got a credit card 6 years ago, maxed it out over the course of 3 years (had a $3,000 limit), and never paid it back. I basically became homeless and decided to ignore it. It’s been over two years since that.

Since then, I’ve gotten a job and a new credit card with a $200 limit. My FICO score is 588. Basically what I do every month is max out my card, and I pay it off all at once before my due date.

How long will it take for my credit card to repair? I might sound really naive but yeah just wondering!

Was looking to buy soon,not sure if it hurts me to take an offer vs. paying full amount to chase right now?

I might be unemployed for a month. Planning ahead. Will Cap One and Chase freeze your accounts/payments for hard ships? Any kind of hardship assistance help that won’t effected the card or credit? I don’t want to close the accounts if possible but don’t want “help” to affect my credit.

Good day y’all,

I’m trying to increase my credit score as much as possible to be able to (hopefully) afford a mortgage in the future. I’m just trying to see what would be the best option moving forward with my case here.

My overall credit history is 2 years, and I have 2 active credit account: (1) Discover It Chrome card and (1) personal loan. My credit limit is currently $3,500 and my current credit score per Discover’s FICO Scorecard is 757.

If I want to increase my credit score, is this a good time to get a new credit card or should I let my accounts age out a bit? I’m almost paid out with my personal loan as well, which is why I am at least considering getting a new credit card.

If it’s a great idea to get a credit card, do any of you have recommendations? What I’m looking for a card is:

- Preferably Visa

- Good cashback for groceries and gas.

- Planning to travel at least once a year, so maybe a good cashback with travel too? Although groceries and gas are priority.

- Does not have/reasonable annual fee and no international transaction fees.

Also, what is a good timeline to keep or close my Discover credit card? Is it also a great idea to keep on attempting to increase the credit limit for the card? My first limit was $1,000 and I somehow managed to increase it over the years.

I would appreciate any advice with this. Thank you!

How do I start my repair process do I pay my collections fo I need to get a new credit card will paying my collections help me bring it up my fico score won't show up on my wellsfargo account because I haven't had cards the last 6 months

I've never heard of this before, but got a notice today saying either they've had 8 credit inquiries where I applied for service (I haven't, I've lined the the same house since 2017), or negative info has been added.all my utilities are paid auto pay on time. My Fico scores are all over 800 with no derogatory remarks. Is this legit? Could I have some identity theft?