I came to the board about a year ago. Unfortunately, I did'nt know very much so I refinanced my home with a middle fico score of 560. I have since used the strategies on the board and have made a great deal of progress my middle fico score is now 668. If I had known then what I know now I would have had a much lower payment. But the savings grace is that I was able to get a SBA microloan of $5000.00 just on my little old signature. I never woud have thought it was possble for me. But, I guess the biggest plus is that I am sooooo much more responsible now about credit. My friends think I'm geeky b/c I love talking about utilization and such. I owe a lot of people on the board so I am pleased to use this opportunity to say"THANKS!"