WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST... A lot of information is freely shared on this board daily, which, in my opinion makes it one of the best boards on the net. I was thinking today that I need to make sure I thank the specific CreditNet people who have freely given me either advice or information, or both, on my credit journey in this past year. In October 2000, when I joined this board, my credit reports looked like this: 5-8 defaulted student loans (depending on the report) 3 paid charge offs 1 paid collection 1 subprime car loan, paid as agreed for 2 years 2 "closed by credit grantor" retail accounts, zero balance and multiple lates on one Providian $1650 limit, paid as agreed 2 years, maxxed out Capital One $500 limit, paid as agreed 1.5 years, maxxed out Household Bank (the subprime one) $300 limit, paid as agreed 5 months, maxxed out My credit score was probably around 534 at the time, though I am unsure. Today, my credit report looks like this: 1 Dept. of Ed loan. paid in full as agreed (no lates) 1 Dept. of Ed loan, in repayment as agreed (no lates) 2 subprime car loans, both paid in full as agreed (no lates) 1 retail account (Rich's) reopened at $200, now at $2500 10% ratio (2 old minor lates) AmEx personal charge (just opened) AmEx Blue at $5000 zero balance (just opened) Bank of America Plat. at $5000 zero balance (no lates) Capital One Plat. at $5100 zero balance (no lates) Chase Classic at $3000 10% ratio (no lates) Citibank Plat. Select at $9000 55% ratio due to BT offer (no lates) closed at my request with no lates - Providian and HHB. 1 inaccurate "closed by credit grantor" retail account (many wrong lates) My credit score, depending on the CRA, is now 660-690. I did a lot on my own , but I also had a lot of invaluable help on CreditNet and it would be wrong of me not to give honor where honor is due. Roni - although I knew about rehab prior to coming to the board, she told me to contact the Dept. of Education's Ombudsman's Office to assist me with getting the non-compliant original servicer of the loans to delete defaulted loan information. I followed her advice, they assisted me, and the tradelines are gone. Thank you, Roni. George and Momof3 - both through their discussions, alerted me to Cap One's habit of not reporting credit limits. That inspired me to formulate a letter to Cap One about this, which in turn, introduced me to the Consumer Advocate's Office and became the springboard which took me from a $500 limit card to the Platinum card in less that 9 months. Thank you, George and Momof3. Roni and Sam - inspired me through envy, plainly, to apply for the AA silver card. After a reconsideration I was approved for my first prime card(!), though I had a prior paid charge off with Citibank. Thank you, Roni and Sam. Envy, channeled in a proper way, can accomplish much good. Reshod - his post about Chase reconsideration inspired me to apply and get my own reconsideration and third prime card. Thank you, Reshod. Supershawn - his posts on how to buy/refinance cars got me thinking about how to refinance mine. Thank you, Supershawn. the other and lizardking - their posts about Generations Bank not reporting tradelines got me thinking of a roundabout way to get my car loan refinanced with them. Thank you the other and lizardking. Because of all three of these posters, my car went from 17% to 7.9% and is now hidden debt. Saar - his post about reconsideration via the MORE team for the AmEx Blue, and his provision of the phone number to call, resulted in me reaching my current credit goals. Thank you, Saar. And then, Bkev, for his advice on how to tackle my last negative item on the credit report. I know that your plan will work and you'll be the first to know when it is fixed. Thank you, Bkev. There are several other people on creditnet who've said things that got the ball rolling in indirect ways. I thank all of you as well. I also have tried to give back as much as I have taken, and I hope to continue to give back as long as I benefit from this board. No one mentioned here needs to respond to this post. I simply think that gratitude should be communicated and I want no one here to think I take any of your contributions for granted. The final person I want to thank is: PBM - for providing and faithfully administrating the platform by which all of the above is possible. Thank you, PBM.
Marci, you have come a long way and you have much to feel good about. Congrats on the accomplishments! and thanks for the mention - it feels good to know that I helped! ;-)
Thanks all for your support. LK - I actually opted for a car refi loan from Generations instead of the CC they offered me. The car loan doesn't report either and I'm thrilled about that. Breeze - I forgot to add you to the list wrt your AmEx Membership Rewards post. I won't pay $40 a year for it, but if they do offer me the free MR for one year followed by $15 a year - I'll take it. For this reason, I'm staying on AmEx's marketing list (I usually opt out on the CC sharing information choices) b/c I want to give them a chance to call me to get MR. So, if I get this offer, I have you to thank for giving me the 411.
