Here it was… March of 2014.
I’m sitting at my kitchen table wondering to myself how I can get my 2 children and me out of this small, 600 square foot apartment and into a place we could call our own?
My credit scores were low, I was swimming in credit card debt, and here I was- a 27-year-old young woman out of Chicago- working endlessly to save and survive.
I was puzzled. Wondering in what ways I can become a friend to every lender in the city to finally improve my life.
In case you do not know, your credit score is a three-digit number that shows your creditworthiness. On the FICO scale, having a score above 700 gives you better negotiation power to discuss with a lender.
But then, here I was with a score of 545, which was considered poor. Yikes!
Every time I approached a lender for a loan or credit card, they would run a credit check and slap with me high-interest rates and crappy terms, or give me the DENY.
I got sick and tired of it.
I just knew that I had to do something about my credit score if I really wanted to make my dream of homeownership a reality.
The first thing I had to do was to ask for my credit report. I desperately needed to review it and check it thoroughly to identify WHY my scores were so low.
And what I discovered was embarrassing…
I had several medical collections, late payments, and maxed out credit cards staring back at me from this 10+ page document that reminded me of how poor my money management really was. They were like credit score bandits, keeping me from my dreams.
So, I grabbed a highlighter and a pen and got to work immediately.
I started writing dispute letters to credit bureaus and creditors using the knowledge I had learned from scouring the internet and submerging myself into credit and financial education.
And then suddenly…
My credit score began to grow- and so did my excitement and confidence.
I started to see those credit bandits fall from my credit reports, and my scores were creeping their way up. I just knew that THIS was the answer to my financial woes.
I continued to indulge myself with more education and started to experience exponential growth with my credit scores.
I was able to raise my scores of 545 to 765 in 8 months. And I then leveraged my credit to pay off $31,804.21 of credit card debt in another 8 months- and I didn’t even have to make any more money.
