Take the offer or leave it?

Jul 072010
 

It’s been a while since I have been on the forum. I need some help or direction. I am currently recovering from bankruptcy which I claimed almost 3 years ago as a result of a car accident and losing a job all in 5 months of eachother. I started to rebuild my credit with several credit cards and was doing well till I yet again lost my job about two years ago. I joined a credit counseling service and have been seeing results, I also live within my means the best I can and sometimes work part time. My score went from the 400′s to my current score of 565. I recently just paid off my car as well which will hopefully increase my score. Now to the important part, I got a credit offer in the mail and have been wanting to get a card to help when I travel ( I had my bank card stolen a while back and ever since been real worried about traveling with it). Should I take the offer? I know it’s not the best but with my credit and credit offerings in general being low to nill these days I am entertaining the thought. Here are the details of the offer:

 

$700 limit

23.9% PAR

one time processing fee of $25

1st year annual fee $175, paid in full one time

Yearly annual fee of $174.00 paid monthly at $14.50

cash advance fee $5.00 or 3% of the amount taken whichever is greater

Late fee $29.00 for $500 balance, $35 for balances over $500

Return Item fee $29

 

I am scared to think about a new credit card cause you never know what could happen. I don’t want to be in the position I was in the past. Lose a job and be stuck with bills and work hard just to barley keep a float.

 

Thanks ahead of time for support and suggestions.

Too late doomed for life?

Mar 032010
 

We were discharged from bankruptcy in Feb 2005.  Everything was going just swell!  We rebuilt the credit, scores were improving month-to-month and we were proud of ourselves for getting back in the game and having a better chance at purchasing a home.  WELL, December 2008 I had a back injury that put me out of work.  Unfortunately hubby is a truck driver and of course business and income is cut by half from October thru March.  Man do I wish we would have been prepared for a crisis like this.  So ashamed that it happened this way.  So of course we went back into debt but what really ticks me off is I invested in the CC protection in case we had a set back but didnt read the fine print.  I called all my creditors and can you believe they would not cover us in our dilema.

 

Well we ended up getting evicted from our co-op in July 2008 due to late payments and our van repossesed.  We sat down with a quote/unquote specialist who told us we were, “doomed for life” because we now have a bankruptcy, eviction, repo and CC debt on our credit. But he could help us for a small fee by getting the debt removed from our credit reports for the low price of $1500 (yea right).  Not gonna fall for the okie doke! Although I believed him when he told me this in Feb 2009, in 2010 I refuse to believe that there isn’t anything that I can possibly do to turn this around.

 

Which brings me to today!  We have done well hiding some of our struggle from our son but he will be graduating high school in 3 months and wants to go to college.  He is so excited and motivated so much so, that he has inspired me to get off my can and start tackling these credit issues again.  myFico family where do I start?  Or have I truly met death by debt?

Please Believe!

Jan 282010
 

Hello Everyone, I just really wanted to say thank you! When I started my quest of credit repair last Feb 2009 I had EQ and TU scores of 550.  I was actually minutes away from bankruptcy cause I figured there was no hope for me. When I entered college I didn;t realize the importance of credit and I got credit cards and cell phones at acted foolishly. But this site helped me realize that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that with hard work and the right info you can clear your credit. So after PFD’s GW’s and rehabbing my student loan I got an alert today saying that my EQ fico is 776! I almost fainted lol.. I’m still waiting for my dispute to be complete for TU and EX (TU is now 709 but it still has to update for my student loan and EX I don’t know) So to all of you that are rebuilding and praying for that day that you have Fair, to Good, to GREAT credit, that day could be here soon! And sooner then you think, good luck!

 

 

550 EQ to 776 EQ in 1 year!