How I Went from 417 to 555 Credit Score While Battling Addiction and Seeking Financial Stability

A Reddit user posted to share her story about overcoming addiction and improving her credit score. She both explained how she took steps to rebuild her credit and asked if she should sign up for a specific kind of credit builder credit card. 

Let’s take a look at the steps the poster took to start fixing her finances, as well as what she should do next. 

How the Reddit user was able to improve her credit score

The Redditor explained that she used to have a 780 credit score, but when her dad passed away suddenly as a result of addiction, she started going down the same life path that he had. She began drinking a lot, lost multiple jobs, and got deeply into credit card debt. She lost her vehicle, and she ended up with seven collections on her credit report from all different sources, including unpaid credit cards, bank bills, and medical bills.

Eventually, she realized that she did not want to continue down that path, and she began to turn her life around. She repaid $20,000 of what she owed despite the fact that she wasn’t making a lot of money, and she managed to get most of the collections off her credit record. She has one collection left, and she was able to bring her credit score up as a result. While her score had fallen all the way to 417, she was able to bring it back up to 555. 

She knows she still has a long way to go, though, and she’s looking for advice on what to do next. She has one secured credit card and isn’t sure if she should get another one or how she can continue to improve her credit score score even more. 

How the Redditor can continue improving her credit

Since the poster already has a secured credit card, there’s not really a reason for her to get another secured card. Each secured card requires you to deposit money with the creditor in an amount equal to your credit line, so she’d be tying up funds she could otherwise use to pay off her last collection. Since she would just get another credit card by doing this, and not a different kind of credit, this wouldn’t benefit her enough to be worthwhile. 

Instead, she should focus on trying to deal with the last past due debt she has. Her best bet is to save as much as possible so she can offer the creditor a lump sum payment and see if she can negotiate a deal where she pays them at least some of the money she owes and they remove the negative information from her credit record. Getting the collection off would likely have a huge positive impact on her credit score.

If she wants to do more to improve her credit situation, she should look into applying for different kinds of credit, rather than for another secured card. Some lenders, especially credit unions, offer credit builder loans where you essentially make payments to the lender for the amount you want to borrow first before gaining access to the loan funds. People with bad credit can get approved for these loans easily since there’s no risk to the lender, and it helps them establish a positive payment record with an installment loan as well as a credit card.

The Redditor also indicated she has a fiancé with great credit. If he was willing, he could list her as an authorized user on one of his credit cards with a long positive payment history. This account would then show up on her credit report, helping her boost her score.

The good news is, the poster has already done a lot to turn her life around, so she should hopefully continue to improve her credit over time even without taking these extra steps. Still, if she wants to get her score up ASAP, these steps could go a long way towards making that happen for her so she can move forward to a brighter financial future. 

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