Have you progressed as far as you hoped? Were there any unforeseen expenses that cropped up and may have thrown you off schedule?
As a reminder, participation in these monthly check-ins is optional but encouraged. The goal is to help keep you on track, so feel free to post your progress updates here. This is a no-judgement zone; feel free to say what's keeping you up at night or give yourself a Kudo for having it all together.
Did you hit any potholes or speedbumps? Achieve some milestones, either small or mighty? Change your goals or add new ones?
Let us know how you're doing!
Another page turned on the calendar, another month of gardening… and my FICO 8 picked up about 15 points once I hit 0/12.
I am still looking for a cash back rewards Visa to use at Costco. Venmo offered me six months double cash back. The only thing holding me back from applying for that is not wanting to deal with Synchrony. Decisions, decisions.
Very little change on my March 1 3B pull. My FICO 8 scores are exactly what they were a month ago. That's good news.
After watching scores drop by an average of 0.45 points on Jan 1 and 9.625 points on Feb 2, I actually see a tiny increase on the 40 FICO score average of 0.15 today.
I paid off a big BT card where the 0% period was ending. To do that I had to leave small balances on multiple cards. I paid the previous month's balance on each so I wouldn't have to pay interest, but didn't pay them down to $0. So my utilization is a little lower at 2%, but my number of cards with balances is way up from where it was. No problem. These are small balances that will get back to zero when the next statements hit. I expect things to look much better on April 1, unless I buy a new pickup this month, which is a strong possibility.
Starting Score: EQ8 680, TU8 713, EX8 701
Well, I haven't really checked the forums up until last week. I fell off the saddle a bit. With some expected (and unexpected) medical bills on top of house repairs, I racked up some CC debt. I realize once I started paying less attention to my scores and finances, I started to slip. Also had some issues of trying to "escape", if you know what I mean.
Either way, doing much better now. Back on the saddle getting totally reorganized. Life happens. For me it helps to be hyper focused on my scores/finances lol. Need to pay off ~10k in debt. Nothing has been late at all, thankfully, just dealing with some high utilization. Amex and Chase reduced some limits. Need to update my sig.
Also, my negative info on Chex fell off, so I'm not limited with bank accounts anymore. I've been using PenFed but just set up a checking with USAA. Will likely switch over to there, as PenFed is painfully slow. Also managed to grab USAA rate advantage card for a BT to help pay off debt quicker.
Cheers to moving forward!
I hit 850 on EX F8 this morning. I really have no explanation as to why it happened. I was at 849 for the past several months. I allowed one of my Chase cards to report a balance of 29% knowing I was going to pay it off a few days later. My scored dropped from 849 to 840. I expected it to rebound back to 849. My morning routine is to look through my CC mobile apps to ensure no funny business and to check my credit at EX, MF and CK. When I opened EX, I was shocked and delighted to see 850.
I now have two scores at 850. I'm not holding my breath on EQ getting there any time soon, so I am still going to take a run at that biz card offer from my bank through Elan in the upcoming week.
Happy March everyone!
I hope the longer days bring your credit cause for celebration on St. Patrick's Day, and not cause for concern on the Ides of March. 
Very inspiring to see everyone else's updates - @SeaProbe congrats on your FICO 8 +15 increase, @CorpCrMgr1 interesting DP about the timing of your -4 drop, @mgood congrats on paying off your big BT card and I'm with you on 0 change in CS this month, @Chazzay12 welcome back to regular monitoring (which I also find very helpful), and finally @Junejer big congrats on +1 hitting 850 EX F8!!!
My March has been great. It's been 6 months since my last app spree, so it was time to request CLI increases - I received an automatic CLI on 1 card (Chase Freedom Flex Mastercard from $7.5K to $11.6K), successfully requested a CLI on 2 cards (Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa Signature from $6.7K to $8K, and TJX Platinum Rewards Mastercard from $1.8K to $3K), unsuccessfully requested a CLI on 1 card (Amex Cash Magnet asked from $28K to $40K which in retrospect may have been too ambitious and I will ask for $5K CLI next time), and did not request a CLI on 1 card (TD Cash Rewards at $6K since I opened it 6 months ago after my last TD Cash Rewards was closed earlier that month due to inactivity, so with TD being generally more conservative and always doing a HP for CLI requests, I didn't want to push it this time around). So, this month my TCL increased from $50K to $56.6K, woo-hoo! 
That said, my FICO scores have not yet moved since joining the MyFICO Fitness Challenge last month. My other metrics have remained unchanged - I always PIF, and I almost always maintain balance below 30%. So I guess I will just have to wait a few more weeks to see the effect of these CLIs on my credit scores?
Here are my overal March stats:
- CS: [FICO 8] 753 EX, 766 EQ, 774 TU (no changes)
- TCL: $56.6K (+6.6K)
- CCs: 5 active, 2 closed due to inactivity
- Payment history: Exceptional (100% accounts always paid as agreed)
- Amount of debt: Exceptional (2% UTIL)
- Length of credit history: Fair (AAoA 3 years, 4 months; AoOA: 6 years, 3 months)
- Amount of new credit: Fair (Age of Most Recent Account 6 months; Number of Recent Inquiries 3)
- Credit mix: Exceptional (7 Revolving Accounts / 7 Bank-Issued CC Accounts)
I would love to hear if anyone has advice on how I can improve my FICO fitness, esp. in the "Fair" categories above. Thank you in advance for any advice!
[Mar. 2024]
@credit_economist wrote:Happy March everyone!
I hope the longer days bring your credit cause for celebration on St. Patrick's Day, and not cause for concern on the Ides of March.
Very inspiring to see everyone else's updates - @SeaProbe congrats on your FICO 8 +15 increase, @CorpCrMgr1 interesting DP about the timing of your -4 drop, @mgood congrats on paying off your big BT card and I'm with you on 0 change in CS this month, @Chazzay12 welcome back to regular monitoring (which I also find very helpful), and finally @Junejer big congrats on +1 hitting 850 EX F8!!!
My March has been great. It's been 6 months since my last app spree, so it was time to request CLI increases - I received an automatic CLI on 1 card (Chase Freedom Flex Mastercard from $7.5K to $11.6K), successfully requested a CLI on 2 cards (Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa Signature from $6.7K to $8K, and TJX Platinum Rewards Mastercard from $1.8K to $3K), unsuccessfully requested a CLI on 1 card (Amex Cash Magnet asked from $28K to $40K which in retrospect may have been too ambitious and I will ask for $5K CLI next time), and did not request a CLI on 1 card (TD Cash Rewards at $6K since I opened it 6 months ago after my last TD Cash Rewards was closed earlier that month due to inactivity, so with TD being generally more conservative and always doing a HP for CLI requests, I didn't want to push it this time around). So, this month my TCL increased from $50K to $56.6K, woo-hoo!
That said, my FICO scores have not yet moved since joining the MyFICO Fitness Challenge last month. My other metrics have remained unchanged - I always PIF, and I almost always maintain balance below 30%. So I guess I will just have to wait a few more weeks to see the effect of these CLIs on my credit scores?
Here are my overal March stats:
- CS: [FICO 8] 753 EX, 766 EQ, 774 TU (no changes)
- TCL: $56.6K (+6.6K)
- CCs: 5 active, 2 closed due to inactivity
- Payment history: Exceptional (100% accounts always paid as agreed)
- Amount of debt: Exceptional (2% UTIL)
- Length of credit history: Fair (AAoA 3 years, 4 months; AoOA: 6 years, 3 months)
- Amount of new credit: Fair (Age of Most Recent Account 6 months; Number of Recent Inquiries 3)
- Credit mix: Exceptional (7 Revolving Accounts / 7 Bank-Issued CC Accounts)
I would love to hear if anyone has advice on how I can improve my FICO fitness, esp. in the "Fair" categories above. Thank you in advance for any advice!
Hi @credit_economist. I have a few observations and a couple of questions. Question: What are your individual card utilization percentages? Question: Do you have any open installment loans? Observations: Amount of new credit and Length of credit history-no new credit apps. Allow your AAoA to age and let the INQs age to one year. You'll get some points when the INQs age at one year and a score bump (all other things remaining equal) when your youngest card reaches a year. I'm not 100% sure what the AAoA threshold is, but I'd imagine five years should get a point boost.