I’m honestly feeling overwhelmed and looking for advice from people who have been in a similar situation or know how to get out of it.
Over the past 2–3 months, I’ve been relying heavily on credit cards to survive after losing my job. With bills, everyday expenses, and everything else piling up, I kept using credit to get by, and now I’m sitting at around $18,000 in credit card debt.
I know I need to make a change, and I don’t want this situation to get any worse. I’m trying to figure out how to catch up on my bills, get my finances under control, and aggressively pay off this debt once I’m back on my feet.
I feel like everything happened so quickly. I went from trying to keep up with my regular expenses to depending on credit cards just to make it through the month. Now I’m worried about interest, minimum payments, and how long it’s going to take me to recover financially.
For anyone who has been through something similar, I’d really appreciate your advice.
What should I prioritize first when I’m behind on bills and carrying a lot of credit card debt?
Should I focus on paying the minimums on every card while aggressively paying off one at a time, or is there a better strategy?
Are there any hardship programs, balance transfer options, or other resources I should look into?
What are some realistic ways to increase my income quickly so I can start making a serious dent in this debt?
If you’ve paid off $15,000–$20,000 or more in credit card debt, how did you do it, and how long did it take?
I’m not looking for judgment because I already know I need to make changes. I’m looking for practical advice, strategies that actually work, and some hope that I can get out of this hole.
My goal is to get stable again, stop relying on credit cards, and pay this debt off as aggressively as possible. I’m ready to make sacrifices and put in the work. I just need help figuring out where to start.
Thank you to anyone willing to share their experience or advice. ❤

Also, my credit age is off for some reason…. I’ve been having credit cards for the past 5+ years.

Hi all. Asking for help to boost my credit. I’m currently 21, I like some ignorant 18 year olds messed up my credit at 18. It’s currently 517, I have no collections of $1,318. I need help on how to get it to a 700 as soon as possible. Just would like some advice of what some have done. Should I try to fix it myself or should I pay someone to fix it. TIA

Hi all. I bought a house. Payments on time for a year. The mortgage company just put a weird remark on my report. It says as follows,

Account previously in dispute - Now resolved by data furnisher Fannie Mae account

I have no idea what that means. The only 2 things I can think of, 4 months ago I got injured. I was out of work I simple asked customer service if there was any hardship programs. I printed the paperwork but I NEVER SUBMITTED. I was able to make all payments and not missed.

The other thing I can think, is I just removed escrow on my account. There was no dispute, they simply removed it and I am currently waiting for my escrow deposit. Again, not sure that has anything to do with it. But I’m completely confused.

Any thoughts?

Is it.. still worth it to request higher limits on your business credit cards to improve your business credit card applications down the line? Or does that hurt your odds at biz credit cards down the line?

I requested and received a limit increase on my amex 2% business credit card to around 20k

And then I wondered about the above

I had 3 accounts sent to collections back in 2020–2021 because I missed payments while dealing with some health issues and being overseas. I’ve since paid everything off (around 2021), but the collections are still showing up on my credit report and seem to be hurting my score. I’m struggling to get my credit score above 700.

I recently checked AnnaulCreditReport.com and noticed I can dispute these records through Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

Since everything has been paid off, is it worth disputing the collections to try to get them removed from my credit report? And do I need to dispute them with all 3 credit bureaus, or should I start with just one?

Would really appreciate any advice from anyone who’s been through this.

Has anyone ever paid their collection through true accord? and if so, do they remove it from your credit report or just mark it as paid?

Currently in a rebuild and starting to receive so offers in the mail. Was wondering if anyone has gotten this offer or has this card and can possibly leave a review on it.

It’s almost been a year since I got my first credit card, the Discover it Chrome. I wanted the Discover it Cash Back, but I think as a first credit card you couldn’t get that.
Now that I'm getting close to having the card for a year, I'm trying to figure out what would be the best move for both building my credit and maximizing cash back.
I'm considering two options:
Product change my Chrome to the Discover it Cash Back.
Apply for a second card (the Discover it Cash Back) and keep my Chrome open.
I've read that opening a second card can temporarily lower your score because of the hard inquiry and new account, but it can also help build a thicker credit profile over time. I've also heard that it's generally better to have multiple revolving accounts rather than just one.
I'm not planning on taking out a major loan anytime soon, so I'm more concerned about building a strong credit profile long-term and getting the most rewards possible.
Would it make more sense to apply for the second card once my Chrome reaches 12 months, especially if I could get the first-year Cashback Match? Or would product-changing be the smarter move?
I'd appreciate any advice!!

Hey yall I am trying to improve my credit for a mortgage eventually haha
Where I'm starting
• Experian FICO 8 is 529, which is my lowest score. Equifax is 593 and Transunion is 586 
• Chapter 7 was discharged in 2018.
• I have 7 charge-offs from 2024. All are now paid, settled or sold to collections. Two of them I've paid and am waiting on the update.
• My most recent late payment on any account was a 30-day late in January 2025 on an auto loan (Avid Acceptance), now paid and closed. I sent a goodwill letter, and they approved it, so I'm watching for it to come off. Nothing in the last 21 months is a new late.
• I have 8–9 collections on my reports, about $8,200–$9,000 total.
• 4 are paid, and I'm waiting for them to update to be deleted per agreement
• I'm working to pay and have them delete the other 5 by the end of the year.
What's reporting positively
• A Self credit-builder loan
• Rental payments through Buildium
• A small phone bill through Credit Karma
Cards: I only have a Mission Lane unsecured card with a $1,000 limit. I just got it, and it hasn't started reporting yet. I plan to use it lightly, keeping the balance under 10% of the limit and paying off in full.
Oh & I have a student loan 17,864 in good standing but plan to pay $177 a month as my forbearance plan is ending from my understanding
My question: I just became a Navy Federal member. Should I open their secured card or do the pledge loan in December to start a relationship with them and work toward an unsecured card? I plan to apply for the mortgage in maybe in June, so I want to avoid anything that would hurt me but want to work to rebuild and have access to higher tier CCs

I used to have good credit (low-800s). Then some stuff happened and it tanked, bigly. I managed to square away my delinquent account back in January, and haven't held any lines of credit since.

Decided to check my credit score to see where I was at. Experian says I'm "unscorable," Transunion has me at 594, and Equifax reports 648.

I tried applying for a secured credit card at my credit union, but they denied me.

Cursory research says a credit builder loan is a good way to improve my credit, but it sounds like I'd basically just be paying money for 12–24 months. And while I'd eventually get that money back, in the meantime it'd just be sitting in the ether. I don't really have that money to spend. And, more to the point, I'm in my mid-50s. I'd really prefer to not have to wait two years before I start to see improvement in my credit score?

I was hoping to just get a credit card to put my current monthly subscriptions on and autopay it so that my credit could slowly rebuild itself while actually still doing something with my money, but if I can't even get a secured card I don't know what else there is.

Is a credit builder loan my only option? How can I rebuild my credit without having to just pay a few grand and wait a few years for it to happen?

Hello! I just got a Credit score after getting a credit card. My score shows at 614 and i know it’s a rather thin one at that . I’m 22 and I just want some advice on how I can build my credit score so I can be secure and safe. My main goal is to get a good score to help me get a good interest rate for a car. My card is a capital one card with a 300 limit is what I have as of right now.

just trying to see if these are accurate scores

My kids are 15 and 9. I need a card that will help them build credit as authorized users. Does anyone know of either cards that will accept them both as authorized users or something else I can do for them?

I have 3 cards. All are paid on time, all in good standing. One I’ve been late by a day on the payment, but I always pay extra. Credit limits were all together equaled almost $20K. None even closed to maxed out and credit score was about 760.

Then there was a mistake on my credit file, tanked my score over 180 points over night. I instantly disputed it and in a few weeks it was fixed. However in that short timeframe, Citi dropped the balance on all 3 cards down to just over what I owed, effectively reducing my total credit available on my credit file significantly as well as instantly causing all 3 cards to be maxed out. This is going to further negatively affect my credit score. Called them and they said “you’ll get a letter in 7-10 busness days. There’s nothing we can do. Too bad”.

Not a single one of my other credit cards did anything. Only Citi.

Total garbage and no appreciation for the customer. “Oh you had an error on your credit file? Oh well!”

If you don’t have a Citi card, don’t get one. You mean nothing to them and they will screw you over in a second.

I’m 20, and Capital One closed my only credit card after
three returned payments. The payments came from an empty backup checking account, although I believed my funded savings account was set as the default.
The card is fully paid off. CreditWise shows one closed account, $0 owed, zero negative accounts, and two inquiries. It currently says my FICO score is unavailable because there isn’t enough data.
I disputed the situation and filed a CFPB complaint, but Capital One upheld its decision. I’m currently unemployed and will return to my school job next semester.
What’s my best option for building credit from here—check preapproval now, try a secured card, or wait until I’m working again? I’m also considering switching banks. Any advice?

I know opening a new credit card can initially cost you a few points because of the hard inquiry and the new tradeline lowering your average account age.

Generally, how long does it take before the new account starts having a positive effect on your credit profile? Assuming the balance stays low and every payment is made on time, are we talking a few months, six months, a year, or longer?

I had a 670 On august 15, and now i’m at 600, I have no debt just a credit card with a limit of $500. I Ended up getting on hard times and that card was maxed out and i couldn’t make my payment for one month and was late on the second. As for actual things on credit yeah all I have is that $500 credit card with a credit union, a chime builder credit card, and some atlas credit card where you put $ into it. Only the actual credit card gets used.

I was thinking about either paying a “we fix ur credit” type of service or just waiting a year till im shown to have a good track record. Apparently, there’s also something i was told about being able to pay all 3 reporters to boost your score? If this helps i’m a 20Y turning 21 next month and have only had credit history for about 2 years and 11 months.

I am hopelessly trying AGAIN to dispute our credit reports..

Quick backstory I filed for consumer proposal at 21 and paid it at 22 it's now off my credit. My husband had some collections around the same time and they are also off now.

Our mortgage specialist said not to refinance our car loan because it's our longest trade... even though the interest is 15%

We have one other high interest loan we will pay off before Christmas and then after that it's just the car loan. We are moving back into parents house in one month to start bulk saving for down payment.

The issue is she said some of the things on our credit aren't reporting correctly. She said there's "codes" on my report that don't show some accounts listed in my consumer proposal were paid properly even though it says it in the notes.

Then I have so many "paid" accounts that show open and I don't know why. Example an RBC cc that I haven't had for years. When I called them they said it was closed (this was years ago).

I already spent COUNTLESS hours two years ago correcting errors from someone taking my identity. All the remaining "errors" that my specialist says are there are on my legit past accounts but I don't get what she means about the codes.

Any help??? Any one have suggestions on who I could contact in southern Ontario?

Lost my job and didn’t work for 4 months, had to use my money for rent and groceries and payments got behind. I already had a poor score (580) but now I’m waayyyy down to 472. I make ok money but my lease is up in March and need to have a good enough score to get into another place. I don’t think my paycheck can pay my debts down fast enough in the time I have. What are the best tools for credit score improvement and what are some ways people know of to make money on the side of a regular job? Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone!

I put my account on autopay and missed a number. My autopays were rejected and now I came back to the U.S. after 6 months to see my credit card has been charged off even though I literally always pay on time. I can’t believe it and am in shock. What can I do to fix this? I’ve always been on time on all my other cards so this is what is shocking me; how this could have happened. My friend whom address I was using received all the letters and didn’t even let me know she got them in the mail. I didn’t have access to my online banking because I was in an OFAC country. What are my options at this point?

Ten years ago I had 2 collections, no active credit cards, $15k in charged off consumer debt, 15k upside down in a car loan working 2 jobs paycheck to paycheck.

Today, I have no collections, $150k in credit lines across 6 cards, a paid off 60k car. I still have a long way to go for my personal financial goals, but it’s a breath of fresh air to be worrying about having enough in retirement rather than making the next month of payments.

Things get better, so keep on keeping on!

I'm in a credit situation because I'm trying to keep ans get good credit. My credit is like 670+ so it's pretty good considering all the other bad moves I made throughout all the bad times.

I'm trying to make some good moves or the best credit move in this situation hence the post.

For context, I have a little bit of debt but my credit is high. Idk I'm trying to figure it out and make good moves. I owe various business less than $1000 total when I combine all the debt and I'm not super worried.

Bad decisions and I'm trying to make some good ones.

Recent bad decision was getting a storage unit and now because I'm poor and worried about other stuff I need to toss out my l the stuff from the storage and stop doing business with them before they put a lien on my stuff. I've asked other people in my life and they're all like let the storage unit toss it and thats even more irresponsible than me stupidly getting the unit.

If I toss it ASAP I can pay the storage unit in a short time and I won't keep owing them.

Or

I can just leave it there, let them sell it and try and fix my credit later.

For more context my only credit card is a self credit card with a low limit and I want to make more money moves like get an electric bike eventually. I don't make a lot of money at my current job and rather than paying the storage unit, I need to handle so many other things in my life so it's a tough decision because I don't understand credit that well and I want to keep my score high, get a new card, raise my credit limit, TRY AND REGAIN SOME FINANCIAL CONTROL AFTER THE SHITSTORM THAT WAS MY LIFE THESE LAST 2 YEARS.

Please help me to make some good short term credit moves by helping me figure out if I should toss it or just leave the storage unit to deal with it.

Please be respectful, stay on topic, don't take the all capital part personal and be helpful.

Info from Experian, happy to provide more info if that's helpful-
Score: 628 (I believe this is FICO 8, Vantage3.0 is 650 Transunion and 646 Equifax. Back in December my score was around 580 according to CK)
Oldest account: ~9 years
Average credit age: ~6 years
Late payments 30+ days: 5
Late payments 60+ days: 5
No collections/charge-offs
Accounts always paid as agreed: 76%
(CreditKarma Payment History is at 92% though... assuming that's less accurate but *shrugs*)
Time since most recent late payment: 3 months (student loan)

Hey folks, like the flair states, I've been trying to rebuild my credit over the last year.

About three years ago, I had good credit (a little over 700) and three credit cards. Best Buy store card, U.S. Bank Connect, and CapitalOne Quicksilver. Used them all pretty responsibly, occasionally carried balances, but nothing crazy. Before my credit/finances took a dip, I was living overseas and made decent money, but not enough to prioritize building savings. First issue was the Best Buy card- when I was overseas, I was literally geoblocked from making payments. When I was briefly home over the holidays I called them to explain why I couldn't make payments and they said it could be worked out, but they ended up just closing my account with no notice and I've paid it off through a third-party provider, but nothing ever went to collections. Second issue was once I moved back to the States and immediately became underemployed. Tried to make payments when I could, but I had to rely on my CCs because I simply didn't have money otherwise at some points.

Last fall, I ended up enrolling with ACCC for a debt management plan for my two credit cards, which I don't regret in the slightest- but those two cards have closed, as that's part of the deal. I'm a quarter way through my DMP which started with around a ~9k balance. The utilization and revolving credit balance from this still shows when I check my credit.

The rest of the debt that's royally screwing my credit is student loans from SallieMae (which I didn't even realize my parent took out for college until after I graduated- that's another story). Those have had a lot of late payments over the years, but nothing over 90 days. This bit irritates me the most because if student loans weren't a part of credit scoring, I'm certain I'd be in a different scenario, but I digress.

I'm at a point now where financially things are leveling out a bit, and I would like to get a CC again. I'll be even more cautious with how I use them now, and honestly I would like to get the boost from on-time payments for my history because basically the only thing contributing to my score (positively or negatively) is these damn SallieMae loans. I'm also still an authorized user on my mom's CC from back when I started college even though I don't use it, and she's responsible so that's been helpful. I know with my file it's unlikely I'd get approved through a big company, so even though I would love a travel-focused card through Chase or CapitalOne again, I don't think it's worth trying to get that now.

I've done a lot of research, and I'm considering at this point applying for a "subprime" card, with some kind of rewards if possible, and no annual fee because even if I don't use it forever, I wouldn't close it if that were the case. I'm looking into MissionLane or Zable (both have No-Ding Decline offers from Experian) or maybe Tilt as they seem pretty decent if you're smart about it.

My question is, do we think at this point, opening up an okay card basically just for the goal of adding to on-time payment history and available credit is a smart move? In my head it would speed up my credit-rebuilding record, but I'm nervous about that not being the case. Really would just like another set of eyes on my situation here!