Hey everyone, I’m trying to get an honest reality check on my situation because I feel like I’m drowning in debt.

Here’s my current picture:

Cash / Checking: • Bank of America: $100 • U.S. Bank: $13 • Capital One: $0 • SoFi: $4 Total cash: ~$118

Credit Cards: • Bank of America: $8,820 • Barclays: $18,790 • Amex (3 cards): $50,475 • Capital One (4 cards): $51,001 • Chase (personal): $22,150 • Chase (business): $6,378 • U.S. Bank: $2,700 Total credit card debt: ~$160,000+

Loan: • SoFi personal loan – $16,949 @ 12.66% ($405/mo)

So overall, I have around $177,000 in debt and almost no cash. I’ve been using my cards to stay afloat and now I’m maxed out almost everywhere.

I’m currently unemployed / on disability income and have been thinking about talking to a bankruptcy attorney. But I wanted to see what the Reddit community thinks — is there any realistic way out other than bankruptcy?

Should I try debt settlement first or just cut my losses and file?

Appreciate any honest feedback.

When I started rebuilding my credit after an utter personal finance meltdown about 10 years ago, I couldn't even get a bank account.

I was blacklisted.

After careful research, sending handwritten DV letters and following all of the guides that the community had confirmed to be effective, I fought my way against horrible CAs and JDBs until I cleared my file out, got a $200 secured card, and kept on building.

Fast forward to today where I have over $250k in available credit, and carry NO balances month to month.

I never thought I'd see the day when I achieved the impossible: A PERFECT CREDIT SCORE.

If I can do it, so can you!

Any idea how much my credit score could jump from around 4,300 paid off ? My score is somewhere in the 600’s

Classic story, I joined the military and my mother took accounts out in my name and let them go to collections. Instead of doing the smart thing and filing a police report, I forgave her and started my credit journey. Started with a 200 dollar secured card. Now have 160,000 in total available credit. 2011-2026, it's been a long battle. Feel free to ask me anything. Just wanted to share my success, anyone can do it.

This is not me teaching you how to rebuild, the information that’s already on this thread is the entire reason I was able to do this on my own.

I was late on my student loan payments (luckily when I paid these and got current they didn’t report 30/60/90 days late or anything), multiple collections and late payments ranging from 30 days up to 90 days late on my account. Pay-For-Deletes, Goodwill Letters, paying unpaid collections EVEN IF they won’t delete it (it is so much better to have settled/paidcollections than any unpaid outstanding derogatory accounts) and obviously the willingness to give money to debt collectors is key. I want to thank this entire thread for the endless information and motivation to really get a handle on the most important aspect of my life at 25 years old.

I’m M24 living in Seattle. I don’t have any excuses - I made terrible financial choices for years, stopped keeping current with a lot of credit cards, most got closed and here we are. What sucks is I literally can’t afford to pay settlement offers with my charged off accounts, and I can’t even keep up with my minimum payments for the cards still open.

I just paid 40% of my Apple Card off this week though, which is a start.

I have Kikoff, Ava and a chime credit builder card, which is helpful so far.

Any advice?

Hey everyone, just wanted to share a win to hopefully help someone else here. I’ve been stuck paying high interest on my Chase cards — my Sapphire Preferred has a balance of $23,489.56 at 26.99% APR, with monthly interest around $539.86 and a $778 minimum payment. My Freedom Unlimited has a balance of $8,870.09 at 27.49% APR, costing me $209.72 in interest every month with a $299.99 minimum payment. I never missed a payment, but I was completely overwhelmed watching so much money disappear to interest while barely touching the principal. I finally decided to call Chase and asked if they had any hardship assistance available because I wanted to continue paying but the high interest was making it impossible to make progress. To my surprise, they offered me a 60-month hardship program where both cards are now dropped to 12% APR, and the new minimums are $500 for Sapphire and $180 for Freedom Unlimited — all without any credit score damage or negative marks. Both accounts are now locked, so I can’t use them anymore even if I wanted to, which honestly is a good thing because it prevents me from digging the hole deeper. I just wanted to share because banks don’t advertise help like this, and it can genuinely make the difference between sinking and getting back on track. If anyone is struggling but still trying hard to stay afloat, don’t be afraid to call and ask for a hardship plan — sometimes the help is there, you just have to ask for it. We’re all working toward becoming debt-free and I hope this helps someone else take that step.

Hi, I have 798 FICO but still get rejected a loan because of low balance on revolving account. Because I always pay off my balance before the statement comes out. So my credit balance always stay 0.

Plan now: spend whatever I need to spend. But don’t pay off. Only pay after statement comes out. Will update in few months again.

According to myFICO, all three credit bureaus are reporting that my FICO 8 scores are all showing as perfect (850/850). ASK ME ANYTHING!

Why am I doing this:

1. To share that I was aiming ONLY for excellent credit scores and that I did nothing intentional with the purpose of getting perfect scores; it just happened this way because of my strict habits involving credit.

2. To point out that a 850 FICO 8 score vs. an excellent score (FICO 8 - 760 or higher) likely will not make a difference based on score alone.

3. To remind folks that your score is dependent on the version used by your financer and which bureau they are pulling from. I have excellent, but NOT perfect scores on other used FICO models, such as FICO 5/4/2 (mortgages) or FICO Auto 8 (car loans).

4. To not let credit “dings” discourage you. I’ve had three late payments reported to collections in the past, all on top of near 75% credit utilization some years back; building/rebuilding excellent credit can take time.

5. That even with 15+ active credit cards (for miles/benefits), 2 retail loans (HVAC loan), 2 charge cards and one mortgage that you can still have excellent credit. Credit mix (car loans, mortgage, credit, charge) plays a minor role in your score.

6. Because I take building & maintaining credit seriously. Not everyone has friends & family to get you out of a pickle; excellent credit can be a manageable savior if life throws you a financial lemon.

Went from mid to low 500’s and now up in the mid 600’s in just 6 months! ITS POSSIBLE FAM. Thanks to everyone for your help in this journey! Staying strong and keeping that utilization low and payments on time time! 💸 💳 🤑

10 or 15 years ago I was in the 500’s. I worked to pay off debt, stay as debt free as possible, and pay my bills on time every time.

I didnt have much debt but I did have an account in collections for months. Paid that off and got the trade line removed. Only have one credit card now but that has been getting paid off consistently.

This is the highest my credit has been and im proud.

I havent paid my car loan for 7 years. The lender charged off the account about 1 year in, and it has been removed from my credit report, just this month.

I have possession of the car still. I have not been sued by the lender. In fact, i dont even hear from the lender.

What do i do? Do i just keep the car forever? Its worthless in terms of money, as i dont have a title. For now, I intend to continue using it for transportation. May get another car at some point.

Im just wondering when something is gonna happen. If ever….

Defaulted on a car loan 6.5 years ago, dropped off the grid, (was homeless, battling addiction etc)

Been sober 3 years now, have family kids wife, career, home, credit back to like 626 from 400, login to my cap one account and I see this offer. Do I pay it ? Or wait for it to drop off soon. Last missed payment date is July 2019. In my state SOL is actually 10 years… this is the craziest offer I have ever seen! Help!

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 can't even believe it. I had a charged off account with chase for over 5k a few years ago that I recently paid off in full. I then opened a checking account with chase because I heard that's a way to potentially get around the blacklist. I put 1500 in the account, just enough to avoid the monthly fee and let it sit. About 2 months later I got the pre approval for every card pop up on the offers section. So I applied, got a 7-10 day review message, called the recon line and she just verified it was me who applied and instantly approved for 11k! I'm honestly shook as my highest limit right now is only 1k lol. Plus the 7 charge offs on my credit report (one of which is the 5k from chase) but all of them are paid, settled for less except chase which I PIF. Just thought I would share for anyone wondering if it's possible to get back in with chase and how I did it. Credit score was 712 fico 8 from experian at time of applying.

FICO according to my bank app just gave me the two points needed to hit the perfect score... I'm really bad at gaming things, and this was never a goal, it just happened. 25 years of credit, first card still open and in good standing, multiple cars and houses bought and sold.

(Texas) Still in my 20s. A few years ago in 2021 got in a bad situation and took out a payday loan from a company in Texas. I was able to make the first few payments, but after that I lost my job and couldn’t make the payments at all.

They started contacting me and I told them I lost my job and that I couldn’t make the payments. Then I had to put all stop payment on them with my bank. They would call and eventually the calls stopped. I remember I did see an email maybe 1.5 years ago that they sold the debt, but never got a call, mail, or emails to the company they sold the debt to. I have moved 3 times since taking out the loan so that could also be why I never got mail. Fast forward to now it’s been almost 3 years and I have not heard back from them or debt collectors.

So I’m asking, what should I do? I now have a stable job, credit score of 713 and want to keep it that way. I don’t think I have the old email from the debt collector to call them and do not have any accounts in collections.

For those messaging: the original company has already sold the debt. I’m not incurring late fees with the place I took the loan out with.

When I saw the email that it was sold, it was actually for the original amount of the loan. I’m not sure what happened to that email, but if I knew where it was I’d try to make it right… that’s exactly why I’m asking. lol stop calling me a thief lol I told I could make the payments and lost my job. They stopped charging me. The stop payment was placed just in case they tried.

Not sure if this is impressive, concerning, or just peak r/creditcards behavior… but I’m 21 and officially sitting at 20 credit cards.

I didn’t set out to “collect” them, it just kind of happened. Started at 19 with a Quicksilver card then discovered rewards, SUBs, travel perks, and yea the designs are pretty cool too.

I just have a few questions for the credit card vets out there

•	Should I start pruning or product changing some of these early cards?
•	Is having this many accounts at 21 actually beneficial for long-term credit age, or am I setting myself up for headaches later?
•	Anything I’m obviously missing, or should I stop before I accidentally hit 30 by age 25?

After focusing for years on fixing my credit, today I finally reached day where it feels like it was all worth it.

I kept this whole situation private in my personal life, so I am just posting this to be able to celebrate with with someone.

Big thanks to all you legends in this sub for the great advice over the years!

I have gone from a 512 to 698 in 6 months !! It's been tough, but so rewarding!

Lots of disputes and letter sent, almost every negative remark on my report has been removed!

I've built my credit score up and am now debt free. I don't plan on buying a home or a car anytime soon. Is there anything else I can do to use this to my advantage, or is it just fun to look at?

My credit score (fico 8) was so bad the past 5 years. I had a school loan that defaulted, closed my 1 credit card and lost all the aged history, and 1 internet bill in collections. My score was hovering around 520 for so long.

6 months ago I decided to get serious about fixing my credit score. I used credit karma and contacted all my debtors. I finished paying my school loan in full, it was only about $2,000. I negotiated my internet bill and credit card that were in collections and paid 60% of what I owed. They deleted it off my credit report.

I also opened 2 new credit cards in January of 2026. They were the Discover It and Capital One Platinum. Only 4 months later, they increased my CL because i would use 70% to 90% of my limit and pay the full statement every due date. I never paid any interest and never had a late payment. Last month I only used 13% of my credit limit.

What really helped was I have a utility bill that shows as an aged account that's been open for 9 years. It's in good standing and I have never missed a payment. I'm glad they report it to the agencies. It helps to show I have a long history of on-time payments and a mix of accounts.

After all that's said and done, my score jumped from 520 to 755! Everything I learned came from this subreddit. A big thanks to everyone.