Credit Recovery

Before I met my ex-husband I had perfect credit. Before we married, I let him use one of my gas cards in which he charged up and didn't pay it off. I had a glitch on my credit report for the first time, but it was taken care of - although it was after it had gone to collection. We had to clean up his bad credit before we bought a house but managed to do so. While married, I managed to pay the bills and keep our credit clean. Unfortunately, because of the divorce my credit was ruined again. Our house was foreclosed and the joint bills that were placed in his name in the divorce settlement were never paid. I paid the stuff in my name off, but I know it still follows me. I'm trying to get out of debt and have paid off all my credit cards except for my gas cards that I still use and I have some other debts that I'm paying down. If all goes well, I'll be debt free in less than two years (other than the loans I'll be taking out for grad school). I've been hesitant to do anything that requires a credit check because it is very embarrassing to be told that you're denied credit. My bank has given me the only loan I've requested since my divorce and I think it's simply because it was decided by a real person and not a computer that checks my credit history.

Today I took Josh's car to the tire place because he has a tire that tends to go flat. I was simply going to get it fixed but it turns out that his tires are in bad shape, bordering on being dangerous to drive. I wasn't prepared to spend money on new tires today, but it had to be done. The sales clerk told me of the payment plan they have so I decided to take a risk and just see if I was given credit. I prefaced it with the comment that I have some bad divorce debt following me, but we'll see how it goes. You know what? I was approved. It seems that perhaps I'm getting out of the hell hole of bad credit that has followed me for the past 3 1/2 years. I was actually approved for $1500 although I only needed to use $350. I have to pay it off in three months to avoid finance charges, which I intend to do, but at least Josh has new tires and I feel better about him driving because of it. Now I'm not sure how I'm going to add one more payment to my monthly bills, but I always seem to manage somehow.

Well, I'm off to the fallback festival. I hope it is a pleasant experience and not another social nightmare. I wish my friend Andrew was here because I know he would go with me in a heartbeat. (Especially for the steak dinner!) Well, I'm going to go stag and enjoy it. I'll get to play bar tender which should make for at least an interesting evening for a while.