Like many people, when I was young, I made some mistakes - ones I ended up paying for - quite literally… However, repairing my credit was not as difficult a process to recover from as I thought it would be.
“The way that customers pay businesses is constantly evolving. Instead of paying with paper, like cash and checks, businesses are expected to accept a variety of payment methods ranging from credit cards to digital payments.” ~John Rampton
In the United States, individuals have their credit scores monitored by a data analytics company called FICO, which reports an array of user data to three national credit bureaus: Experian (you may know their awful commercials), Equifax, and TransUnion. The scores between these three bureaus are created to help lenders determine the risk associated with lending people money.
When I was 18 I was extremely reckless and I whiffed a credit card and a bunch of medical bills, resulting in a horrible credit (FICO) score I thought I would never come back from; I didn’t even consider trying for several years. This phenomenon is common; young people are known to make poor financial decisions, and credit card companies exploit it. Most don’t know how easy it can be to recover and how much free money crypto opportunities have to offer.
I used cryptocurrency earnings to recover my FICO score and continue to raise it - I am amazed at how far I have come in the first eight or so months; I couldn’t qualify for the lowest of credit cards except pre-paid when I started, so that is what I did. I saved up some Bitcoin and cashed out to FIAT, and paid off a Capital One card - the same company that sued me 13 years prior for violating a mere 300$ credit limit is now my primary credit card with a higher limit.
The earnings came from various sources such as Coinbase Earn, which gives you many opportunities to earn free cryptocurrencies, and they keep adding more. Brave Browser pays in BAT (Basic Attention Token) & HoneyGain now pays out in Bitcoin (BTC) as well as PayPal. Coinbase Earn would have paid for the first prepaid card all on its lonesome in the last year of free money, including 9$ USD equivalent in Band and Maker granted this morning, payment proof below.
I can tell you with certainty someone can achieve results by merely making minimum payments (about 25-30$ a month or less) doing surveys on Cointiply or a similar earning site, depending on their geography. One airdrop netted me over $1,500 with UNI just for participating on their exchange, and Coinbase announced a new airdrop for people holding XRP on 12-12-2020 0:00 UTC wallet snapshot for the Flare network’s Spark Airdrop - airdrops are far from over.
You do not have to be a successful market trader to turn your credit around. I started at rock bottom, befriending moderators in chat and learning new earning opportunities, which ultimately led me to write, beginning with Publish0x and now for The Writer Company. I’ve had other offers, as well - but there are only so many hours in a day, and I love the Cryptowriter & Publish Teams. Time management is crucial, and developing a passive income source from referrals is something I advise everyone to do, especially when all parties involved benefit; it inadvertently puts more crypto in circulation.
If you follow my work, you’ll know that I generally hate FIAT and use it as little as possible. It’s a lovely thought to live off crypto alone with nothing but clean energy and peace in mind, but when you reach a certain age, it is time to consider things like cars, a house, a plot of land, and more. In America, this can be done in two ways - with cash or with a loan. If you are from the US, odds are this is common knowledge for you. Some are lucky enough to be born with wealth; I was not among them.
Instead, I was given an education from a mother with advanced degrees in accounting. The first thing she taught me was never to miss a payment, and that has proven to be a priceless lesson; a minimum payment is still a full payment as far as lenders are concerned. Even with credit cards maxed due to coronavirus, my credit report shows an immaculate payment history, which is to say I have never missed a payment - at least, not since I was 18.
The good news is that old credit reports do eventually fall off your record. More good news is that they can be disputed and are often dropped. I had over 1,350$ removed from my medical bills by disputing charges via CreditKarma through TransUnion; even denying any knowledge of the account often works, and there are no consequences for trying. If you live in the USA and want to build your credit, you should have account/s that check all three bureaus. I do not pay a monthly fee for this with Experian. Instead, I found credit offers that come with different bureau reports and found one of each.
My FICO score was around 400-450 when I started. Now it sits happily over 700 on a typical day, depending on how much credit I am using at the time. Still, it never falls below average even when they are maxed - which I do not recommend. I’ve read that staying below 16% of your total credit limit is ideal for the fastest gains. I started with a 200$ prepaid card for a 300$ limit; it has since been raised twice. The initial down-payment was the ‘crappy part,’ but it’s important to note that 200$ doesn’t disappear; it is applied to your credit and is probably the best financial decision I made in 2020.
I didn’t use the card for much at first, buying small items on Amazon and paying them off the moment the charges hit my account. I recommend getting a PayPal debit card so you can withdraw funds from Coinbase with no fee, and then connect their new virtual debit card to sites such as Amazon, eBay, etc.
When you operate only using a portion of your credit at a time, you can expect your credit limit to be raised a lot more quickly than if you max your cards and pay them down, but either will raise your score; removing fees is always a wise decision. There are various factors to consider, such as not applying for a new credit line too soon after the last, waiting for at least a few months. The wait is probably the most annoying part of building credit - to do it right is a timely process, but it doesn’t take very long to get to average credit.
Things that were out of my reach before I now have or am well on my way to achieving. I own a newer car in good condition, I have three credit cards, and to my surprise - I was just approved for a Samsung Galaxy S20 w/ 0% APR financing due to my payment history. The Best Buy employee who handled my processing told me he had seen people with an 800+ FICO score denied for that same offer. My credit cards were maxed that day with a FICO score of 620, which is barely average. Obviously, lenders look at more than just the number.
I qualified for cheap auto financing, full-coverage, and rental insurance via StateFarm. I was living off-grid for the better half of a decade, so this is all quite strange. I’ve learned to be a ghost means to stand out among everyday folks, but living two lives has proven to be highly beneficial, and the technology to do it is at our fingertips. So long as taxes are paid, there is nothing wrong with this practice. Cryptocurrency is struggling to separate itself from the global economy, and corporations have instead chosen to integrate them like they did credit cards the better half of a century ago. We will continue to see more and more crypto-related earning opportunities, and I recommend you take advantage of them while they last.
To my disbelief, I was just approved for 3,000$ in dental financing - two root canals and crowns inbound. Between a few credit cards, my phone, teeth, and cable, I went from -1,350$ in financing to 5,000$ during Q1-Q3. Once I saw this form of success start to snowball, it seemed like a useful thing to point out. You can earn crypto for free and then put that money to work - if staking is viable, building your credit score also is as you are essentially staking for your future.
Now I know that if I hadn’t done this, my dental insurance would not cover these procedures, and I could have been walking around toothless this Q4. I am 31 and have lost no teeth; the cruddy HMO ( insurance) dentist I was forced to go to wanted to remove one that chipped. The respected dentist I visited after that said she’d have no problem saving my natural tooth. The need for credit just went way up as a priority. What would I have done if I hadn’t built my credit up, I couldn’t afford the costs out of pocket!
I am frequently asked, “What should I invest in?” by various people in my life, and my answer is always the same: Yourself. Invest in you, invest in your education, your health, and your interests. Now, I say invest in your credit. I say this not as a financial advisor, which I am not, but as someone who wants to make the most of their life - particularly, their future.
What is stopping you? My challenge to you is to think outside the box and start beating the system at its own game. As cryptocurrencies become more mainstream, this concept will only apply more and more - as will free crypto earning opportunities.
A year ago, it was difficult to purchase cryptocurrencies with a credit card in the USA and likely ran through a shady process, if at all. Now it is common practice with trusted exchanges, say hello capital for investors - If I see a sheer-cliff drop in the market, I am on it like white on rice.
I started out grinding surveys between classes, and now my passive income pays my minimum payments without breaking a sweat. I do not see any reason you could not do the same just by doing surveys in your spare time, letting HoneyGain eat a little excess bandwidth, and accepting the free money Coinbase Earn hands out as it comes.
I would consider what a good credit score can do for your life that crypto cannot in its latent form. Even cash is denied where many credit cards are accepted, such as planes, trains, and car rentals. There is nothing in the rules that says you can’t get there with cryptocurrencies.
Stay smart & stay safe.
Questions and comments are always encouraged.
P.S.
To my followers, I have recovered from COVID-19 - that is why I have been absent for a couple of weeks. The physical symptoms were all but gone, but weight loss and confusion proceeded to come and go.
It's an odd virus that comes and goes in different ways, and I still haven't fully recovered my sense of smell and complete mental clarity. My girlfriend and her 5-year-old son made a full recovery, though. I have volunteered for plasma donations and am pending a 28-day asymptomatic period before I can begin.
-Thomas Wolf
This article was originally published on Voice.com
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