<prompt> Human: First, I want to thank many of you who have helped me realize the importance of having good credit here in the US. This sub has taught me a lot, and a lot of the information Ive read on this sub over the last year has really stuck with me. To give some background, I grew up with my grandparents who didnt have a solid financial understanding, so I didnt understand the importance of credit at all growing up. Hell, I didnt even know what a credit score was until I turned 26. However, I understood the value of saving because growing up in a household with three siblings and two retired grandparents were not easy for them. So, I lived my life paying cash for everything. A trip to Vegas, cash. Christmas gifts, cash. Twenty-day Eurotrip? Cash, cash, cash. At the age of 28, I met my current girlfriend who is six years my senior and much more successful - work and financially. As things got serious, we started talking about finances since I was always paying big purchases items with my debit card which is fine, but she asked why dont I use credit for a few of these purchases to rack up points. I looked at her with the most confused face and asked what points are. Her eyes lit up, and she realized that I did not know how credit cards, scores, and the whole system. We downloaded one of those free credit motoring apps and checked my score. BAM! 450. She showed hers -- 820. I felt embarrassed and knew I had to do something. She told me that she would help me better understand how it works and how to get started. We opened a secured card with 200 to get started. That was it. Why was it a 450? Well, at the age of 19, I got a credit card in college and never paid my bill. It went to collections. Pretty obvious. The first six months was a waiting game. Making purchases, paying the card off. I always maxed out the card, but still paid in full when the bill was due with auto pay. Around month 7, I get an email from the credit card company saying they will send back my 200 deposit, and now going from a secured card to unsecured. AWESOME! My limit was now 1000. My score went from 450 to 550. Now Im checking my score on my app every other day. I know its not going to change much from day-to-day, but I enjoyed staying on top of it. I slowly see it climb by being responsible for paying the card off IN FULL every month. Having a better understanding of the system, I applied for a new card thats ideal for people who are rebuilding credit. Applied, fingers crossed, approved for a 3k credit limit! This is awesome! I go through my entire budget, switch bills I used to pay with cash to my credit cards, set up auto pay and done. A year later, the excitement of checking all the time has worn off, but I went on just to see how things are doing a few months back. I check my score, and Im at 720 with a 30k revolving limit. Thinking this was a mistake, Im searching through the entire app until I see why. My GF added me as an authorized user on one of her cards that has a 26k limit with an 8-year history and paid in full on time every month. That was her gift to me for sticking with it. She trusts me enough to hold the card in case of an emergency. But I want my own big boy card now even though Im fine with what I have now. After a couple of months of doing reviews and prequalify checks which I didnt pass, I bit the bullet and applied for the AMEX Gold Card. Approved! Im sure there are better cards out there, but I thought this would be great for me. It was something I always wanted as a kid, and now I have it. All because of staying focused and a bit of luck.So, that was my journey from 450 to 720. From only having a debit card to 4 credit cards. The habits I learned over the last year and a half will stick with me forever, and now I have a new goal to pass my GFs credit score. Sorry for the long post. Edits: grammarEdit 2: Thanks everyone for the support. I did want to address one more thing that has been coming up which was the boost I received from being added to one of my GFs credit cards as an authorized user. When I saw that my score was 720, there was also a notification that my score had jumped 77 points. So, with the combination of keeping my utilization low, paying my credit cards on time and in full, and with the benefit of acquiring her history, and high credit limit, I wouldnt say ALL 77 points were from her. Maybe 50 or so - which is still a lot. So my score before being added could have been 670. As I mentioned, it was a big boost to get me over the 700 mark. But again, this post was to explain my journey from 450 to 720 by using the resources I had available to me. Everyones credit is different. I had one payment in collections I took care of, some of you may have 3 - 4, or 0. Some people may have people they can add as an authorized user that doesnt have a pristine credit history; some may not. Long story short, I wasnt in any financial trouble. I always managed my budget, saved, invested in what I could, and lived within my means. One of my financial goals this year was to work on my credit, which my GF and I discuss, and she helped -- the same way I would help her if she needed it. But its important for everyone to know what you can and can not do when it comes to building your credit. I took advantage of all resources I had available. Thanks!  <response>: Thank you for sharing this. Definitely needed to read it. Im 25 and feel overwhelmed at trying to repair my utterly destroyed credit. Made a lot of mistakes with credit cards a few years back because I was just a reckless 20ish year old for a few years there. Good to know that if I really give it my best effort I can repair my credit. 