<prompt> Human: I know I still have work to do but I wanted to share my small success story and some gratitude to this sub for helping me get my finances back on track. In late 2013 I was out of work for several months due to an illness, and just a few weeks after I returned to work my husband was laid off. I had a small emergency fund but medical bills and keeping the rent paid on time meant that I was left with some sizable amounts of debt, some of which went to collections. I ignored my credit through 2014 and 2015, since I honestly didnt know how to fix it. Then I found this subreddit. I read every post that seemed at all relevant to my situation, and read all of the amazing information provided here. Towards the end of 2016 I finally decided that I was ready to fix my situation and get back on track. In October I signed up for Credit Karma. My credit score was a dismal 590. I thought it was insurmountable, but I took it one step at a time. I treated it like a game -- every Sunday I would log on to CK as well as several other score providers to see how many points I earned that week. To start, I found a few old collections accounts that were either inaccurate or were being reported past my states statute of limitations, and disputed them. To my surprise, the very next week every single one of them had been removed from my report. There is still one small 200 collection account on my report one that wasnt disputed because I legitimately owe it, which I plan on tackling next. I now make a good salary but frequently found myself low on funds at the end of the month, due to poor budgeting. I signed up for Mint and monitored all of my spending to see where my money was going. I cut cable, stopped eating out so much, and cut some other unnecessary expenses. Coupled with taking on some extra side work on evenings and weekends when I could, I was able to put over 1,000 a month into savings, when previously I struggled to save even 110 of that. Next, I tackled my credit card debt. I started with about 2,800 in credit card debt, which isnt very much but my utilization was near 90. Every extra dollar I had went to those two cards until they were paid off. I paid off the lowest balance first, since the interest rates were the same for both cards. Seeing that first 0 balance reported to my credit report was really nice. Once my utilization was under 50 I called CapitalOne and requested a credit line increase, which they provided, taking my utilization down to 31. I continued paying down my debt aggressively and now have 0 utilization across both cards. It took about 6 weeks to pay these off due to my new aggressive budgeting strategy. Finally, I called my credit union car loan and asked them if they would be willing to remove any of the late payments that were reported during my unemployment, because it cant hurt to ask. To my surprise, they listened to me, saw that my payments had been current since I started working again, and removed 3 late payments from my report as a good will adjustment. I still have 3 late payments reported, but 3 is better than 6. Today when I logged in to Credit Karma my score was 663. All of my credit card debt is paid off, my car loan will be paid off in 3-4 months and I was able to replenish my emergency fund and start saving towards a down payment for a house. Seriously cannot thank this sub enough. Ive never posted here before but I must have read every single post here over the past 3-4 months, and just wanted you to know that Im grateful to those of you who take the time to answer questions and help people get their lives back on track. Happy New Year! A small edit since this post got a little more attention than I anticipated! Wow, thanks everyone : First, I have gotten some PMs and comments assuming that this post was some sort of ad for CK, and I assure you it isnt lol. Credit Karma was one of several score services I utilized, and I initially signed up since I saw it mentioned so frequently on this sub. I mentioned it by name simply because it was the service I used continue to use most frequently. Ive also received some messages from people who, for some reason, dont believe that my post is true, and that was certainly unexpected. If the mods are amenable I would be happy to post screenshots with personal information redacted. The purpose of this post was to remind everyone that a series of seemingly small steps forward can make a bigger difference in a smaller amount of time than you might expect. I also appreciate the advice to check my real FICO score. I did that this morning and to my delight it was actually 667, so a couple points higher than my CK score : Im very humbled to hear that my story was inspirational to some of you, and wish everyone great success in the new year!  <response>: Congratulations!!! This is a great start to 2017! Keep on going, youve obviously done a great job! 