<prompt> Human: As of January 23, 2016 my credit score was 470. I didnt care about it prior to this. When I was 1823 now I opened a credit line for 500 to build credit. I also had a 300 medical bill. My dumb ass self let both of these go to collections because I was really, really dumb. I could have easily afforded to pay them both off, but didnt.So this started off absolutely destroying my credit score.Fast forward to to early last year, when I decided to check my credit because I wanted to buy a car -- I make 51,000 a year gross and live in the midwest, so I do okay for myself. I have no kids, no debt, and my current bills are about 850 a month. I have some savings as well. I knew I could afford a car -- until I saw my credit score and I flipped out. I had no idea how dumb I was in the past and how badly it would hurt me now.I started lurking this sub, using the search feature, and found people suggesting a secured credit card. So thats where I started. I got a Capital One secured credit line with a limit of like 259 with a fat deposit. I started using about 30 of my credit line monthly and paying it down. This slowly built my score back up, but after about 4 months, I had enough on-time payments for Capital One to offer to increase my credit line! This helped my score raise even faster.Since living on my own2 years now, Ive never missed a bill. I pay my cell phone, health insurance, car insurance, utilities, and rent. Ive been late 1 day on my cell phone bill but I dont think it hurt me. Ive never missed a credit card payment either.Then about 6 months ago, Capital One said Im approved for another type of credit card. This one has a higher APR if I dont pay it off every month, but I knew having more available credit would help...Plus this one does cash back! So I opened it. My credit was slowly building, then I took some more advice from this sub...I challengedmaybe not the right word for it my credit report from the medical collections agency, because the dates seemed off to me. I didnt think it would help, but it did. This made it so I only have 1 bad mark from an old account.As of today, Experian says my score is 651. Its not great, I know. Its still Fair by their standards. 9 more points until its even Good...but Im getting there!TL;DR: Thanks guys, for the advice. My credit went from 470 to 651, and climbing, in under a year.  <response>: Thats amazing. I am in exactly the same boat as you. Started early with credit cards, but let them go to collections because I was stupid and lazy and due to other hardships. My credit score is a bit lower than yours, but its nice seeing posts like this proving me that getting my credit back up is possible. 