<prompt> Human: what a proud momentTwo years ago, I was a financial mess. I had over 45k in credit card debt.I lived on the east coast and 60 of my income was going towards a tiny, cramped apartment. Money was wasted on entertainment, gadgets, smart phone plans, etc.My credit report was a mess, with various collections, medical bills and other entries keeping my score at around 580.I attacked my issue on two fronts: Repair my credit, and reduce my expenses.With the help of various credit forums, I was able to have every single negative mark on my report removed, through the use of various methods, such as debt verification, pay for deletion and debt dispute. Once my record was clean, my fico jumped 90 points. The only thing left to do with my report is reduce the debt load, increase my available credit and wait for inquiries to drop off. As for expenses.. we hated the east coast and didnt have much keeping us there. Luckily, I work from home so we picked a beautiful little town in the midwest and bought a lovely home for 70k. My monthly housing expense dropped from 1500 to 500 PITI. Cancelled cable, all smart phone plans, various monthly services and cut out another 500 a month in expenses. This allowed me to devote a significant amount of money towards my CC debt. We had some emergencies along the way, but I managed to cut the debt from over 40k, down to 18k today. I have actually had that entire balance on 0 balance transfers for the last two years, so aside from 2 transfer fees, that debt has not cost me much.It takes a lot of discipline, but when I signed into discover this morning and saw my FICO, I felt a huge sense of satisfaction. I hope to have the rest of my debt paid off in 18 months.EDITSince this blew up - most of the education I got regarding repairing my credit was from creditboards.com. It is a little intimidating at first sort of like the first time you look at reddit; lots of jargon, terminology, etc. But just spend time ready, look at the sticky posts, read other peoples posts about their issues and the solutions given. When you are ready, post a detailed description of your credit situation and they will give you step by step instructions on the various methods you can use to have negative entries removed from your credit report. There are specific ways of doing it, down to the type of mail you should use certified return receipt requested or CRRR, and the type of language to use in your letters NEVER admitting the debt is yours, so make sure you follow their instructions. The best advice I can give you is to never communicate with a collection agency by phone. All communication should be done by mail. Never make a payment on a debt if you have not exhausted all options to have it removed. Paying a debt that is on your report does nothing to help you. In fact, it can usually hurt your score because paying on a debt resets the statute of limitations, so a bill that was going to drop off your report in 1 year will now stick around for another 7. And a new debt drags your score down a lot more than an old debt. Assistant: How do you have 18,000 in debt and still have a credit score over 800?Human: Close to 200,000 in available credit, so my debt:credit ratio is very good.Assistant: Wow. Do you have, like, eleventy hundred credit cards or some big-ass lines of credit or what?Human: actually just 6, most with very large limits that I have built up over the years in excess of 30k each.  <response>: Can I have some of your money? You know, since youre not using it right now. Pay ya back, honest! 