How my credit score went from -0 to 638 in 3 Months

[marwithlord]

I am 23M and have managed to increase my credit score rapidly (at least that's what I think ) in just a few months . before this I had never taken any type of credit that's why my score was Zero , I was scared because I saw what credit debt did to my family and people close to me but I finally got courage & applied for a credit card with my bank and to my surprise I was given a very large amount of credit when I only thought I would qualify for only -R10 000

Here's what I did and what I think helped me :

1- I have a freelancing business that is registered but its doing very bad because I have a 9-5 but it reflects as property in my report

2- I registered with a credit score provider (Clear score and my credit check ) then I got 5 on my credit score

3- I tried to apply for credit from Payjustnow (Got offered 2k but never used it until this month ) and Nedbank Never got back to me but did a deep search which reflected on my credit report

4- My bank reflected on my credit report when I applied for credit and also when I got the credit

5- at this point my score was already on 500 ( lol idk how )

6 - ever since I got credit I never spend above 20% of the money in my credit card and paid it off before the interest free cycle comes ( I use my card for all my essentials )

its been 3-4 months now doing all of this and I am sitting on 638 and this makes me so happy because I grew up poor with people who are not financially literate so me being able to get this far while in the process of learning and building wealth is exciting and I hope this helps those who are starting . I am trying to get financial freedom and buy property in the near future so this is part of the process for me . Also thank you to everyone that's been giving me advice in this sub .

 

[miamor]

@marwithlord Good job! Keep it up I have a similar story but I opened a Mr Price account as well. Just so my future lenders know I can actually commit to repayments. I may be wrong but your score will probably stabilize in that region until you get a "big" credit. ie. A car or a large loan and do well at paying it off.

 

[marwithlord]

@miamor Thank you , My goal is to get it to 700 + so that I can get that big credit like a home loan but I think I may have a way to get there I'll just update when that happens and hopefully I'll keep it stable at 700+ for over a few years .

 

[lseals]

@marwithlord I’ve got 686 and got prime - 2 6 months ago on my home loan. Think 700+ maybe be hard but fingers crossed . Let me know if you manage it

 

[marwithlord]

@lseals That is impressive , that's a good credit score .it definitely is going to be difficult but thank you I'll let you know if I manage it .

 

[dayna]

@marwithlord This is really impressive. Well done