Hey everyone!

So starting in 2025, I have some major financial goals. One thing is to save more money, one is to buy a car. But the other thing is to definitely rebuild my credit… bad.

I’m 21 (22 this year). When I turned 18, my mom recommended I open a credit card in order to learn responsibilities and build myself up. My mom is a credit guru, she has 120k in available credit and an 815 score.

She had put me on one of her credit cards that she had used the most back when I was 14, so when I opened my first card- Discover IT- I had a 725 score right out the gate.

Even with no credit history I was approved for 3200 dollars on the discover card. I told myself I needed to be careful, but that same year. I maxed it out. I also applied for a Best Buy card. And I maxed the 2000 on that too. And then the Amazon store card, which I maxed the 2000 on that.

I ended up getting a personal consolidation loan a year later. And it lowered my overall interest rate. And it made everything into one payment for 4 years. Then I made the dumb decision again, and maxed most of those cards out again, and took out another consolidation loan. And then maxed them out again.

I finally got a good paying job end of 2023-2024 and. And I was able to pay off most of the loans and the Amazon store card, as they shrunk my balance because of how little I was paying.

However, I’ve prioritized spending more than saving, and I barely have made a dent in my other two cards, in fact I’ve missed 4 payments in the last year, either because I forgot, or I just didn’t have enough money due to spending so much on BS.

My score has went from a 725- 532 in the last 4 years. Luckily I pay my rent on time, no evictions, or bankruptcy but it’s still bad.

I’ve actually gotten better with SAVING money by putting my money into a CU that penalizes me for taking anything out more than 3 times a month. So i have ~10k in there.

Back to my main question. How do I rebuild my credit? I’m tempted to just use my savings and pay off all of my debt and then barely use the cards anymore. Again, I want a new car. I NEED a new car. I have a 98 Buick and it’s dying.

I just want to have healthy credit and shake these bad habits…