Personal blog on early retirement, a little traveling, and analytics projects. I write about what I learn as I am learning it.
Most people don’t go looking for a credit limit increase — it just shows up one day. You log in, notice your limit jumped a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, and wonder what triggered it. The short answer: your issuer decided you’d earned it. The longer answer is a bit more interesting.
Update, September 2026: this post covers my first three years. For the full picture there’s five years of numbers here. In 2026 I also closed my direct store, so I now sell only through brokers.
In the past three years, my financial landscape has been significantly reshaped by an unexpected (ad)venture: selling tradelines. This journey wasn’t just a sideline hustle; it became a pivotal part of my financial strategy, offering insights into credit markets, personal finance, and the dynamics of credit score improvement. In this post, I’ll share my firsthand experience, the lessons learned, and the strategies that worked (and didn’t) in the world of tradelines. Whether you’re considering selling tradelines yourself or simply curious about this niche financial practice, join me as I unpack the layers of this journey.
People ask me this one pretty often: they filed a dispute with Equifax or Experian, got the result letter back, and now they’re not sure what actually changed — or what to do if the mark is still there. Consumer disputes after resolution don’t always end cleanly. Sometimes the item gets deleted. Sometimes it comes back “verified.” And sometimes the outcome letter is so vague you’re left wondering whether anything happened at all. The wording you’ll see while it’s still open is “account information disputed by consumer”.
Continue reading “Consumer Disputes After Resolution: What Happens Next”
If you’ve ever pulled your credit report and seen a line that says “account information disputed by consumer,” you might be wondering whether that’s a good thing, a bad thing, or just administrative noise. The answer is mostly the latter — but there’s nuance worth understanding, especially if you’re in the middle of a dispute or planning to apply for credit soon.
If you’ve seen “too many consumer finance company accounts” on your credit score reason codes, you’re looking at a penalty that most people don’t know exists — and that most credit advice sites gloss over completely. Here’s what it actually means.
Continue reading “Too Many Consumer Finance Company Accounts”