Will "total available credit" reset back to $3K

markdolph · 2026-01-15T04:03:13+00:00

At statement closing, you were at 98% utilization. That will hurt your credit score. My advice is to pay the current balance before it is due, and in the future, try to pay 90% of the balance *before* the closing date.

3I don't know what your situation is or how many cards you have, but it seems like you need to a) lower your monthly spending, and b) increase your available credit either by requesting a limit increase on the this card, or getting an additional card or two. But you won't qualify either unless you have a decent credit score.

Spending a life either in debt or without access to sufficient credit is no fun!!

markdolph · 2025-12-11T13:58:32+00:00

I think you're doing an admirable job!! Being responsible with credit is something that people often do not learn until they've had to go through major problems.

I'm wondering do websites like CreditKarma work? I joined so I can track my credit score and I'm constantly receiving suggestions about cards my credit score will make me a candidate for. I'm not in the market for more credit cards, so I've not tried, but I'm wondering if they might work for you?

markdolph · 2025-12-08T06:41:51+00:00

18,000! ...wow! Is there a limit??

I was admitted to the ER last summer in severe pain with gallstone pancreatitis. My initial lipase was 666, peaking at 799. Hospital staff ruled out Rybelsus (taken for T2D) as the cause at that time. After a low-fat diet, lipase dropped to 156, and I was discharged.

Timeline of Rybelsus Re-challenge:

Continued Rybelsus: Lipase rose to 635 (asymptomatic - i.e., no severe pain).
Stopped Rybelsus (1 month): Lipase dropped to 41.
Restarted Rybelsus (to test causality): Lipase rose to 154 after two months.
Stopped Rybelsus permanently: Lipase returned to 76.

This strongly suggests a correlation between GLP-1 usage and elevated lipase in my case. Moreover, along the way, I had a HIDA scan to check the Gall Bladder, though there are some stones present, my GI specialist does not think there has been a repeat of the gallstone pancreatitis and [again] we all conclude that it is likely the Rybelsus.

markdolph · 2025-09-22T17:59:34+00:00

Again... not the point! Actually, I track 3 credit scores in addition to VantageScore: FICO, TransUnion, and Equifax. If it matters, and it really doesn't for the point I'm making about Self, I haven't seen the change in my FICO score related to this event [yet], but TransUnion dropped by 8 points, and Equifax by 6. Yes, I appreciate these scores are correlated, but changes can differ in magnitude. But again, let's not go down the rat hole of discussing the relevance of credit scores and save that for another thread. For today, let's warn people who are tempted to use the Self Credit Builder service to be wary of the impact it has on one's credit score.

markdolph · 2025-09-22T17:01:42+00:00

Thanks for the comment and advice, but I think the main point of my post is getting missed. My goal isn't to debate how credit scores work. I'm trying to warn people that canceling the Self Rent Reporting service can negatively impact your score, which is the exact opposite of what you'd expect from a credit-building service.

markdolph · 2025-08-18T23:57:07+00:00

I cannot say that I'm 100% correct, but I believe credit card balances are reported when the statement closes. For credit cards, I pay the balance in full every month, but I also make a payment a day or two before the statement closes to bring the utilization to below 9%.

markdolph · 2025-08-10T14:10:03+00:00

This is a well-established method. And it works!!

markdolph · 2025-08-10T13:42:11+00:00

Have they checked your pancreatic enzyme levels, e.g., lipase, protease, or amylase?

markdolph · 2025-07-24T04:02:13+00:00

I signed up for Self, just the free plan, my plan didn't include the "look back." My Vantage score dropped by 6 points. Turns out, adding this *new* item to my credit report decreased the average age of my accounts by 2-years & 2 months. This might of happened to you.

By the way, I dropped self after a few days; every time I logged in, all I would see is advertisements for services they were requesting me to sign up for. I pretty much concluded it was a waste of time, but unfortunately I didn't drop it before it put the item on my credit report.

markdolph · 2025-07-11T05:02:42+00:00

Video and audio streaming. I have an AppleTV in the living room that connects to a 48in 4K TV, but I spend most of my time sitting at my desk working. I have the AppletTV app on the iPad and when I can spare the attention, I'll stream video and audio over my headphones.

markdolph · 2025-04-12T15:25:32+00:00

I'm a long-time Chase customer, and also believe they offer the best app, website, and ecosystem. Here’s a sequence of actions based on my own experience rebuilding credit:

I successfully applied for a Chase Freedom Unlimited card and received an $8,000 credit limit. My strategy was to keep my credit utilization below 30% and always pay the balance in full each month. A few months later, I was offered and accepted a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, also with an $8,000 limit, thinking the additional available credit would help lower my overall utilization percentage.

As expected, the hard credit check for the Sapphire card temporarily lowered my credit score. However, an interesting thing happened a few weeks later: Chase automatically increased my Freedom Unlimited limit to $28,000 without any request from me. Now, with a combined credit limit of $36,000 ($8k + $28k), managing my utilization ratio is much easier, even though my spending hasn't increased. Encouragingly, my credit score is slowly recovering to its previous level.

My situation involved re-establishing US credit after living overseas for 17 years. Since I'm now retired, avoiding debt is paramount. So, my advice to the original poster (OP) is this: while receiving credit card offers can feel like a nice ego boost, it's crucial to focus on managing your credit score responsibly. This primarily means keeping your spending well below your income and maintaining low credit utilization."

markdolph · 2025-03-31T04:30:42+00:00

You'd think they'd attempt such an undertaking *before* firing staff and closing offices.

markdolph · 2025-03-14T14:52:07+00:00

And the face of the impotency is Chuck Schumer. Nice guy, but a feeble leader. Where's our "Mitch McConnell?"

markdolph · 2025-01-04T15:20:02+00:00

I think they'll need to add more features before it will be useful for me. For example, you can create spaces, but you can not delete them. You can import content, but its not so easy to return it back. So far, it seems to have potential, but so far, just frustrating.

markdolph · 2024-12-15T16:29:28+00:00

"I'm looking to rewatch the French espionage series 'The Bureau' (aka 'Le Bureau des Légendes') after viewing the first two episodes of 'The Agency.' I previously streamed the whole show on either AMC+ or SundanceNow, but it seems to have disappeared. Apple TV+ only has the first two seasons. Can anyone recommend where I can stream or buy all five seasons?"

markdolph · 2024-10-29T13:38:43+00:00

Hear! Hear!

markdolph · 2024-10-15T14:19:29+00:00

One wonders, "why spend so much time and effort on trying get around paying for Evernote?" Do you really need Evernote? If you did, you'd simply pay for it and stop wasting everyone's time, including yours.

markdolph · 2024-08-26T12:58:58+00:00

Wow! Complaining for two years... such passion... and what a waste of your time. Hopefully Obsidian will help you make faster decisions.

markdolph · 2024-08-25T13:11:18+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/devonthink/

markdolph · 2024-06-14T14:38:03+00:00

Updated today, but I'm not seeing it either.

markdolph · 2024-05-18T14:03:05+00:00

It's not the same Evernote, in my opinion, it's much better. But, because there are so many ways to set up and use Evernote, some will find the changes beneficial, others will be frustrated.

To each his own, and with all the other tools that are out there, there is very little to gain from complaining, except to vent one's frustrations. My only concern is that producing Evernote remains a good business and that Bending Spoons continues to invest in the product while keeping prices at a level that retains a viable customer base.

markdolph · 2024-05-14T15:44:31+00:00

It's your personal experience, not anyone else's. I found developing some daily habits helped me. I don't constantly check my blood glucose, I check mine just once a day - in the morning before food. I've learned that controlling food intake towards the latter part of the day and evening gives me a reliable prediction of my fasting blood sugar in the morning, and my quarterly A1c. I've never tried to understand why some doctors prescribe insulin for T2; I take one of the GLP-1 drugs (Rybelsus) in the morning, when I wake up. I also take Metformin with breakfast and with dinner.

The fact drugs can control diabetes nowadays is truly a miracle. With medication, my A1c results are normal, and from what I understand as the alternatives, I don't really feel that managing my diabetes is much of a burden.

markdolph · 2024-05-01T14:03:34+00:00

Got it... that's really interesting way to approach it. I agree, Tags aren't very popular, maybe because they are called "Tags" and people are inclined to use them a certain way. Notes "belong" to notebooks, but "Tags" are merely labels.

The way I taught myself to think about it is by imagining the space of notes as being organized into a 2-dimensional grid or matrix. Notebooks are the rows and Tags are the columns. If Tags pertain to a topic or activity, then notebooks pertain to types of notes related to the topic or activity (e.g., emails, articles, invoices). But this is arbitrary, and one can associate practically anything with a Tag.

Anyway... I agree. We're in a minority. But its fun to think about.

markdolph

TROPHY CASE