u/bishaarcc

Accourding to Sofi website, payments checks should be payable to: SoFi Bank, National Association Personal Loan, however I mistakenly only wrote: SOFI.

Do you think my cashier's check will be returned or that's still fine? I sent my cashier's check on the 18th of June and still didn't post.

I actually thought my score would drop 60 points or more, but it only dropped 26 points. I hit 88% on individual card utilization and 37% overall. Vantage scores dropped 72 points, but FICO is much more forgiving.

I know every profile is different, but I assumed there'd be a minimum point drop for such a massive utilization spike.

My credit used to be decent five years ago, but then I maxed out all my cards and became irresponsible. I have five credit cards: an Apple Card, an Amex, two Capital One cards, and a BECU card. I basically maxed out every single card—not 90%, but 100%, and a few of them were even over 100%.

The good thing is that I didn't stop paying them despite the huge monthly payments, 40% of which were interest. My employment income went directly to these credit cards. In addition to the credit cards, I also had two car loans. So, I decided to walk into a BECU credit union and tell them, hey guys, this debt is killing me. Give me a personal loan so I can save on the massive interest and give you guys the payment instead of other lenders.

BECU gave me a $24k personal loan and a $10k line of credit and they said use this money to pay off the credit cards. I said thank you and left. Well, guess what, I just used the money and didn't pay the cards. My debt became $80k with almost $3k in monthly payments. Now I had to work just for the credit cards.

As much of an idiot as I am, I didn't stop the payments. My entire paycheck went to these lenders, and I was working six days a week, nine hours a day. I continued this way for two years! The debt didn't go down much because I was only paying the minimums, and the interest was ridiculously high.

I almost gave up and decided to let it go! stop paying, and leave the job. I mean, I really screwed up. But then, in February 2026, I opened Credit Karma and they showed me a guaranteed personal loan that could be used for my credit cards. I was like, is that even possible? Who is the crazy lender that will give you cash on top of maxed out cards, loans, and all this stuff? In addition, even though I kept my payment history mostly intact, I had one 30 day late payment in September 2024. So despite swimming in all that debt and having a late payment, my FICO scores were still not bad (670–680). The Vantage scores were much lower, though they are meaningless most of the time.

Apparently, Credit Karma showed my profile to SoFi. They saw an individual who was carrying ridiculously high loans, but at the same time hadn't missed many payments, so they took the risk. They not only offered me a $30k loan but gave me a great interest rate of 13%, considering the state of my profile at that point.

I took the loan. This time, my small brain worked, and I transferred the full amount to the credit cards. My score jumped 50 points, bringing me to a 720–730 score. That helped me massively because it freed up almost $500 in monthly interest.

I didn't stop there; I requested to change the billing cycles on some of my credit cards. My BECU credit card has a $12k limit, and BECU doesn't have a cash advance fee. So, what I did was take a cash advance for 40% of my limit and give the money to my Capital One credit cards. Once they reported to the credit bureaus, I did a balance transfer back to BECU. I did that for two months, and my scores jumped again due to this utilization trick, reaching 768, 775, and 781.

Now, here is the problem. Even though my scores are high, I still have three major issues:

Most banks see that my credit cards were maxed out for the last two billing cycles, so I will need at least three or four months to be stable.

My current creditors saw my behavior, and even though they didn't close or reduce my accounts, they "bucketed" my cards, meaning they will never increase my limits (Capital One especially).

Lastly, since I am using a trick to transfer the balances to cheat the utilization code, I am still paying interest.

So, I decided to walk into a local credit union. I applied for their credit card, and boom, they offered me a $25k limit. Not only that, but it came with a 1.99% balance transfer rate without any additional fees for 12 months. I took the card made a balance transfer 22k from the CC to my BECU loan and some of Sofi loan as well, I now my scores will drop 40 points but hey, I am saving almost 400 dollars of pure savings.

Now, all my credit cards, my BECU line of credit, and my personal loan are at zero. The only debt I currently have is the SoFi loan, which is already halfway paid off, and this new credit union credit card, which I will hopefully be done with in 5-6 months.

Once I reduce and pay of my credit card balance, my scores will be around 790–810 despite the 30-day late payment from September 2024.

I had almost given up, but then I remembered that giving up is not an option. I didn't think the Credit Karma/SoFi partnership would give me the loan that opened the door to my success. But hey, trying is worth every penny. Try until you are completely dead.

Hi guys,

I bought the Motorola Razr Fold and I have been using it for the last couple of days along with my Z Fold 7.

The phone looks and feels great, and it is a similar weight to my current Fold 7 with a case, not heavy at all. I immediately uninstalled a bunch of unnecessary apps and disabled others, the phone comes packed with apps, so it is better to clean it up unless you don't mind the bloatware.

The things I like about the phone are the battery, which is on another level compared to my F7, and the 3x telephoto camera. In my experience, the Fold 7's main camera takes better shots, the Motorola overexposes images, making faces too white and removing natural shadows. The UW camera shows mixed results, I prefer the colors of the Z Fold 7 but appreciate the overall quality of the Razr Fold.

I was expecting the screen brightness and quality of the Razr Fold to destroy the Z Fold 7, but that is not the case. They are identical. In fact, it is crazy sunny here in Seattle right now, and the Razr Fold automatically reduces its brightness after a short period when you are standing outside or sitting in a car on a sunny day. The YouTuber Shane also reported a similar experience.

Now for the performance. I assumed that since the front screen of the Razr Fold has a 165Hz refresh rate, it would be just as smooth as, or smoother than, the Fold 7. Nope. The scrolling is choppy and jittery compared to my Z Fold 7 on both the cover screen and the inner screen. When you scroll down a long page on Chrome or Reddit on the Z Fold 7, the pages run seamlessly without any noticeable frame loss. The Razr is fast, but there is a big difference between fast and smooth.

Another huge disappointment with the Razr Fold is how it scales certain apps when moving from the cover screen to the inner display. The TikTok app is a disaster, sometimes it goes completely full screen on the inner display, which cuts off the content, and other times it displays at a normal size but sits right in the middle without the option to move it to the sides like you can on a Samsung. If you join a live room and then leave to go another room, you will still hear the voice of the people from the first room.

The Google Gemini integration is also lacking. When the screen is off and you are using Gemini Live, you can't adjust the volume. Also Gemini on this device can't retrieve real-time information from your email or calendar the way it can on Pixel or Samsung phones. Additionally, the secure folder isn't as great as Samsung's Secure Folder, and the power button which doubles as the fingerprint scanner is placed too high to reach comfortably.

Obviously, I am still testing the device. However, it only took a day or two to realize that Motorola is years behind Samsung when it comes to software optimization. The only real positives for this phone are the battery life and the sound quality, both of which are great.

But I already miss the swipe gestures from Good Lock, the deep Google AI integration, and the overall smoothness and reliability of my Samsung. On the Razr Fold, the web browser occasionally refreshes randomly or the page goes white for a second before returning to normal, it doesn't happen constantly, but when it does, it's weird and annoying.

Another feature I miss is Samsung's live activities on the screen, like tracking a timer or media playback. When you set a timer on the Razr Fold, you can't even see its active progress, and it completely disappears if you clear your notification panel.

My summary is that the Razr Fold is a similar price to or even more expensive than Samsung's current or upcoming foldable 7/8. It does have a better 3x camera, superior battery life, and excellent sound quality, but the software experience is significantly worse, and all that being said, the software is the most important element of a device in my opinion whether it is a phone or computer or any other devices.

Hi guys,

I stopped getting phones from T-Mobile a couple of years ago when they removed the option to pay off phones early, so since then I’ve been getting my phones through Apple and Samsung while still using Tmobile service.

Now it seems Tmobile keeps introducing new policies every year, no upgrades for free lines, no upgrades for more than two devices per account, etc. I honestly don’t fully understand these recent changes, or it doesn’t seem like they’ve affected my account, unless I’m reading things wrong.

I currently have 12 active lines, including a few free ones. One of the lines has multiple installment plans on it because a few people in our family upgrade every year. Instead of upgrading every individual line, it has always been easier for me to upgrade my own line multiple times and then give the phones to family members. That’s basically what I’ve been doing for the last 7 years.

Now I’m hearing that the no free line promo eligibility policy is active and that multiple installments on one line are no longer allowed. however whenever I go ahead and upgrade through Apple, everything still goes through normally with no issues. Even the free lines still appear to be eligible for upgrades.

I would appreciate it if someone could explain when and how this new policy actually works.

I might be wrong, but I don't see any important improvements or advantages to the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide. The phone will give you an almost identical YouTube video size to the Oppo Find N6.

If the main goal of the wide device is to give you a bigger video size, then it is a failure. If the goal is a better cover screen, then it is also a failure because the Oppo Find already has an actual, true slab phone cover screen. So, maybe it's portability and ergonomics? That's also a failure because a wider device is difficult for the pocket, the Find N6 and standard Fold 8 are actually better when it comes to portability.

The cover screen of the wide fold is going to be very weird and unnatural for social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Reddit, so I am genuinely curious what are the advantages of the Wide fold model?

One important note is that the rumored iPhone Fold is actually wider than the Fold 8 Wide. It will give you 10% more video area compared to the 2% increase of the Fold 8 Wide.

Oppo Find N6 screen: 138.5 mm x 152.8 mm, full YouTube video 152.8 mm x 86.0 mm

Galaxy Z Fold 7 screen: 136.0 mm x 150.9 mm, Full YouTube video 150.9 mm x 84.9 mm

Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide (Rumored) Screen: 154.4 mm x 115.8 mm, Full YouTube video 154.4 mm x 86.9 mm

Apple iPhone Fold (Rumored) Screen: 158.5 mm x 118.9 mm, full YouTube Video 158.5 mm x 89.2 mm