Most of us can find a black mark in our past, could be a poor grade, check failure, an extra traffic ticket, whatever. The mitigation process is to minimize those with more good, and time.

That means, keep the trend upwards, keep the negatives dated in earlier years. If asked, have an explanation for the event. Become the overachiever. It’s hard to say odds of yes or no down the road, everyone’s different.

Once the basics are in place, some ‘faith’ helps.