@elaine829 wrote:THis year hasnt been the greatest. My score was in 680 in june and my husband lost his job in april and we couldnt keep up with some bills. So Im at 545 now. We have a 120 late for a mortgage. And a 90 day late on a car payment. My husband has a job now but we had to move out of state. We have a high utilization the fico simulater says if we pay 90% of credit card we would be back in the 700s. The credit cards I have is American Express Blue 3000cl:2990 balance , CITIBANK1000cl:993 balance, Jcpenney 2000 cl 1700 balance, Macy doesnt have cl but card has balance of 2500, Home depot 1200cl and 1100 balance , Banana Replublic 900cl 125 balance, Kays 7500cl:0 balance and best buy 2200cl and 800 balance. I havent gotten a credit decrease yet or a card closure. But I was just wonder if any one have experience in my situation? I have a few old baddies one from victoria secret a charge off from 05 that drops off next month. Also Asset acceptance is on report which is associate with the victoria secret account which say it suppose to drop off in march 2012 but I would think it would drop off the same time as victoria secret. Also a repo from 2005 thats suppose to drop off in march 2012 and a collection from a utilities bill thats paid that the people wont remove even with gw letter thats suppose to drop off feb2012.
Please don't misunderstand what I am about to write, as I am writing it out of concern for your situation rather than judging you (we've all been in financial trouble before)...and as always, this is just my assessment based on personal experience, so YMMV...
My bigger concern than whether any of the above lenders will reflexively close or CLD would be the inevitable call you will likely receive asking why you ran up 70% util on store cards that more or less sell clothes and home improvement items in addition to a $2,500 debt at Macy's. Most credit card companies (save maybe AMEX) would understand if they saw a higher-than-usual util on regular credit cards and heard that you were simply going through a difficult time and needed to charge and pay down gradually to buy household items and food. What they won't understand is why you would roll up over $6,000 in debt on those store cards when money was in such short supply.
My suggestion would be to prepare for any calls you will receive from lenders like AMEX and Citi asking about the high balances. When you explain why you have run up your balances, prepare for the grilling about the store cards. I speak from experience here, as I received a call like that from Discover back in 1999 and basically threw myself on the mercy of the court. I explained (again, this is MY experience..not necessarily yours) that I had simply been lax with charging and needed to pay back my balances over time. They understood, but gave me a lecture about money management and keeping good credit standing (sigh, I was 22 at the time!).
I'm not sure because of the way you phrased it, are you still 120+ behind on the mortgage and 90+ on the car, or are you saying you are current now and just have those on your report? That is secured debt and should trump all unsecured CC payments so you don't get get your house foreclosed / car repo'd. Forgive me if I understood you wrong.
I totally get that life events happen to people - when things happen it's time to go into damage control mode and prioritize which debts need to be attacked first. House, car, anything else secured, then work on loans and CCs based on highest interest rates.
Starting Score: 690