Unintentionally of course 
Sooo... I made a couple of decisions that has my score stuck between 650-690. Prior to 2016 I was in the beatiful land of low 700's and on the way to continue growing.
However I made a couple of decisions that may have hurt my score for a while. This is a vent btw.
So back at the end of 2014 I took out a personal loan w/ One main financial for 5.5k. The interest on this was absolutely ridiculous. So from the first month I got it, I knew that I was going to refinance it with another company. So I looked into Lending tree, SoFi and a couple others. What I ended up doing was not a refinance at all. It was the beginning of 2016 when I just got fed up with paying all of the interest that I actually balanced transferred it to a new BankAmericard to take advantage of the 0% for the 18 months. At this point I was so happy because I was saving myself ALOTTT of money 
.
However when I did this, I didnt really care about about much of my limit I was actually using, I was just fed up with the interest, so my UTI went up. First Ding to my score.
Second ding. I paid off my car. 
Who knew that this would drop my score dang near 30 points!!!! I was so confused. I thought that paying off an account would be a good thing
Anywho, Third Ding. From 2015-2016 I not only went on a couple of trips but I financed one for my father as well (to Vegas no less) lol. So Im a bit in debt from those 
Overall I dropped my mix of accounts from 4 to 2. Increased my UTI. And removed all installment loans. Im really trying to do good, but its like Im making bad decisions trying to fulfill the good. Now I need to do another BT and Im concerned that my new Credit state will prevent from being approved from the line I need to be approved for.
Well thats my vent. Not sure if there's much room for advice, but any would be apprecaited.
@Appleman wrote:Sometimes a rant is all you need. Time to re-focus and do what you know needs to be done.
Have you tried using a budget program? You may want to look at YNAB (you need a budget) and use this as a tool to not increase your debt. It will help you think of money in different terms and ultimately change your relationship with money. It is not easy to live on a budget, but the future you will thank you for starting now. Would be nice to have everything already paid for on the next Vegas vacation!
This ^!!!
I started to use YNAB just a few months ago and it has drastically changed the way I look at spending and my budget. It can be somewhat of a learning curve, but they have free classes you can take. Well worth the investment.
@Appleman wrote:Sometimes a rant is all you need. Time to re-focus and do what you know needs to be done.
Have you tried using a budget program? You may want to look at YNAB (you need a budget) and use this as a tool to not increase your debt. It will help you think of money in different terms and ultimately change your relationship with money. It is not easy to live on a budget, but the future you will thank you for starting now. Would be nice to have everything already paid for on the next Vegas vacation!
Hey so I did sign up. Thank you for that advice! Im still in the learning stages of even using it. I'll give myself a week or 2 to learn the system and then hopefully I can start incorporating the budget into my daily regimen.
Ill give an update of how that is going when I get the hang of everything.
@Anonymous wrote:One of the things about BT's or consolidation loans from places like Lending Club etc is that it can fool people into thinking thay have done something to reduce their debt, when n fact all they have done is move it. It is absolutely imperative to execute on the breathing space that is gained by the debt moves. Otherwise, you end up in an even bigger hole than before. That's essentially what the BT cards are counting on.
So, while there may have an initial ding for utilization on the card, if you were paying it down as planned, that would go away.
Good news is, if you have no missed payments etc, not too many inquiries and a decent income, chances are good that Lending Club will approve. It's only a SP to find out.
That will help your util and your account mix. Your interest rate may not the best with those scores though. But like I said, it's only a soft pull to find out what terms they will give you.
But honestly, and I'm assuming thats what you want, if you don't think you can rein in the spending, I would advise against increasing your opportunity for more debt. Trips to Vegas on credit are not going to help you!
It's just that after 18 months of zero percent, if you have not made a very significant dent in the initial $5500, then you may need to look at your budgeting rather than your credit socre
Not trying to beat on you, I have been in exactly the same boat. Only thing that fixed it was totally revisiting what I was spending.
I defintely appreciate this post and agree with you 100%.
Im getting back into the groove of budgeting. In 2015 I was much better , but hey it happens. Originally, I did want to move the balances into a loan, but the fact that I can pay them down w/ no interest appeals to me more. What I have done, and this may not be the right thing, is increase the limit on all my CC's and made 2 large payments to the 2 cards I have higher balances w/ so Im finally under 30% UTI overall. In another 2-3 years I might add on another auto loan to add to my mix of accounts, but for now Im mentally done w/ interest and just want to focus on paying it down. I was using CC's for my daily spend as well, all of which I PIF. So next month Im switching that spending to a charge card so it wont be calculated in my UTI. Hopefully the combination of these actions result in a postive change in my scores.
Overall, I think better budgeting is going to get me where I want to be financially. Not sure how that will inversely impact my scores though 
. Oh well heres to trying.
Thank you for this post. While I'm not in the same place, I am in a similar place, and I feel like making ourselves aware of this (catching it now, vs. later) is actually a really good thing. A true positive for the long run.
