@Anonymous wrote:
So here's the deal. I'm in my early 30s, married with 1 child. My spouse and I gross approximately $120k/year and I am up for a promotion that could bump that up by 10k. I'm a web professional and my spouse is an auto tech. We are swimming in debt and I want to wipe out ALL debt except for our mortgage.
I recently started taking steps in the right direction. Here is our debt breakdown:
$240k mortgage
$23k across 2 car loans
$37k across 11 credit cards (all maxed).
- I closed ALL of our credit cards except the two with the highest limit ($20k + $8k) because I want to keep those for future use once they're paid off (one is an Amex tied to Costco, the other is with our Credit Union) - I know my spending habits and wanted to ensure I wouldn't touch those cards ever again, so I closed them.
- I signed up (like an idiot) with DebtWave (CC Counseling Company) but just cancelled their service after 3 months yesterday to take this on myself.
$58k in student loans (a total of I think 12 small loans)
I tried to apply for consolidation loans ($10k to knock out the debt for the 9 cards I closed) through Avant, Upstart, Prosper and Lending Club and got denied for ALL of them. (Our scores are low-mid 600s)
We have ONE collection from 2009 that was paid off like 5 years ago. Beyond that no negatives except a mistake on Amazon Store Card's part of marking us as 60+ days late one time.
Any suggestions on a lender that might actually help us? The reason for denial is always just because of our utilization but THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE LOAN! To just drop all of that debt onto ONE payment so we can focus ALL efforts on paying off the ONE loan instead of 11 cards. So obnoxious.
If you were getting turned down due to high utilization, you just shot yourself in the foot by closing all those credit cards. That instantly made your utilization go WAY UP since the available credit limits went down (assuming the nine accounts weren't like $200 Comenity cards).
As the other poster mentioned, a mortgage refinance might work. Otherwise, you have already got your answer from all those denials. Not point lowering your scores even further by getting more inquiries.
You just need to pay off that credit card debt. The best way from a practical point is to pay down the highest rate card first, the second highest rate second, and on down the line. A lot of people use the snowball method whereby you pay off the lowest balance card first, then take that payment amount and add it to the payment on the next to lowest amount, continuing until all accounts are paid off.
You should also call and ask for an interest rate reduction on your two open accounts. You aren't likely to get one from your closed accounts.\
You are the classic example of people doing what sounds like the logical correct thing to do, but from a FICO score perspective and having the ability to refinance the debt, you really complicate the matter.
Since then, I have been hoping a bonus would come through and save me or at least give me room to breathe. I won't even attempt a personal loan application after seeing your list of denials. 
012019 Fico8/Mortgage Score: 
