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How did you sink your score?

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fezwhy
Regular Contributor

How did you sink your score?

About 10 years ago my scores were in the 760 and up range. I qualified for a house which I ended up buying. Also during that time I cosigned on a sallie mae private loan for my then fiance. The mortgage company refused to work with me on my first or 2nd mortgage. The house was lost to foreclosure 2 years later. Then my ex fiance stopped paying on the loan and my score took a huge hit. I dropped down to the high 400s. Fast forward to Today and my foreclosure falls off this year. I have not dealt with the private loan yet as I am trying to get a little more in savings in case they possibly offer a reduced amount. But at the same time I won't cut my emergency savings down too low.

What is your story and what did you do to fix it?
Message 1 of 14
13 REPLIES 13
sunshine7157
Regular Contributor

Re: How did you sink your score?

Cancer got me at the ripe old age of 38. Single mother of 3 with no financial help whatsoever. I was out of work from my $11/hr job for 14 weeks. I had to use my (2) credit cards just to live. This was in 2007 before the credit card act was in play. My mortgage ended up 180 days late, car payment hit 90 days, the two credit cards (both with credit lines of less than 3k) went 120 days late. Of course with the credit cards, bad quickly went to worse when I'd get double-whammied every month (when the late fees started setting off over-the-limit fees). I think in the end, my fees were more than my original balances.Thank god for a good tax return (I had always claimed 0 on my w2's so I could get a nice return once a year when I was able to claim 4 at tax time). I got my mortgage caught up with that. Caught up the car payment by paying double payments for like 5 months. Entered a 3 year set payment plan with the credit cards. Every baddie will hit 7 years by the end of 2015. Those ended up being the worst 2 years of my life. The cancer, surgery, etc. was bad enough. Thankfully I was able to fight that & win. But the residual financial effects are still taking their toll. Those gave me 7 years of added stress. It is said 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Yeah?? Well then I've hit Superwoman status. Smiley Frustrated

Message 2 of 14
milkshakes
Regular Contributor

Re: How did you sink your score?


@sunshine7157 wrote:

Cancer got me at the ripe old age of 38. Single mother of 3 with no financial help whatsoever. I was out of work from my $11/hr job for 14 weeks. I had to use my (2) credit cards just to live. This was in 2007 before the credit card act was in play. My mortgage ended up 180 days late, car payment hit 90 days, the two credit cards (both with credit lines of less than 3k) went 120 days late. Of course with the credit cards, bad quickly went to worse when I'd get double-whammied every month (when the late fees started setting off over-the-limit fees). I think in the end, my fees were more than my original balances.Thank god for a good tax return (I had always claimed 0 on my w2's so I could get a nice return once a year when I was able to claim 4 at tax time). I got my mortgage caught up with that. Caught up the car payment by paying double payments for like 5 months. Entered a 3 year set payment plan with the credit cards. Every baddie will hit 7 years by the end of 2015. Those ended up being the worst 2 years of my life. The cancer, surgery, etc. was bad enough. Thankfully I was able to fight that & win. But the residual financial effects are still taking their toll. Those gave me 7 years of added stress. It is said 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Yeah?? Well then I've hit Superwoman status. Smiley Frustrated


amazing story. thanks for sharing -- we've got your back!

      
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Message 3 of 14
SchwenLarson
New Visitor

Re: How did you sink your score?

Wow, how sad.  I appreciate you sharing your stories, but they are sad.  :-(

Message 4 of 14
T4YLOR_M4D3
Valued Member

Re: How did you sink your score?

To be honest, I was a military brat turned military lol. Giving a spoiled kid money and credit is like giving...well you can fill in the rest. But yeah, I joined and had a lot of nice stuff due to predatory loans and friendly creditors... 10 years, one wife, and two kids later, I am jumping in the mud yelling "stupid, stupid, stupid!" Lol... About the debt/interest, not my family of course lol.
Message 5 of 14
meehan22
Frequent Contributor

Re: How did you sink your score?

18, graduated, moved to a new city and a new job.  Had parents give me a boost on credit making me an AU and co signed on a couple of large lines of credit and a credit card for whatever I may need. Met the wrong girl.  700 credit score at 19 down to (if I remember) high 300's. 30k in debt.

 

Should've filed bankruptcy, took me till I was 26 to recover, pay it all, and finally get credit cards again. 

 

Write it off to a life lesson, I am still young and have lots of living left to do. Most people my age are finally getting settled down so I guess I didn't lose out on to much. 


Wallet: Chase $6,000 - Discover $1,500 - Walmart $2,200 - Voyage FCU $1,300 - Zales $2,300 - Elan Fin: $12,500(AU, reporting) - Chase $8,500 (AU, reporting) 1% UTL
Message 6 of 14
EctGar
Established Member

Re: How did you sink your score?

Never new much about Credit came from a single parent home never was taught the basics.  Went into the Military got married then decided to get out and go to College.  Graduated from College wife got cancer missed about a year worth of Student loans but we did not lose the house or the car.  I had never had a Credit card in my life until last week never thought i needed one until stumbled across this forum and relized if I was going too if I wanted a good score.  My Credit is about a 600 I have not missed a payment on my student loans in over 3 years and my goal is a 700+ this time next year.  

Message 7 of 14
azguy13
Senior Contributor

Re: How did you sink your score?


@T4YLOR_M4D3 wrote:
To be honest, I was a military brat turned military lol. Giving a spoiled kid money and credit is like giving...well you can fill in the rest. But yeah, I joined and had a lot of nice stuff due to predatory loans and friendly creditors... 10 years, one wife, and two kids later, I am jumping in the mud yelling "stupid, stupid, stupid!" Lol... About the debt/interest, not my family of course lol.

I hear ya on that one. My first exposure to credit was a STAR card w/$1K CL ($500 Clothing Sales, $500 anythign else), USAA Mastercard $1K limit, and USAA car loan. Well, in Arizona I had 30 days to transfer over my car insurance. I completely forgot to do it and guess who totalled their car without insurance? Yup... so that happened and then I realized I was so screwed I stopped paying on the mastercard. I also had a couple 60 day lates on the STAR card (Commander wasnt too happy about that). Now, fast forward 10 years, I have paid off the Auto loan CO, it is off my report, and the USAA Mastercard was paid and off my report. The only thing I have left is a 30 day late on  the STAR from 2008 and my report is clean. 

Message 8 of 14
Barneygirl
Frequent Contributor

Re: How did you sink your score?

High 700's in '99.... and was hit by the proverbial bus (okay, brain aneurysm).  CO on all my credit cards... Smiley Sad

 

Back to high 700's in 2007... divorce took hold and I decided to buy the ex out of the house.  We had listed it and tried to sell it prior to my decision to buy him out.  In MN, at that time, if you listed your home anywhere in the six months prior to refinancing you were considered "high risk".... so I could only get financing from a sub-prime lender, at 11.5%.   Was supposed to be a short-term, six month fix to get me past the six month waiting period.  Scraped by for 6 months, barely to make ends meet, and when the time came to refinance the bottom had dropped out of the market and I lost ALL my equity in my home.  Seriously, in six months I lost almost $100,000!!! 

 

No refinance available when equity = none!  Stuck in an 11.5% mortgage!!!  7 years it took, fighting, scraping by, NOT making ends meet.  Defaulted on a student loan, and a few other bills went "late" intermittently.  I'd rotate who got paid so no one went past 60 days... except the student loan (stupid mistake)

 

I took a job two years ago that allowed me the financial freedom to start paying off all the old debts and ....the market here in MN just bounced back this past year and I was FINALLY able to refinance my house!!!!!!  Happiest "happy dance" I've ever done in my life I think!! Smiley Happy

My monthly house payment dropped $1700 PER MONTH!!!! 

 

Paid my LAST outstanding bill in Aug 2013, and paid the Jeep off in Dec... and am officially "debt free" (other than the house).  And found that did even WORSE things for my credit!!!! 

 

Have started opening new types of credit (CCs, loans, etc) to try to rebuild.  It's a slow process ....but knowing you're not alone (love this community!!!) really helps!!


Current FICO Scores: EQ749; TU732; EX733
Message 9 of 14
macuserftw
Regular Contributor

Re: How did you sink your score?

I was 18, and I moved to a big city to attend college. I didn't come from a well off family by any means. I took out a $30,000 student loan to cover my tuition (my score was 702 at the time) and I leased an apartment with a good friend of mine (both of us being on the lease). After a couple months of being in university, my bank (BoA) offered me a special "student" credit card with a limit of $600. Fast forward a year later (after renewing our apartment lease) and my roommate meets "the guy of her dreams" and just suddenly leaves to move in with him. I'm now stuck with an apartment I have no hope of affording on my own. I didn't have anyone to bail me out so, I panicked and broke the lease. For the two months I remained in the apartment after my roommate bailed, I was paying her share of the bills with my credit card. Soon enough, the card was maxed out.

 

At this point I moved back home for a few months (commuting 4 hours to college and staying at other friends places when I could) until I was finally able to move into some off-campus student housing for the remainder of my college years. I managed to settle the credit card debt with BoA, but those derogatory marks are still on my report. The broken lease is in collections to the tune of $1,100 - which is due to fall off sometime in 2016.

 

I have my student loan which I've paid down to $15,128 (half the original balance) and I've never had a late payment on that. I just recently managed to get a 36 month car loan (with a high interest rate of course) which is also paid on time every single month. The dealership managed to put 15+ inquiries on my report though as they sent my information to any lender with a pulse. Right now I'm sitting at a 580 on EQ and a 610 on TU. Once I get that horrid lease off my report (it's outside of the SOL for my state this month - huge relief there), things will start to improve.

 

 

Message 10 of 14
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