topic Re: I've screwed up in General Credit Topics

I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 00:47:19 GMT

Long read but I'm desperately looking for answers..........

Okay,

So I've maintained an 800 score for a couple years now and always pay my card balances off monthly (rarely ever carrying a balance 30 days). I foolishly used most of my available credit in January and February of this year on our wedding and honeymoon as well a few thousand to keep my business running during the slow months. I had no idea utilizing 90% of my credit would tank my score so horribly (almost 200 points).

I knew I would only carry these balances for a couple months and then pay them back off so I wasn't too concerned until my score tanked once they all finally reported.

(Total card utilization 28k on 8 cards).

I called the card issuers and asked for limits to be increased hoping this would lower my % of utilization to available ratio however, all of the issuers refused.

In a panic, I opened a few smaller credit cards to help with the ratio (5 total, all of them for 1000.00 or less) which tanked the score even more......those 5 cards have never been used or even activated but are reported as new accounts.

I have since started paying off the cards in large payments and have half of the cards at/or below 30% and the other half will be within the next 30 days. The half I've paid still haven't reported yet so I'm not sure where I'll end up. In the meantime, my 2018 truck broke down for the 3rd time (Dodge Transmission)......so the dealership finally agreed to buy me out of the truck and pay off the balance of my loan. In trying to replace my truck at another dealership, I've learned no dealership can help me with my score being so low and my credit usage so high.......I never thought in a million years I'd go from an 800 score to not being able to buy a vehicle with 100% on time payments my entire life.

According to credit karma I'm now at a 535 and have zero collections, late payments or bad debts........What can I do to fix this???

If I close the 5 cards that I recently opened in a panic but never used, will the 40 to 50 points lost by opening too many accounts in a short period be given back?

Can I expect to see my score improve enough over the next month or 2 once my cards report less than 30% utilization to be able to purchase a new truck

How badly will closing my old truck loan further damage my score? (Truck loan was only open for 18 months and hasn't reported 0.00 balance as of yet)

Thank you for reading.....any and all advice is very appreciated!!

Re: I've screwed up

Horseshoez — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:07:50 GMT

@Anonymous, sorry to say, but the damage has been done because of those five new cards, closing them may actually drop your score a point or two further. Had you stayed the course and simply paid down your existing cards your scores would have recovered almost as fast as they dropped.

To add insult to injury, the closing of your vehicle loan, assuming it was the only personal loan you had, will also drop your scores further.

Re: I've screwed up

TGG_1976 — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:09:35 GMT

I can't speak for the impact of the loan specifically. I know when I paid of my car loan, my score tanked since it was the only personal installment loan on my profile. As far as utilization .. utilization has no memory, so as soon as your utilization goes down, you should see your scores increase.

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:16:10 GMT

Not the answer I was hoping for but it's appreciated regardless.

The real kicker is Credit Karma suggested asking for credit limit increases and if that didn't work opening new cards to lower utilization.........they even suggested the cards to open!

I would have NEVER opened additional cards had I known the result.

Wondering now how long it will take to correct

Re: I've screwed up

FinStar — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:21:55 GMT

Hi @Anonymous and welcome to the forums.

Can you share with the community what your current FICO scores are for all 3 CRAs? Unfortunately, Credit Karma scores do not provide an accurate picture on things regarding these recent impacts on your profile.

Also, so that the community can point you in the right direction, can you list all the 8 accounts with the balances, their limits and their respective APRs? How much are you paying on them individually?

And, while some of the damage is already done, it's not a permanent thing + there's also ways to get things back on track.

Re: I've screwed up

FinStar — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:23:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Not the answer I was hoping for but it's appreciated regardless.

The real kicker is Credit Karma suggested asking for credit limit increases and if that didn't work opening new cards to lower utilization.........they even suggested the cards to open!

I would have NEVER opened additional cards had I known the result.
Wondering now how long it will take to correct

Yes, never trust Credit Karma with such nonsense suggestions going forward.

Re: I've screwed up

SouthJamaica — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:27:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Long read but I'm desperately looking for answers..........
Okay,
So I've maintained an 800 score for a couple years now and always pay my card balances off monthly (rarely ever carrying a balance 30 days). I foolishly used most of my available credit in January and February of this year on our wedding and honeymoon as well a few thousand to keep my business running during the slow months. I had no idea utilizing 90% of my credit would tank my score so horribly (almost 200 points).
I knew I would only carry these balances for a couple months and then pay them back off so I wasn't too concerned until my score tanked once they all finally reported.
(Total card utilization 28k on 8 cards).
I called the card issuers and asked for limits to be increased hoping this would lower my % of utilization to available ratio however, all of the issuers refused.
In a panic, I opened a few smaller credit cards to help with the ratio (5 total, all of them for 1000.00 or less) which tanked the score even more......those 5 cards have never been used or even activated but are reported as new accounts.

I have since started paying off the cards in large payments and have half of the cards at/or below 30% and the other half will be within the next 30 days. The half I've paid still haven't reported yet so I'm not sure where I'll end up. In the meantime, my 2018 truck broke down for the 3rd time (Dodge Transmission)......so the dealership finally agreed to buy me out of the truck and pay off the balance of my loan. In trying to replace my truck at another dealership, I've learned no dealership can help me with my score being so low and my credit usage so high.......I never thought in a million years I'd go from an 800 score to not being able to buy a vehicle with 100% on time payments my entire life.
According to credit karma I'm now at a 535 and have zero collections, late payments or bad debts........What can I do to fix this???

If I close the 5 cards that I recently opened in a panic but never used, will the 40 to 50 points lost by opening too many accounts in a short period be given back?

Can I expect to see my score improve enough over the next month or 2 once my cards report less than 30% utilization to be able to purchase a new truck

How badly will closing my old truck loan further damage my score? (Truck loan was only open for 18 months and hasn't reported 0.00 balance as of yet)

Thank you for reading.....any and all advice is very appreciated!!

1. Don't close anything. It won't help you to close anything.

2. Activate your cards, and use each once in a while.

3. Let as many of them as possible report zero balances.

4. Stop looking at Credit Karma. The scores there are Vantage scores, and therefore meaningless.

5. I doubt paying off the truck loan would hurt you, but I don't know what this means "the dealership finally agreed to buy me out of the truck and pay off the balance of my loan".

6. Your FICO scores will come back up

Re: I've screwed up

Remedios — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:58:15 GMT

@Horseshoez wrote:
@Anonymous, sorry to say, but the damage has been done because of those five new cards, closing them may actually drop your score a point or two further. Had you stayed the course and simply paid down your existing cards your scores would have recovered almost as fast as they dropped.

To add insult to injury, the closing of your vehicle loan, assuming it was the only personal loan you had, will also drop your scores further.

OP is talking about Vantage scores which impose by far harsher scoring losses for each new account.

Also, OP clearly stated they still have $13,000.00 left reporting meaning loan was by far away from being optimized at below 9%, which is where the most points are awarded and those are the ones that go away.

Let's not forget they are also getting a new loan, and mere presence of new loan even while fully utilized will help.

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 02:01:42 GMT

Thank you for the advice!!

My hope was that closing the cards would increase my score but that aside, the cards suck and have 80.00 to 100.00 per year membership fees and 30% interest (starter credit cards). I don't need them but if it's gonna hurt me I'll keep them.

Bought the truck in Oct of 2019, July of 2020 the transmission went out (36,000 miles). The dealership couldn't get my transmission covered under warranty because the truck had oversized tires, a lift, edge programmer, and EGR delete........all things the truck had when I bought it and was guaranteed to still have factory warranty.

After arguing for 4 months they agreed to pay half of the transmission and guaranteed in writing "this transmission has a 100% warranty for 12 months 12k miles", I got my truck back October 2020........4 months later (February 2021) the transmission went out again. After they had it for a couple weeks I learned this transmission isn't covered either (for the same reasons).....I flipped my lid. The VP of Operations called me and offered buy the truck paying off my loan plus a check for 8k.

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 02:35:48 GMT

According to the Experian app my FICO score 8 are as follows:

Experian 645

Exuifax 633

TransUnion 625

the other information would take quite a bit of logging in accounts and digging but depending on what "Score 8" means......I'm not quite as bad off as credit karma says

Re: I've screwed up

Remedios — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 02:41:39 GMT

Your points will be back as your cards report lower utilization at 30%, and even more once you get it down below 9%.

Which cards did you open?

If what you're describing above is true (useless, high AFs/high apr) I'd close them when AF is set to renew.

If these are cards that charge fee in monthly increments, close them right away.

Yeah, you took HPs, but this isn't a mistake you have to live with and keep paying for.

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 03:24:16 GMT

Milestone, Mission Lane, Surge, and 2 First Premiere cards........I believe they all came with the full fee already charged to them (annual).

A couple of them are still in the envelope not yet activated. Some are reporting 89.00 balance and some are reporting 29 to 39 dollar balances.

If I understand what you're saying, the ones that have already charged the full annual fee I might as well keep for another 11 months, the ones that charge the fee monthly I should probably cancel immediately?

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 03:36:24 GMT

I'd cancel monthly fee cards immediately. I'd keep the annual fee cards, the ones that won't cost you fees again until next year, so that their CLs help offset your utilization. Once your main cards are back where they belong, I'd dump one remaining subprime card a month and be rid of them. I wouldn't use any of them.

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 03:42:18 GMT

Thank you again for your help and advice!

I'll let you know how it goes moving forward.

Re: I've screwed up

Remedios — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 04:08:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Milestone, Mission Lane, Surge, and 2 First Premiere cards........I believe they all came with the full fee already charged to them (annual).
A couple of them are still in the envelope not yet activated. Some are reporting 89.00 balance and some are reporting 29 to 39 dollar balances.
If I understand what you're saying, the ones that have already charged the full annual fee I might as well keep for another 11 months, the ones that charge the fee monthly I should probably cancel immediately?

Close them tonight

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 05:29:06 GMT

What are your thoughts behind this?

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 10:51:22 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What are your thoughts behind this?

They will do you zero good in the long run, and in the meantime you'd be paying monthly for a garbage card with no perks that's far below the ones you already had.

Re: I've screwed up

SouthJamaica — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 12:41:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for the advice!!
My hope was that closing the cards would increase my score but that aside, the cards suck and have 80.00 to 100.00 per year membership fees and 30% interest (starter credit cards). I don't need them but if it's gonna hurt me I'll keep them.

Bought the truck in Oct of 2019, July of 2020 the transmission went out (36,000 miles). The dealership couldn't get my transmission covered under warranty because the truck had oversized tires, a lift, edge programmer, and EGR delete........all things the truck had when I bought it and was guaranteed to still have factory warranty.

After arguing for 4 months they agreed to pay half of the transmission and guaranteed in writing "this transmission has a 100% warranty for 12 months 12k miles", I got my truck back October 2020........4 months later (February 2021) the transmission went out again. After they had it for a couple weeks I learned this transmission isn't covered either (for the same reasons).....I flipped my lid. The VP of Operations called me and offered buy the truck paying off my loan plus a check for 8k.

1. If they're crummy starter cards then by all means close them. Closing them won't make a difference.

2. If the truck loan shows up as a paid off loan, then fine. If it shows up some other way, then all bets are off on what it signifies to your credit score.

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 22:29:33 GMT

Oh wow. Sorry to hear this. Good thing is your scores will go back up once you start paying them down. You'll get the points back but it won't be an overnight sensation. I know the feeling it's very depressing. I tank my scores when I go on credit sprees but I know about 6 plus months later my scores will start to go back up I just have to suck it up until then. Scores take less than a month to tank but takes what seems like forever to go back up. Don't get down on yourself those scores will go back up just be patient.

@Anonymous wrote:
Long read but I'm desperately looking for answers..........
Okay,
So I've maintained an 800 score for a couple years now and always pay my card balances off monthly (rarely ever carrying a balance 30 days). I foolishly used most of my available credit in January and February of this year on our wedding and honeymoon as well a few thousand to keep my business running during the slow months. I had no idea utilizing 90% of my credit would tank my score so horribly (almost 200 points).
I knew I would only carry these balances for a couple months and then pay them back off so I wasn't too concerned until my score tanked once they all finally reported.
(Total card utilization 28k on 8 cards).
I called the card issuers and asked for limits to be increased hoping this would lower my % of utilization to available ratio however, all of the issuers refused.
In a panic, I opened a few smaller credit cards to help with the ratio (5 total, all of them for 1000.00 or less) which tanked the score even more......those 5 cards have never been used or even activated but are reported as new accounts.

I have since started paying off the cards in large payments and have half of the cards at/or below 30% and the other half will be within the next 30 days. The half I've paid still haven't reported yet so I'm not sure where I'll end up. In the meantime, my 2018 truck broke down for the 3rd time (Dodge Transmission)......so the dealership finally agreed to buy me out of the truck and pay off the balance of my loan. In trying to replace my truck at another dealership, I've learned no dealership can help me with my score being so low and my credit usage so high.......I never thought in a million years I'd go from an 800 score to not being able to buy a vehicle with 100% on time payments my entire life.
According to credit karma I'm now at a 535 and have zero collections, late payments or bad debts........What can I do to fix this???

If I close the 5 cards that I recently opened in a panic but never used, will the 40 to 50 points lost by opening too many accounts in a short period be given back?

Can I expect to see my score improve enough over the next month or 2 once my cards report less than 30% utilization to be able to purchase a new truck

How badly will closing my old truck loan further damage my score? (Truck loan was only open for 18 months and hasn't reported 0.00 balance as of yet)

Thank you for reading.....any and all advice is very appreciated!!

Re: I've screwed up

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Apr 2021 22:33:24 GMT

Please ignore what CK says when it talks about increasing your scores. It tells me the same thing after my score tanks during my app sprees. I'm like the reason why my scores tank is from applying and opening many credit cards at one time and here is CK saying to open more to increase my scores. lol

@Anonymous wrote:
Not the answer I was hoping for but it's appreciated regardless.

The real kicker is Credit Karma suggested asking for credit limit increases and if that didn't work opening new cards to lower utilization.........they even suggested the cards to open!

I would have NEVER opened additional cards had I known the result.
Wondering now how long it will take to correct