topic Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!! in General Credit Topics

Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:38:09 GMT

In a short one month, I was able to bring my credit scores from: Trans:600 Experion:617 Equifax:602 to....638, 658, and 628 respectively. I owe it all to the advice on these boards. I started paying down my debt- first to go was the cards I stupidly closed but still had high balances. Then came the ones I still had open. My utilization has gone from 87% to 29%. I was about 5700.00 in the hole (not counting the grand total of 200,000.00 I have from undergrad and law school loans). I had recently started saving for a down payment on a house so I had the extra cash. I figured it was stupid of me to have cash in hand and a horrible credit score. Granted, now I have to start over again with the house saving but I think I made a great choice. I am guessing my scores will go up again really soon considering not all creditors have reported zero balances. I am hoping to be in a great position to buy sometime in 2009. Also....I was able to secure very low (to me anyway) financing 4.9% on a new Jetta. I needed a new car to get myself back and forth to school. I went yesterday armed with my credit scores...an understanding of an auto enahanced FICO...and the interest rates I would qualify for. Amazingly, VW pulled a 687 on the auto enhanced score and I must say- I was more than ecsatic. I mean- this comes from a girl who this time last year had a 499 and couldn't even get approved for a car loan with my father as a co-signer!!! Thank you all for your knowledge and empowerment to make the right financial decisions. I just can't thank you guys enough!

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:55:46 GMT

Awesome - Keep it up

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Tuscani — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:01:25 GMT

Super!

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:49:39 GMT

Super congrats! I know how thrilled you are. You are taking control of your credit life, and improving it.

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:11:15 GMT

excellent! keep up the good work. you'll be in the 700 club before long!

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

MidnightVoice — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:14:46 GMT

well done. Hang in there

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

demi — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 23:53:12 GMT

Great !!!! I have a 2005 "New Jetta".....got it when they first came out......absolutely love my car. Especially the seat warmers and the rear window defroster this morning !

Gretta the Jetta rocks ! Have had no problems at all, almost 60,000 miles in 2 1/2 years.

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 00:45:07 GMT

You must be ecstatic. Good job. I'm at a 481 right now. Just starting on my journey. Any tips and how did you do it? What helped improve your score the most?

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:54:20 GMT

Hey... To the poster who had the question.... This time last year when I had the dreaded 499, I basically had no clue it was that bad. I had signed up for this monitoring service 2 years ago but forgot about it. Hence, I was able to see the history of my decline. I knew I really messed up back in the summer of 2006. I had moved due to a break-up and was living with my parents (cringe); it was an awful depressing time. I just had more on my mind than paying bills. Anyway- fast forward to this year and I had the house buying bug. I am 28 and about to graduate law school. Buying a house- to me- is the first step in the right direction to "adulthood". When my friend who is a real estate agent began telling me in the ins and outs of purchasing, I realized I may be in trouble. I checked my score and although it had jumped about 100 points in the year (just from paying bills on time mind you), I needed a better fix. The single most important thing that keeps making my score jump (up another 26 points since last post!!!) is the paying down of the debt. I have a new view about credit cards.....evil evil evil. Of course I will keep them open forever and use them once in awhile for small purchases but I will NEVER buy things on them I can't afford. It just hurts you in the long run. Life is so much less stressful and easier when you feel in control on your finances. If you can't take on a second job to pay off your cards, try to make a budget and see if you can cut something out. Use that money to pay more than your minimums. I also went through my reports and found about 8 errors. Who knew? If I never checked, I would have been continually hurting myself. So far, I was able to erase an erroneous late payment with Chrysler Financial from a few years back. I wrote them a scathing letter (yes- it was no Goodwill letter b/c honestly I was pissed) and then to the credit bureaus. 3 weeks later- it is gone. Hang in there- you can do it. If I can- anyone can.

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:57:20 GMT

about credit credit I recommend pick a card or two with rewards that suit you and enroll in their direct pay program, which you tell them that want them to take your statement balance out of you bank on your due date, then you will never charge anything you don't have the cash for and you get rewarded for spending you would have done anyway, and because the bill is paid in full there is no interest to eat up rewards.

You can pay upto 6 credit cards electronically with a single saving account, I keep all the money I don't write checks on + pocket cash in a high yield savings account and pay my credit cards from savings.

I would also recommend using either budget for windows or Mvelopes

Both use an electronic versions envelope budgeting , will help you track your money and manage your credits. When you put $15 for eating out, when you enter it into software you basically say I spent $15 on eating, because it was on a credit card. It takes $15 from eating out "envelope" places in another envelope that holds money to be used to pay on that specific credit card.

Mvelopes is a hosted web application with a 30 day trial

beware that when you added an account it only downs the initial balance , no transactions/ so the best time to start trial is the first of the month , when there is little or no active on the accounts for the month.

Message Edited by rbbyrbsn on 11-28-2007 08:54 AM

Message Edited by rbbyrbsn on 11-28-2007 08:57 AM

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:43:57 GMT

Good advice. Thanks to both of you.

I just started using Microsoft Money do you think that is any good? I also have access to quickbooks and could set myself up an account on that.

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:53:58 GMT

meganm0420 wrote:
Good advice. Thanks to both of you.

I just started using Microsoft Money do you think that is any good? I also have access to quickbooks and could set myself up an account on that.

Micro Money is a good program. My ex-roommate used it. Didn't seem to help him since he never paid his bills on time...but it is quality software. I just write stuff on random sheets of paper...that's working out...so far.

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:20:23 GMT

Well I'm using the money that I just started on, I have a monthly bill sheet I save in word and print out for both me and the bf and pin on my cork board so I will always see when our bills are due. When paid I write the date paid, amount, check number or conf# if paid online. I also have files for every creditor where I am keeping statements and printing out the print out of the payment confirmation. I'm also finding myself logging into all of these accounts too much and just looking or making a payment. I'm becoming obsessed, but compared to how I was prior I can live w/ obsessed.

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:46:41 GMT

meganm0420 wrote:
Well I'm using the money that I just started on, I have a monthly bill sheet I save in word and print out for both me and the bf and pin on my cork board so I will always see when our bills are due. When paid I write the date paid, amount, check number or conf# if paid online. I also have files for every creditor where I am keeping statements and printing out the print out of the payment confirmation. I'm also finding myself logging into all of these accounts too much and just looking or making a payment. I'm becoming obsessed, but compared to how I was prior I can live w/ obsessed.

I'm obsessed, but to me it is much better and feels better than not caring....

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

haulingthescoreup — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:17:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
The single most important thing that keeps making my score jump (up another 26 points since last post!!!) is the paying down of the debt. I have a new view about credit cards.....evil evil evil. Of course I will keep them open forever and use them once in awhile for small purchases but I will NEVER buy things on them I can't afford. It just hurts you in the long run. Life is so much less stressful and easier when you feel in control on your finances.

My kids have heard me preach this so much: money is a great servant, but a terrible master. Substitute "credit" for "money" --same thing.

Congrats on the great turn-around, and law school graduation!

Re: Great Advice...Thank You!!!

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:18:06 GMT

WTGGGGGGGGG you should have no problems getting a mortgage when you are ready.

Your scores will keep going up from now on!