Just got credit scores, totally beside myself...

[jm247]

I just ran my credit reports/scores and I'm totally horrified.  I can't believe I've been so irresponsible.

I am a homeowner, have a 4.5% FIXED 30 year mortgage ($125K), purchased two years ago, never late on any payments on that or credit cards, etc.  Here's my problem.  My car is in stage 4 cancer and I need to do get something else QUICK.  My income is $70K.  One collection that says "PAID"....get this, IT'S NOT EVEN MINE.  I've been fighting with the CA and CRA for two months.  My credit card debt is pretty bad, about $15K total.  No late payments in my entire credit history, but my debt to available credit ratio is 90% (freakin' high) My scores 18 months ago were over 700.  Now they are EQ 627, TU 617, EXP 635. 

At this point I'm thinking there is NO WAY IN HELL that Nissan (I've decided on a used Rogue) will qualify me with horrible scores like this.  And I should probably buy myself some time with my current vehicle, try to get it fixed, etc. 

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Is it even possible to get my scores back up over 700 this year??

[MarineVietVet]

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@jm247 wrote:

I just ran my credit reports/scores and I'm totally horrified.  I can't believe I've been so irresponsible.

I am a homeowner, have a 4.5% FIXED 30 year mortgage ($125K), purchased two years ago, never late on any payments on that or credit cards, etc.  Here's my problem.  My car is in stage 4 cancer and I need to do get something else QUICK.  My income is $70K.  One collection that says "PAID"....get this, IT'S NOT EVEN MINE.  I've been fighting with the CA and CRA for two months.  My credit card debt is pretty bad, about $15K total.  No late payments in my entire credit history, but my debt to available credit ratio is 90% (freakin' high) My scores 18 months ago were over 700.  Now they are EQ 627, TU 617, EXP 635. 

At this point I'm thinking there is NO WAY IN HELL that Nissan (I've decided on a used Rogue) will qualify me with horrible scores like this.  And I should probably buy myself some time with my current vehicle, try to get it fixed, etc. 

Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Is it even possible to get my scores back up over 700 this year??

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Welcome to the forums.

One thing I will ask is where did you get your scores? No one has been able to buy their own Experian FICO score since February of 2009. Creditors can pull Experian and also there is a CU (PSECU) in Pennsylvania that supplies that information to it's members only. You can only buy true FICO scores at a few places. One place is here at myFICO. I suggest you do an internet search for "myfico discount codes" to save a little money.

You can also purchase your Transunion score at www.transunioncs.com. At www.equifax.com EQ will still sell you an EQ FICO score but you need to look very hard to find it.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[LS1]

It's interesting that you went from 700's to low 600's with nothing changing other than possible higher Utilization?  Have you had any other baddies drop from your reports since then that possibly could have 're-bucketed' you?

If anything, figuring out a way to get your utilization down will help immensily. It appears that for myself, my FICO's change +/- 40 pts depending on utilization shown.  I was 679ish w/ TU and EQ when utilization was 0%.  I picked up a few new TL's over the holidays and charged them up and paid off but not before they reported to the CRA's with balances and I showed around 40% utilization.  I was sort of curious to see how util. would affect my score and sure enough, EQ is around 648 and EX via PSECU was 642.  All the accounts have been PIF since and I'm waiting for that to reflect, I expect the scores to jump 30-40pts.

[jm247]

Hi!  Thanks so much.  I actually pulled Experian myself - I work for a commercial bank.  The others I purchased from MyFico.  Years ago, I used this site to pull my reports and scores and found it convenient and useful.  Now I'm back trying to figure out what happened.  I'm feeling better and more optimistic now.

[jm247]

Yes, I do think the high utilization has something to do with it, as there are no other negative postings on my credit report (other than the collection).  Paying these down asap will probably help tremendously.  At this point, I just need some patience.

I work for a bank and still don't understand how they "calculate" scores.  A lot of it seems arbitrary.

[MarineVietVet]

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@jm247 wrote:

Hi!  Thanks so much.  I actually pulled Experian myself - I work for a commercial bank.  The others I purchased from MyFico.  Years ago, I used this site to pull my reports and scores and found it convenient and useful.  Now I'm back trying to figure out what happened.  I'm feeling better and more optimistic now.

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It's good to know your scores are accurate although not where you want them to be.

From a BK years ago to:
EX - 9/09 pulled by lender 802, EQ - 10/10-813, TU - 10/10-774

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem".

[Tazman81]

Hi JM...  I agree with the others.  I think you will see a nice point increase if you get that utilization down.  Do you think you might be able to get your current vehicle fixed and pay your utilization down over the next couple of months?  Is there a reason that your credit card debt is very high?  Do you have other debts not listed?  You may want to just take a look at your finances and where you are spending your funds as I think your salary is substantial and your debt seems pretty minimal.  Please know that I am not putting these questions our there to be judgemental or anything, they are just ones that I think you should consider as you may be able to find extra funds to put toward your credit card balance and get those paid down sooner rather than later.  Otherwise, I think once you get those down, then you would be in good shape for purchasing a vehicle.  Were you going to have any money to put down?

[Anonymous]

Credit scores are risk numbers, yes high utilization seems to denote that you are a riskier individual. 

And yes it can drop your score a lot

As long as your minimums are below a decent DTI you should be able to get decent dealer financing. i would save any money you can for a downpayment as well.

Yes a decent DTI with down payment should counteract the score.