Military seeking guidance

[Anonymous]

Okay let me start off by saying this is my first post and randomly found this site while looking up credit score stuff. Okay so I am a 21 years old and am enlisted in the Air Force. I have been in for about 8 months and before this I made way more money and went to school for two years. Unfortunately school was too expensive and working 50 hours a week while going to school got old fast. Anyways, my parents always taught me the importance of a good credit score ever since I was about 16.

I got my first credit card the day I turned 18 at my local bank with only a $500 limit. I used the card mainly for gas and other random things and always paid it on time. I then later got a wal mart credit card with a $1,200 limit and my parents maxed it out to buy a tv and then paid it off in four months (to help my credit). I just recently canceled the card because I never used it. I also got a best buy credit card (2,000 limit) about 2 years ago and I just now used it about a month ago for a new router. In addition to that I have a discover card which was just recently raised to $2,300 that I owe about $350. I also have my original $500 limit bank card from when I turned 18 that I just had to use to pay for taxes on my ATV. Anyways so I have about $800 in credit card debt which I should be able to pay off in the next two months.

Now the bad part. I got a car when I was 17 and my step dad co signed for me. I always paid the bills on time and have never been late on any bill ever. I put a ton of mikes on the car in a year due to schooling and working and girlfriend. Anyways I ended up horribly upside down on the car and the transmission blew. My parents wouldn't help me with a loan to fix it so I traded it in and ended up paying $35k for a 2013 Subaru which I financed completely by myself about 16 months ago for 72% 5.9% APR. Anyways my car payment is a whopping $600 a month. I am deploying in January of next year for 6 months and want to know if I should try to refinance my car now or after I come back and can pay off more of the car. I owe $29k on the car now and it's worth $26k so I am still upside down but I plan on paying at least 4 grand on it when I am deployed. I have a 746 credit score right now according to my Discover card FICO statement and have seen it in at 764. If I qualify for 3% APR It would drop my payment down to $430 a month in which I would still pay $600 a month towards principle to pay it off quicker or should I just wait.

Also when I pay my credit cards off I wanted to cancel my bank card and my best buy card but keep my discover and was thinking of either applying for a Chase Freedom or a Citi Simplicity card but didn't want to shock my credit score from canceling and applying for two cards in a short period and possibly refinancing my car. So now that that mini novel is over what do you suggest?

 Also disregard spelling please as I am on my ipad and just got done a 4 and a half hour chemistry class and didn't feel like proof reading this.

[Broke_Triathlete]

Mikes = Minutes in military ling, not miles LMAO. <-- Just busting your balls cause you said you were on your iPad.

Thank you for your service! My advice would be to refinance ASAP and start saving money asap. No sense of paying extra for something you could be applying more towards the principle, especially since you're deployed and not even driving the car. Without crunching numbers you may even be close to pulling it from "upside down" by the time you get back.

Be safe over there. Trashcanistan (if that's where you're going) sucks sweaty camel balls.

[Anonymous]

Do not cancel the credit cards; they help you and if there is no annual fee then there is no cost to you in keeping them.

Just use them once every few months for something small and pay them off right away. That week keep them active.

One of the things that scores and lenders look at is total number of open accounts and the percentage of debt to available credit. The more open credit with very low or zero balance the better off you are.

Stay safe out there!

[Remember0]

What's your gross monthly income look like right now? Will that be higher when you deploy soon?

I agree with not cancelling the cards if they have no AF. Just apply for the one or two cards you want AFTER you refi. Thanks for your service and be safe!

[Anonymous]

My income right now is only about $1,400 and will probably go up about $1,800 or so when I deploy soon. I got the USAA CMS Premium and my credit scores are 731,718, and 730. I used the estimate credit score to see if I changed things up a bit how it would affect my score and if I applied or two more credit cards from NFCU and USAA ( which I am already pre-approved for) and I raise my limit on my m&t credit card to two thousand then my total credit available should go from $4,800 to $10,000 and I only owe $400 on all the cards now but the hard pulls could affect my chances to refinance my car. According to the USAA CMS Premium service if I got those cards and they were all at least at 2k credit a piece my credit score should go from 731 to 747, but I can't refinance my car until I can figure out who my gap insurance is through so I can contact them to see if it will transfer over when I refinance my car or if I'll have to purchase another. Of course my paperwork is back home and nobody can find it so I am going to call the bank I financed my car through and the Subaru dealership tomorrow to see if they happen to know who my gap insurance is through so I can figure out how to refinance this thing and hopefully get around 2.5-4% financing.