READY TO GET BACK IN THE GAME!

Anonymous · ‎03-04-2014

Hi all let me first say that I have been a lurker on myfico for the past year and all the advice has helped me out tremendously so thanks to everyone! Ok now here's my story, I lost my job of 17 years back in 2008 (auto industry casualty), and ended up having to file bankrtuptcy in 2010. At the time I owned 3 homes 2 rental plus my own home that I had built back in 2005. Thanks to a mortgage modification I was able to keep my home however I did not reaffirm after bankruptcy, on purpose this way if need be I can walk away from my mortage and at the same time the mortgage has to honor my refinace as long as I keep current. In addition, thank god, I was able to keep both my vehicles and eventually pay them off with only being 30 days late 1 time during the duration of the loans. As I have fought my way back to living a moderate to medium lifestyle I think I am ready to purchase a vehicle. My income is 100k wifes is 50k. Ideally I want to put about $7k down and a loan of no more than 45k. I currently am about to pay off (next month) a 7k auto loan of 2 years from chase@ 11%(vehicle was14k I put 7k down) have never missed a payment and vehicle will be paid off 4 months early. I also have 2 cc with a total combined limit of 4500. My balance right now is 3200. and have had excellent payment history as well. Both cards are with capital one. According to credit karma my current fico score is 624. DTI at 3% because my mortgage does not show on my credit report,(although i have 3 years of on time payments) the only thing I have on my credit report are 4 small doc bills that total about $600. Capital one keeps sending me ads about blank check which i have used in the past. When Im ready to buy(2 mths) should I just apply with them or should i try with Chase since i just financed a vehicle with them,or should i let the dealer arrange financing. do either use auto enhanced credit score because if they do I should be pushed into tier 2 B rated credit. Also if they pull right now and my score stays the same what kind of rate am i looking at? Im just afraid that my score won't climb enough to get me a decent rate when I purchase. Thanks in advance

Anonymous · ‎03-04-2014

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all let me first say that I have been a lurker on myfico for the past year and all the advice has helped me out tremendously so thanks to everyone! Ok now here's my story, I lost my job of 17 years back in 2008 (auto industry casualty), and ended up having to file bankrtuptcy in 2010.

At the time I owned 3 homes 2 rental plus my own home that I had built back in 2005. Thanks to a mortgage modification I was able to keep my home however I did not reaffirm after bankruptcy, on purpose this way if need be I can walk away from my mortage and at the same time the mortgage has to honor my refinace as long as I keep current.

In addition, thank god, I was able to keep both my vehicles and eventually pay them off with only being 30 days late 1 time during the duration of the loans. As I have fought my way back to living a moderate to medium lifestyle I think I am ready to purchase a vehicle. My income is 100k wifes is 50k. Ideally I want to put about $7k down and a loan of no more than 45k. I currently am about to pay off (next month) a 7k auto loan of 2 years from chase@ 11%(vehicle was14k I put 7k down) have never missed a payment and vehicle will be paid off 4 months early.

I also have 2 cc with a total combined limit of 4500. My balance right now is 3200. and have had excellent payment history as well. Both cards are with capital one. According to credit karma my current fico score is 624. DTI at 3% because my mortgage does not show on my credit report,(although i have 3 years of on time payments)

the only thing I have on my credit report are 4 small doc bills that total about $600. Capital one keeps sending me ads about blank check which i have used in the past. When Im ready to buy(2 mths) should I just apply with them or should i try with Chase since i just financed a vehicle with them,or should i let the dealer arrange financing.

do either use auto enhanced credit score because if they do I should be pushed into tier 2 B rated credit. Also if they pull right now and my score stays the same what kind of rate am i looking at? Im just afraid that my score won't climb enough to get me a decent rate when I purchase. Thanks in advance

I don't know how to answer your questions exactly but to me it looks as though your auto enhanced score might actually be better than your other scores except for that one late payment.

Before car shopping I would suggest visiting the Rebuilding your Credit subforum here. From there I would look into how to send a "Good Will" letter to Chase to get that one late payment removed from your credit report.

Also you can look for "Pay for Delete" advice, to get those medical accounts off your credit report. If you can find success doing those two things, and getting your UTL down on your cards, it should bump you to a more premium Tier.

Your creditkarma score might be way off. My Fico scores, which are accurate are in my signature. My creditkarma score however is 739, and while it is lovely to look at, it is completely false. Yours might be higher or lower than what CK states. CK should only really be used to monitor what is actually on your credit report.. and the scores should be ignored.

I apologize for editing your post. I didn't change any of it, but added spaces to make it easier to read.

Anonymous · ‎03-04-2014

OK thanks Nancy, the 1 late payment was for my previous vehicles back in 2009. Those were financed through a credit union at the time. Maybe i should buy one of those credit reports sites to see exactly what my score is. I had planned on paying off the doctor bills anyway so I will contact them to see if I can pay to delete.

Remember0 · ‎03-04-2014

A quick and dirty way to increase your FICO a bit and get a much lower APR imo would be to pay off your card balance and wait for it to report.

Even if that's monthly expenses and you PIF, you need to pay down the cards BEFORE the statement cuts so the statement balance isn't so high. Right now you're at 70%+ util and that's holding your FICO back. For FICO purposes, ideally, you would have only one card report a low amount (Say <5% that cards credit limit). The other would report 0 to the credit reports. I wouldn't to be surprised to see your fico jump 20-30 points if you did that to be honest.

You can try with either. My guess is chase will give you a lower APR if they approve you (not because of the prior loan, but because of how they operate), but there's no guarantee of approval with chase. I can pretty much guarantee COAF will approve, I have no idea on that rate.

I'd pay down those cards like I suggested and re-pull your FICO after the cards (one 0 and one very low) balances report. If you have a 675+ EQ, I'd recommend you look at DCU; they do 65 months for a 675 EQ @ 1.99%. Regardless, having a 650+ FICO will greatly help rates at any bank. In case you don't know, the balances report to credit bureaus shortly AFTER your next monthly statement comes out that reflects the new lower balance.

Remember0 · ‎03-04-2014

Oh and the doctors bills...they should do pay for delete. Get it in writing. If they don't, and you can pay them, look into Whychat's HIPPA (google it) dispute. Whychat's HIPAA method almost always removes medical accounts if you can follow Whychat's instructions exactly and include payment with the dispute.

Finally after you pay off the chase loan, I'd look at good willing chase on that late. Chase is good with those sometimes if you get the right department from what I've heard.