Credit score is currently 658, we have one credit card that we pay off each month, and would like another open form of credit so we decided to sell our paid off vehicle (which needed a lot of work) and purchase OR lease one. Income is $109,000 and other than the credit card, we have no debt.
In an effort to raise our utilization and therefore our score so we can buy a house next year, we sold my wife’s car and started searching for something around $20k, with a good down payment. We are also open to a lease, as we tend to not keep our cars for longer than a few years. The night before we headed out to wheel and deal, BAM- we get an alert that a $600 medical bill from our son’s allergist visit several months earlier was added onto our report into collections. It knocked my score down to a 598!!!!
We immediately called the doctor directly, who said “nothing we can do, the insurance never paid their portion”. So we disputed it.
Now we’re without a vehicle. What are our options in the short term while we try and sort this out?
