@KayCeeKelKay wrote:My husband and I are trying hard to get our credit scores raised so we can apply for a HELOC to consolidate our credit cards.
I had a cancer diagnosis last year that drained our savings with medical bills. We started putting a lot on cards which got us underwater. In terms of general credit, we have no late payments, missed payments, deliquencies, no collections. The utilization on our cards are just killing our scores. I've tried using the simulator to see what we can do to increase scores-whether it's mine or his to get up to the requirement that my bank needs to do it. I'm listed as an authorized user on 3 of his cards which are pretty close to 90-95% utilization. Again- no late payments and the history has been great. Do you think this would be beneficial to my score to remove me as a user to see if my score increases? I can't find a simulator around that tell me if this would help but we are desperate to try and get our scores up to consolidate.
Welcome to the forum.
Yes I think it would be a good idea to get unlisted on his highly utilized accounts.
Yes you won't be able to find a simulator that goes into such things, but simulators are not reliable anyway.
@KayCeeKelKay wrote:My husband and I are trying hard to get our credit scores raised so we can apply for a HELOC to consolidate our credit cards.
I had a cancer diagnosis last year that drained our savings with medical bills. We started putting a lot on cards which got us underwater. In terms of general credit, we have no late payments, missed payments, deliquencies, no collections. The utilization on our cards are just killing our scores. I've tried using the simulator to see what we can do to increase scores-whether it's mine or his to get up to the requirement that my bank needs to do it. I'm listed as an authorized user on 3 of his cards which are pretty close to 90-95% utilization. Again- no late payments and the history has been great. Do you think this would be beneficial to my score to remove me as a user to see if my score increases? I can't find a simulator around that tell me if this would help but we are desperate to try and get our scores up to consolidate.
if your personal utilziation is also 90-95%, it might not help much, but I would definitely get myself removed as AU's on cards like that
0/6, 3/12, 10/24
The biggest factors will be overall utilization and individual utilization. If your cards are at 90-95% just like his then it probably won't make any difference. If yours are lower and his are higher then it might raise your score some to get off his accounts as an AU. If you're able to raise your score enough to get a couple of cards with a BT offer then you can move your CC debt to a 0% BT for a year or two.
Just going to throw this out there. One other thing to consider - it is a risky move to consolidate your credit card debt with a HELOC. If you don't pay your credit cards, they just go to collections. It may trash your credit, but you can probably settle them for less than you owe as well. If you don't pay your HELOC then they forclose on your house... Sure, it's a lower interest rate, but that's a much higher risk that I wouldn't take on unless it was my only option.
