@AvaMarie77 wrote:Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions. I didn't want to use any of my savings to pay down the debt but I went to a Financial Peace class and will just pay down my debt by $5000. Instead of applying for another card.
I am glad I didn't apply for anything else after Care Credit. I didn't know that I could hurt my score for applying. Also didn't know that other creditors will be able to see that AMEX lowered my credit line...that sucks even more
drift- I sent money to my Uncle for a sectional using Paypal, I used my Amex card to do it. I didn't know that this was not allowed. Amex placed both of my accoungts in suspension and asked for bank statement summaries but only from the account that I pay my Amex from. Once the financial review was finished they lowered my credit line from 15,000 to 3,100. They would not allow me to send in other bank summaries or w2's.
I can understand why you wouldn't want to use your savings to pay down your debt. I was in a similar situation where I had an emergency to pay for and I put it on my CC. I always PIF, so I had a choice of either dipping into my emergency fund or savings to pay the bill or app for another CC so that I could do a balance transfer. Because I believe that we should take full advantage of all resources available to us, I opted to app for another CC instead of dipping into my funds. Debt is not a bad thing necessarily, and sometimes life happens and you have to carry debt for awhile. It's not that big of a deal. CS are a snapshot of a moment in time. So if your CSs took a hit while you paid down your debt, that's fine. They'll bounced back. Same thing with apping for additional CCs. There may be an initial decline in your score, but they'll bounce back soon enough, and depending on your profile, could increase higher than they were before.
So, if I were you, I'd take the temporary hit to your CS (as long as you don't plan on buying a house or a car in the near future) and use your credit as it was intended to be used and save your savings.
@AvaMarie77 wrote:Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions. I didn't want to use any of my savings to pay down the debt but I went to a Financial Peace class and will just pay down my debt by $5000. Instead of applying for another card.
I am glad I didn't apply for anything else after Care Credit. I didn't know that I could hurt my score for applying. Also didn't know that other creditors will be able to see that AMEX lowered my credit line...that sucks even more
drift- I sent money to my Uncle for a sectional using Paypal, I used my Amex card to do it. I didn't know that this was not allowed. Amex placed both of my accoungts in suspension and asked for bank statement summaries but only from the account that I pay my Amex from. Once the financial review was finished they lowered my credit line from 15,000 to 3,100. They would not allow me to send in other bank summaries or w2's.
Thanks for the added details. I remember seeing the earlier thread.
My comments no longer apply, this is a transaction issue with AMEX, not a general condition in your credit profile.
The reduced CL and increased utilization will have an effect on score but not from the CLD alone.
Good luck in the steps you are taking, eventually things will work out.
