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Nearly one year in the garden...

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tcbofade
Super Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...


@_jb_ wrote:

Honestly (and you don't want to hear this I am sure),

 

(Inqs. age over 1 year, balances down should lead to a nice CS bump).


Thank you...I honestly DO want to hear your opinion...that's why I asked...and as I mentioned earlier, I am beginning to agree with you...inquiries aging and falling off will help my CS some, but until my util gets down, it doesn't seem to help "enough".

 

 

02/01/24 Fico 8: EX 757, EQ 803, TU 783.
Fico 9: EX 760 12/16/23, EQ 790 02/04/24, TU No idea.

Zero percent financing is where the devil lives...
Message 11 of 21
09Lexie
Moderator Emerita

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...

Are any of your cc's on 0% promos? The list of Cap1 cc's if not close to being maxed out are as close as you can get. IMO, if you are able to refi your car, use the extra money to pay down your debt before apping for a new cc.
Message 12 of 21
tcbofade
Super Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...


@09Lexie wrote:
Are any of your cc's on 0% promos? The list of Cap1 cc's if not close to being maxed out are as close as you can get. IMO, if you are able to refi your car, use the extra money to pay down your debt before apping for a new cc.

Yes, the Credit Union CC is on a zero percent promo, as are several of the store cards.  (I like zero percent...)

 

Last year, (when refi'ing the DW's car) the Credit Union offered to refi MY car as well, but I didn't like the interest rate being offered... I think that after the first of the month, I will ask them again and see if I can get a more attractive rate.

 

(Howdy, cous!)

02/01/24 Fico 8: EX 757, EQ 803, TU 783.
Fico 9: EX 760 12/16/23, EQ 790 02/04/24, TU No idea.

Zero percent financing is where the devil lives...
Message 13 of 21
09Lexie
Moderator Emerita

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...

I'd definitely work on the cc's with the highest APR - you'll get a much better rate too!
Message 14 of 21
SnackTrader
Valued Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...

Two things from me:

1. I have been following your progress over the last year and have been extremely impressed by your commitment to working on debt and patience during the process. It has been refreshing to hear someone "own up" to their mistakes and work wholeheartedly to improve their situation.

2. Your debt situation is improving day by day, but as you mentioned, hasn't gotten to the point where prime cards are going to give you a fair shake. The absence of lates is wonderful, and might be your saving grace over time. My personal opinion is that saving money on interest in any way you can should be the priority, but the longer you wait to try for anything, the better. So maybe try the car refi at a credit union? That's about all I can think of that is available for you at this point. Most credit cards likely remain out of your reach for BT options (even credit unions). Maybe a Personal loan at a credit union is an option, but the payments on that are more aggressive than a credit card so it will cut back on your cash flow to make minimum credit card payments. It's a tough situation when you have numerous cards at 70%+ in utilization.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck! And please keep us all updated.

In My Wallet: Amex BCP (12/12) $50,000, Chase Freedom (12/12) $16,500, Cap1 Quicksilver (6/12) $14,000, Barclaycard Rewards (5/13) $10,500, Citi Prestige (4/16) $30,000

Last App: June 27, 2015
Message 15 of 21
tcbofade
Super Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...


@SnackTrader wrote:
Two things from me:

1. I have been following your progress over the last year and have been extremely impressed by your commitment to working on debt and patience during the process. It has been refreshing to hear someone "own up" to their mistakes and work wholeheartedly to improve their situation.

2. Your debt situation is improving day by day, but as you mentioned, hasn't gotten to the point where prime cards are going to give you a fair shake. The absence of lates is wonderful, and might be your saving grace over time. My personal opinion is that saving money on interest in any way you can should be the priority, but the longer you wait to try for anything, the better. So maybe try the car refi at a credit union? That's about all I can think of that is available for you at this point. Most credit cards likely remain out of your reach for BT options (even credit unions). Maybe a Personal loan at a credit union is an option, but the payments on that are more aggressive than a credit card so it will cut back on your cash flow to make minimum credit card payments. It's a tough situation when you have numerous cards at 70%+ in utilization.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck! And please keep us all updated.

Thank you for your kind words...it has been a rough few years for us, and our debt picture isn't pretty, but there's no point in asking for help and not being honest, so I tend to error on the side of "putting it all out there".

 

I actually already have a small personal loan from the credit union, AND the zero percent balance transfer card that was mentioned earlier...

 

Currently, I have four cards reporting "maxed", but all have been paid down (slightly) so that as of 01 August, I will have ZERO cards reporting maxed out... credit score predictors show a 25 point possible bump in my TU score that would put me just over 700, and I think I'm going to ask my Credit Union if they are still offering to refinance my current automobile...

02/01/24 Fico 8: EX 757, EQ 803, TU 783.
Fico 9: EX 760 12/16/23, EQ 790 02/04/24, TU No idea.

Zero percent financing is where the devil lives...
Message 16 of 21
Creditaddict
Legendary Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...


@SnackTrader wrote:
Two things from me:

1. I have been following your progress over the last year and have been extremely impressed by your commitment to working on debt and patience during the process. It has been refreshing to hear someone "own up" to their mistakes and work wholeheartedly to improve their situation.

2. Your debt situation is improving day by day, but as you mentioned, hasn't gotten to the point where prime cards are going to give you a fair shake. The absence of lates is wonderful, and might be your saving grace over time. My personal opinion is that saving money on interest in any way you can should be the priority, but the longer you wait to try for anything, the better. So maybe try the car refi at a credit union? That's about all I can think of that is available for you at this point. Most credit cards likely remain out of your reach for BT options (even credit unions). Maybe a Personal loan at a credit union is an option, but the payments on that are more aggressive than a credit card so it will cut back on your cash flow to make minimum credit card payments. It's a tough situation when you have numerous cards at 70%+ in utilization.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck! And please keep us all updated.

I agree with Lending Club saying no, I would have a good conversation with your credit union about possibly consolidating a good number of these and closing the ones they consolidate... even if the rate is high, it might be worth it just to make sure you make the payments high enough to make more progress (of course you have to be able to afford) but you are being bogged down right now by all these payments.

Capital One probably won't currently give you more credit but they might consolidate... I would do it if you could... 1 larger payment to me is always easier then 5 small and they might consolidate to one of your somewhat lower apr cards or possibly lower 1 of your apr's to do it.

 

if credit union cant or won't consolidate and you can't with capital one then I would really look at what you need credit for right now.  Meaning you probably can't buy a house right now if you were even thinking about it, so really a higher score isn't doing you any good... really look at what these lower end cards are costing you and if there is anyway you can throw an extra couple months at them and get them paid to $0 and close... you will drop your ratio but right now goal is get down paid down and getting your score to go up is not currently helping you get out of debt.... if you picked up another $30-$50+ just in monthly fee savings, that knocks out a bunch of these smaller cards very quickly... 

Message 17 of 21
RockinRay
Valued Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...

You have really come a long way! And the zero INQ's are impressive.

 

I think at this point you just need to keep plugging along. If your CU will work with you, I would push them for all they could give me. I would also suggest that you prioritize anything that carries high interest or charges you a fee. I see some potential with that. Once you hammer those down - kill them and burn the plastic! Good celebration times there...  Smiley Happy Most prime lenders are going to want 720 plus to give you their "best" offer.

 

I agree with CA about Lending Club. I would try them again once you have things paid a little more down and the CA's reflect this. Your interest rate may be on the higher side, but it would allow you to consolidate and close things down. Just keep a few accounts open that work for YOU and not the other way around. When you score goes over 700, try LC again. I invest there and if you get a preapproval with them, PM me your loan number and I will invest in you! I have full confidence that you will reach your goal.

 

Can you cut anything out? Cable / satellite comes to mind. We cut that cord about a year ago now and have a TiVo and Apple TV. We also use Netfix which save us $86 per month and we never miss anything. The shows we like that are on cable, we get a season pass on iTunes via Apple TV. yes, you pay for the season but in the long run you save quite a bit of money. Home phone? Kill it and if you need home phone, get Ooma. We use it and while I did pay $149 up front for the unit, we now pay $4.51 per month and it works just great.

 

Another thing you can try is calling a negotiating with your providers. I am always able to negotiate a deal that works for me. The provider would rather keep you as a customer at a lower rate then lose you all together. We have Charter for internet and they always are willing to work a deal for us.

 

Not sure what to say from there but keep going! You have come a long way since I started teasing you in the garden threads (I will start doing this again now) and you just have to keep moving forward at the best pace that you can.

 

Sorry for the long winded reply!  Smiley Happy

Ray

** Every Card has a Job, and Every Card does its Job **
Message 18 of 21
frugalQ
Valued Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...

Yes to negotiating with your service providers. Just yesterday I knocked $75 off of my cable/phone/Internet service and I did not lose any existing levels of service.

I actually got ticked off when I realized how much $$ I've been lining the provider's pockets with these last 8 months.
AmEx Green NPSL | Amex BCP 16K | Citi Simplicity 10k | Discover IT 9K | Chase Slate 7.5K | Amex Hilton HHonors Surpass 7K | Capital One QuickSilver 6K | Home Depot 5k | Chase Freedom 4.5K | LOC 2.5K
Message 19 of 21
myjourney
Super Contributor

Re: Nearly one year in the garden...

I read the whole thread twice just to see all views and there are a lot of good ones.

I'll add my little 2 cents now

 

You have come so far and are on the threshold of a victory you have remained true to gardening while paying down debt

The (enemy) is UTL and now is not the time to leave the garden seeking new TL's . 

During that time AAoA has increased, INQ's have aged a hugh plus because they now have no effect Smiley Wink

So please don't hurt either one of those just yet. They will prove to be of value when debt is paid down more

 

The only new TL if you had to IMHO would be the car refi- then you can throw the savings into the CC debt to knock it out even quicker and I think   know when you set your sights on something there's no stopping you as seen in your commitment to garden so I am confident you would take the saving and instead of spend it foolishly apply it to the cards

 

Just my LiL 2 cents tho

I'll be pulling for you no matter what you decide

 

Before you app think...
Have you done your research of the CC?
Does it fit your spending?
Do you have a plan for the bonus w/o going into debt?
Can you afford the AF?
Do you know the cards benefits? Is it worth the HP?
Message 20 of 21
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