Road to Credit Recovery & AMEX

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

You can also look into getting a signature loan from your credit union. It's not revolving, so it would drive down your utilization and most likely carry a lower apr than what you're paying now. you'd probably have to wait until after September to do this. I can almost guarantee you can go anytime and sit down with the cu and they can give you some great free advice. 

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I've never heard of a signature loan before. Tell me more about this. 

I actually made a mistake about the Barclays bonus. it's 2.5% every six months without a withdrawal, and an extra 2.5% on top of it if you put money into it every month. 

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You need to spend a lot of time in the "Building Your Credit" forums......

[Anonymous]

I've socked drawered all of my credit cards... So the DC and Discover One. Made a $200 payment on the Discover Card today so it'll be $298/$500. 

Not sure if that's a good idea though, since CC's are the best idea for gas pump usage and for online payments. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've socked drawered all of my credit cards... So the DC and Discover One. Made a $200 payment on the Discover Card today so it'll be $298/$500. 

Not sure if that's a good idea though, since CC's are the best idea for gas pump usage and for online payments. 

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I know it seems like CCs are most convenient, but your high utilization is really affecting your credit right now - like a couple of other comments have said, what will really help your score rebuilding is paying down those balances as much as possible, without adding to them.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've socked drawered all of my credit cards... So the DC and Discover One. Made a $200 payment on the Discover Card today so it'll be $298/$500. 

Not sure if that's a good idea though, since CC's are the best idea for gas pump usage and for online payments. 

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I know it seems like CCs are most convenient, but your high utilization is really affecting your credit right now - like a couple of other comments have said, what will really help your score rebuilding is paying down those balances as much as possible, without adding to them.

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I was talking from a security standpoint. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I will ask again. Is the current debt you're carrying from your previous financial issue(s) or more recent?

Most of it is from a couple of years ago. 

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What is your plan for staying out of debt going forward? Are you using this time to build an emergency fund so you won't have to rely on your credit card if an issue(s) arises again?

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I've recently opened a Barclays Dream account (yeah laugh all you want because of my Barclay CC problems). 

Right now it's earning a whooping 1.05% rate with a 2.5% bonus every six months if I meet certain criteria that are easy, such as depositing money at least once a month, and not withdrawing it. Right now I have $53.00 in it, and I'm planning on adding about another $100 or a little more by the end of the month. 

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Who's laughing?! If Barclay is offering a better interest rate than other banks, go for it. If you haven't already, you may want to look for ways to lower your overhead and reduce your debt.

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Most definitely. 

Here's a few things I've started: 

Instead of a $20 Gillette razor package every month, I've switched to Dollar Shave Club. $1 for five razors, every other month, and $2 for S&H. 

Instead of shopping at Wegmans, I now shop at Aldi for Groceries--I save about $20-$25 a week there. 

Ordering food from a resturant is almost non-existent now, as it's overpriced and expensive. 

I'll also cut down to more generic items (such as hair spray, shaving cream, etc.)

Cut down on not-needed items, such as items from Amazon.com.

Lowered APR on Citi DC from 19.24% to 14.49%. 

 Looking around at different car and renters insurance, which will bring my premium down to $107 a month (for car) and $8 a month for renter's. Also, I get a discounted defensive driving course entry fee with this new place I might choose, so I can lower my car insurance premium by 10%. 

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Good job! Keep up the good work!!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've socked drawered all of my credit cards... So the DC and Discover One. Made a $200 payment on the Discover Card today so it'll be $298/$500. 

Not sure if that's a good idea though, since CC's are the best idea for gas pump usage and for online payments. 

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I know it seems like CCs are most convenient, but your high utilization is really affecting your credit right now - like a couple of other comments have said, what will really help your score rebuilding is paying down those balances as much as possible, without adding to them.

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I was talking from a security standpoint. 

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Good job making a large payment on your Discover credit card! In lieu of paying at the pump, go inisde and use your debit card. It will require a little more effort, but reducing credit usage is important. For online purchases, I don't have an alternative. I will agree that I prefer to pay using a credit card because of the zero fraud liability, but I also agree that you should be limiting or not using your credit cards.