Hello,
I was recently in the same situation. I seen how you wrote that you are paying "alot of my debt at once". Do you just make a bunch of min payments on all of your accounts, or do you pay like $100 on each account?
One thing i did when i got out of debt, was paid as much i could on 1 account and min payment on the rest. Once that one account was paid off, i then rolled over everything i was putting on that account to the next account in line. So now i had that money plus the min payment on that account. When that account was paid, i would then repeat this on the next account.
Example: account 1: $200, account 2: $15, account 3: $15, account 4: $15, account 5: $15
Account 1 gets paid off, now account 2: $215, account 3: $15, account 4: $15, account 5: $15
Accounts 1-2 paid off, now Account 3: $230, account 4: $15, account 5: $15
Rince and repeat....Of course the initial $200 can vary to however much you can pay while maintaining your life style.
This got me out of debt quick, as i wasnt eating a lot of finance charges as i was paying off the accounts quickly 1 at a time. After about 6 months of doing this, i had a few accounts completely paid off and on top of that i showed a great history of paying off my debt. I then applied for a loan from my bank which was approved and instantly paid off all of my other debt.
I had scores in the low 600s when i received my loan. Also, one thing to consider is that eventhough you may have a lower score atm, your bank may approve you if you have a good history with them. Back in early 2003, i scores in the lower 500s but due to my great history with my credit union they approved me for two auto loans of 18k and 9k each at 5.9%.
I hope i didnt babble too much and that some of this can help you. The main thing is just call your credit union and talk to them, they can probably answer most of your questions and you go from there. Be honest and direct and tell them your goals and they should be able to help you achieve them.
Robo
