@Anonymous wrote:Now, I'll say I only found this site today, so I'm not familiar with how receptive you are to helping with individual situations (rather than prefering to address issues more in general) but based on what I've read elsewhere (Mint, which I use to budget, Motley Fool, CNN Money) I'm not clear on where I should be starting to improve my credit score.
I just graduated from college and have a job and haven't ever looked into raising my credit score, so based on all of this new information I know in totality the direction I should head to improve my score, but not where to start. I'll breifly outline my financial status in hopes that some of you can provide constructive feedback:
Having pulled my free annual credit reports from all 3 bureaus I have no negative marks
Length of History 4 years 7 months (first student loan)
AAoA 2 years 2 months
9 Student Loan accounts, $28,500 in principal outstanding, $3,900 in accrued interest outstanding, payments begin in June 2012
1 Chase Freedom Credit Card opened Jan 2012, $2,000 limit, PIF each month
$5,000 to devote to paying off debts (Once I receive my tax refund... darn slow IRS)
$1,000 per month to devote to paying off debts
1 Inquiry on EQ from Chase (Credit Card in Jan 2012)
1 Inquiry on TU from Landlord (Rent Screening April 2011)
1 Inquiry on EX from Chase (Credit Card 2012)
668 EQ score per the Chase inquiry
Based on all of that I'm trying to figure out where I should head in the next couple of months. I would like to open up an additional credit card at some point so I have one for personal expenses and one for work expenses (typically reimbursed), but I'm worried about having too many inquiries for credit cards in a short time period.
As for paying off my debts I'm wondering if it makes more sense to:
@1. Consolidate my 6 unsubsidized loans ($23,000 in principal, $3,900 in interest) @ 6.8% into one loan to lower the number of accounts with balances (assuming I could get a comperable consolidated rate)
2. Pay off individual loans as I can to reduce the number of accounts outstanding (I like this one because I'm dealing with several loan servicers, so I could quickly decrease the number I have to deal with)
3. Pay weighted amounts on each of the higher rate loans to decrease the % outstanding to original amount
Anyway, any help you folks can offer as to:
When it would be appropriate to apply for another credit card
Advice on paying off the student loans
Any other tips you would offer a person new to working on their credit score
Welcome to the forums first and foremost!
As far as when you should app again, If your looking for something prime I would go for Barclays Rewards card. They primarily pull TU. They are INQ sensitive so if you go this route you must garden your new accounts for 6 months before trying for anything else.
Having 2 credit cards in the mix will help your FICO score.
Thanks to both of you for the responses, I might start a thread in the student loan section at some point, but I don't want to break any forum rules (I assume there's one against multiple posts on the same topic) with my second or third post 
Regarding the student loans, I'm not too woried about the minimum monthly payment at the moment because I'll be looking to over pay on them anyway and a mortgage is a ways off into the future for me.
Based on your comment that there are no overpayment penalties for a consolidated loan: Are there typically overpayment penalties associated with Federal Stafford loans (the non consolidated ones I have outstanding currently)? That would be unwelcome news indeed, as I'll be looking to make an initial chunk payment on them in the next month or so.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks to both of you for the responses, I might start a thread in the student loan section at some point, but I don't want to break any forum rules (I assume there's one against multiple posts on the same topic) with my second or third post
Regarding the student loans, I'm not too woried about the minimum monthly payment at the moment because I'll be looking to over pay on them anyway and a mortgage is a ways off into the future for me.
Based on your comment that there are no overpayment penalties for a consolidated loan: Are there typically overpayment penalties associated with Federal Stafford loans (the non consolidated ones I have outstanding currently)? That would be unwelcome news indeed, as I'll be looking to make an initial chunk payment on them in the next month or so.
Absolutely no penalties for extra/over/early payments on federal student loans. The feds want their money back as quickly as they can get it.
As for consolidation, no need to shop around really. If you use the direct federal loan consolidation, you will keep the same interest rate and just put them together so you only have one payment to make. I would definitely recommend that.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks to both of you for the responses, I might start a thread in the student loan section at some point, but I don't want to break any forum rules (I assume there's one against multiple posts on the same topic) with my second or third post
Regarding the student loans, I'm not too woried about the minimum monthly payment at the moment because I'll be looking to over pay on them anyway and a mortgage is a ways off into the future for me.
Based on your comment that there are no overpayment penalties for a consolidated loan: Are there typically overpayment penalties associated with Federal Stafford loans (the non consolidated ones I have outstanding currently)? That would be unwelcome news indeed, as I'll be looking to make an initial chunk payment on them in the next month or so.
Absolutely no penalties for extra/over/early payments on federal student loans. The feds want their money back as quickly as they can get it.
As for consolidation, no need to shop around really. If you use the direct federal loan consolidation, you will keep the same interest rate and just put them together so you only have one payment to make. I would definitely recommend that.
+1