Making dumb mistakes...any wordly advice?

[Anonymous]

Think I just made several dumb mistakes in the past couple months.  Paid off car loan in Feb ...yea!  Unfortunately due to new medical bill and credit score not high enough for loan through my CU had to refinance just paid off car in April for 5 grand for 3 yr loan.  Still need $2500 to get  medical procedure done.  Hoping that increasing credit score over next couple months will let me get $2500 credit line increase for 1 revolving credit card.  Not sure what to do next....getting nice bonus in Sept and not sure if should use it to pay cc off or pay off most of car loan,  Since Jan 07 I've opened 4 new accts...2 cc's, 1 line of credit and installment loan for car. Took out line of credit and 1 cc due to all other (4)open cc's had low limits (600 or less) and report said this was hurting my credit score.  1st payment on car loan not due til this month.  Think I shot myself in the foot by opening too many accts too soon even though my total revolving cc balances is only $100.  (down from 700). Believe my revolving credit utilization is at about 13%.  Not making new charges (paying all by cash) just paying down balances.  Is it better to pay off revolving credit before installment loans?  Which is weighted more heavily?  Have $765 in unpaid collections.  Can't determine when they will drop off reports since each report has different date (2 reports say 2009 and 1 says 2007).  At a lost as to whats my next step.  Any suggestions?   Trying to get my credit in best shape so I can apply for loan for grad school.

Thanks

[Tuscani]

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fiskite wrote:

Think I just made several dumb mistakes in the past couple months.  Paid off car loan in Feb ...yea!  Unfortunately due to new medical bill and credit score not high enough for loan through my CU had to refinance just paid off car in April for 5 grand for 3 yr loan.  Still need $2500 to get  medical procedure done.  Hoping that increasing credit score over next couple months will let me get $2500 credit line increase for 1 revolving credit card.  Not sure what to do next....getting nice bonus in Sept and not sure if should use it to pay cc off or pay off most of car loan,  Since Jan 07 I've opened 4 new accts...2 cc's, 1 line of credit and installment loan for car. Took out line of credit and 1 cc due to all other (4)open cc's had low limits (600 or less) and report said this was hurting my credit score.  1st payment on car loan not due til this month.  Think I shot myself in the foot by opening too many accts too soon even though my total revolving cc balances is only $100.  (down from 700). Believe my revolving credit utilization is at about 13%.  Not making new charges (paying all by cash) just paying down balances.  Is it better to pay off revolving credit before installment loans?  Which is weighted more heavily?  Have $765 in unpaid collections.  Can't determine when they will drop off reports since each report has different date (2 reports say 2009 and 1 says 2007).  At a lost as to whats my next step.  Any suggestions?   Trying to get my credit in best shape so I can apply for loan for grad school.

Thanks

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 Give yourself a pat on the back for spending time on the forums and educating yourself.

Adding the accounts can hurt you initially, but will only help in the long term. Revolving credit has more of an impact than installment. So focus on getting revolving accounts paid down first. Have you tried a PFD for your unpaid collections? As far as the removal date.. the 7 year clock begins at the DOFD.. I recommend calling the CRA to get this date.

[Anonymous]

Tuscani,

  Thanks for the advice.  Been checking out your post because you seem to have alot of good advice for us newbies.    I was enrolled in TripleAdvantage also to check my scores but cancelled it last week due to I figured most would be looking at myfico scores.  (Plus my tripleadvantage scores were lower than myfico.)  My revolving credit amounts are almost paid off and I'll continue to focus on them instead of installment loan.  1 revolving cc that I opened in Jan. was to assist with medical bill.  Right now I'm nervous in trying to get it increased because my payments haven't been updated that revolving balances are really lower than currently shown.  How does one go about getting PFD??  1 revolving acct that is CO is showing on 2 reports as being open/active and being reported as late each month and this I think is hurting me.  Don't know how to get in touch with that company because it only lists address and not phone ctc.  Any advice? 

[Tuscani]

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fiskite wrote:

Tuscani,

  Thanks for the advice.  Been checking out your post because you seem to have alot of good advice for us newbies.    I was enrolled in TripleAdvantage also to check my scores but cancelled it last week due to I figured most would be looking at myfico scores.  (Plus my tripleadvantage scores were lower than myfico.)  My revolving credit amounts are almost paid off and I'll continue to focus on them instead of installment loan.  1 revolving cc that I opened in Jan. was to assist with medical bill.  Right now I'm nervous in trying to get it increased because my payments haven't been updated that revolving balances are really lower than currently shown.  How does one go about getting PFD??  1 revolving acct that is CO is showing on 2 reports as being open/active and being reported as late each month and this I think is hurting me.  Don't know how to get in touch with that company because it only lists address and not phone ctc.  Any advice? 

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No prob. Many of us use TrueCredit for monitoring our reports. Ignore any scores that are not from myfico.com. Check out this thread for a sample PFD letter:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=2659

[Anonymous]

Good news...revolving acct opened in Jan for medical just had CLI of $3000...yippee.  Just paid doc remaining out of pocket....I'm so happy medical procedure can get done by June!  Plus this revolving acct won't show balance til procedure is done (which means won't appear on report til July).  All remaining revolving will be 0 balance. So in July this 1 acct will be maxed (but will be 1/2 paid down by Oct when bonus check arrives).  Wonder how bad this is going to hurt my scores and utilization?

[Anonymous]

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fiskite wrote:

Good news...revolving acct opened in Jan for medical just had CLI of $3000...yippee.  Just paid doc remaining out of pocket....I'm so happy medical procedure can get done by June!  Plus this revolving acct won't show balance til procedure is done (which means won't appear on report til July).  All remaining revolving will be 0 balance. So in July this 1 acct will be maxed (but will be 1/2 paid down by Oct when bonus check arrives).  Wonder how bad this is going to hurt my scores and utilization?

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How are the interest rates and BTs on your other cards? If possible and financially feasible, you may want to distribute that maxed out balance once it is charged but before it reports.  Better to have three card at 30% than one card at ninety and two at zero.  Maxing out does hurt.

[Anonymous]

Only problem is this card has lowest interest rate (11%) versus my other cards (some as high as $20%).  I know I'm gonna take a ding for a few months until my lump sum which is gonna cover about 1/2 this cc balance comes and I don't expect to get it til Sept or Oct maybe even Dec.  By this time my balance should be below 50% since I will have been making payments as of July and I'm gonna try to pay more than the min balance due. 

[Anonymous]

Tuscani wrote:

No prob. Many of us use TrueCredit for monitoring our reports. Ignore any scores that are not from myfico.com.

Tuscani,

Is TrueCredit connected to myfico.com? Are they mutually exclusive? If so, what are the advantages to TrueCredit over the products offered through myfico.com?  

[Tuscani]

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pinklawpuppy wrote:

Tuscani wrote:

No prob. Many of us use TrueCredit for monitoring our reports. Ignore any scores that are not from myfico.com.

Tuscani,

Is TrueCredit connected to myfico.com? Are they mutually exclusive? If so, what are the advantages to TrueCredit over the products offered through myfico.com?  

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NO. Only use TC for monitoring report content, not scores. TC is nice because you get daily pulls from all 3 for a nominal monthly fee. You can pull your myfico.com reports daily (which I am sure FIC would appreciate) but as you know, you pay each time.

[Anonymous]

EQ score has jumped 50 points since 3/29...woohoo...CLI today on acct w/0 balance and went up 2 points....Maybe I am headed in the right direction..