Question

[Anonymous]

Talked to a credit union loan officer and she told me if I have a 700 score I can get boat loan with no money down @ 8.5% for 180 months. I thought they used EQ but come to find out they use Experian for boat loans. Well my EQ is 650(auto-enhanced) and I'm waiting for a creditor to remove a 30 day late in 07 and another in Jan. 09 which they will be doing in the next couple weeks.

My EX score is 631 but is not showing as many open accounts with limits and zero balances as EQ(which is helping my score). So the revolving accounts on EX are actually at 102% overall utilization!  eeeekk!

I am going to pay this down to about 85%.. how much is that going to change my score?  The over 100% utilizaiton has got to be killing it..

[JoeBJay20]

Yes your scores are being hurt by the high utilization, but you need to pay it down much lower than 85%.  Ideally you want to be below 10%, but at the least you want to be below 30%. 

[haulingthescoreup]

Util is the biggest driver of scores for most of us. If you have the money to pay off your bills, it is the single area of FICO scoring over which you have the most control.

And sorry to sound like a grumpy mom here, but with util that high, is this really the time to be taking on another credit obligation...

[Anonymous]

(I'm not a grumpy mom either, regardless of what my children think...) 

I am a realist tho and have a few questions for you if you don't mind.  Also, a couple of suggestions.

How much "boat" are you looking at?

Have you previously owned a boat? 

How close is the water?    Less than 50 miles?

How often will you use the boat?    More than 1 weekend per month?  (Gas is going up!)

Do you have friends that have a boat?  How often do they use theirs?

Have you checked your local market for used boats?  (Lot's of people are losing them these days.)

Checked with your credit union for repo's?  (There's 2 listed on mine right now, and the CU will deal on them just to get them off the books.)  You may even be able to finance thru your CU?

Having been there and  done that, I can attest to this fact: "A boat is a hole in the water surrounded by wood, into which one pours money".  (Trailer, trailer license, use fees for each body of water you plan to use, insurance,  and the list goes on......)

Think about it some more, and Good Luck!

D-R