cheddar wrote:Happy to help! Thanks for the additional info. I think everything in my above post still applies.Scamp wrote:5) Just in case CFL isn't in the Abbreviations post, would you please tell me what that is? I'm off to check now but know not every single acronym used on here is on that.CFL = consumer finance loanSome installment loans are coded as CFLs, and FICO dings you for having one of those. It's sometimes difficult to tell whether a given installment loan is a CFL, but generally:Consumer loans for retail products like furniture or electronics are CFLs.Loans from lenders like Citifinancial (as opposed to Citi) and Wells Fargo Financial (as opposed to Wells Fargo) are CFLs. These are the subprime arms of otherwise prime lenders.Beneficial and HFC loans are usually CFLs, as well.
Scamp wrote:6) While I've got you, any chance you can tell me whether or not my AmEx charge card (when I get it reporting correctly) should help my mix, since it's supposed to be coded as 'other account'? I asked this as an afterthought on another post this elsewhere this morning but haven't been able to get any info on it yet. Do you know...?Yes, an account reporting as "Other" does help your mix.Good luck, and post back to let us know what you decide!
Thanks for all the info on CFL's and for the answer on my AmEx, Cheddar. I've copied your responses and pasted them into a Word doc on my pc for future reference. I really appreciated your added info on whom/what to try to avoid. 
Will take the time to let all this percolate, see if Chase rate-jacks me, and look at the only other quick-fix option I can think of for my UTL blunder, which is trying for some kind of BT promo on a new card, take some time to regroup after all the bad, frustrating news I've gotten on my financial front over the last few months, then decide if I really want to tackle trying for a loan.
Rhetorical gripe just to vent: Why on earth is it so friggin' hard for the CRA's to get AmEx coded right, or if they do goof it up, to fix it? 
Between that problem and some other stuff they pulled on me, that bloody card has been such a headache that I'm tempted to just get rid of it once I pay it off. May lose its mix value and # of accts. value, but at least I'll never have to worry about a stupid CRA - or all 3, as seems to be the case with me - not coding it right and lowering my scores in the process and making more exasperating work for me trying to straighten it out. Oughtta be a law...grumble grumble...
Between that problem and some other stuff they pulled on me, that bloody card has been such a headache that I'm tempted to just get rid of it once I pay it off. May lose its mix value and # of accts. value, but at least I'll never have to worry about a stupid CRA - or all 3, as seems to be the case with me - not coding it right and lowering my scores in the process and making more exasperating work for me trying to straighten it out. Oughtta be a law...grumble grumble...Thanks again. You and all the other pros on here are invaluable help to those of us in the learning process!
cheddar wrote:
Good luck, and post back to let us know what you decide!
Hi again, Cheddar. As requested, posting back to let you know my decision.
Decided against the loan option because I felt that I didn't have enough 'padding' in my finances to risk getting locked into a loan payment. The way I figured Murphy's Law, I'd get that loan, have that largish payment due every month, then have another cat health crisis (these happen with 15-year-old Siamese) or some other emergency that had to get thrown on one or more credit cards, and end up with those payments plus the loan payment. Any other bit of bad luck beyond that, and I'd be up the creek w/out paddle.
Safer to do my best to throw extra cash at my balances, as that would give me some wiggle room if a financial pinch happened, or else to get a new card and BT.
So - no loan for me.
See my other post about the BofA pre-app options to find out what happened with that. 
Thanks so much again for all the help you've given me on here.