BBVA Compass (or any bank) Personal Loan - Debt Refinance Questions

[Anonymous]

TL;DR - Looking to apply for 32k personal debt consolidation loan. Interest rates on current cards suck. Need stats.

Backstory - Last year I closed on my home, moved cross-country, paid for closing delays of a month, furnished said home. Then my daughter needed medical treatments that came 40% out of pocket after deductibles, resulting in promo periods expiring on the cards I intended to pay. Prior to that we had a lawsuit against a home seller that took off with our down payment (entire savings), we won the lawsuit but he still owes us and we have liens on his property. I ended up in more debt than I wanted, but I can recover. I want to pay it off at the lowest interest rate possible. Medical bills are still coming in, so I can't exactly snowball right now, I need a more reliable payment. I also want to get my credit score back up to where it was. I am being balance chased by my creditors, so my DTI is not going down no matter what I am paying. It's a lose-lose right now.

Has anyone gotten approved for one of these personal debt consolidation loans? What terms were available? 3 - 5 years? Interest rates? DTI approved at? I applied through DCU but was told that my total debt load was more than my income per year (373k secured debt, 32k unsecured) so I was not approved. I found that odd, total debt instead of DTI. BBVA Compass claims that they will disregard my unsecured debt in their DTI calculations because they will be paying that off, but I don't know what my odds are of that. I have 3 secured loans (1 house, 2 cars) and refi'd student loans with perfect payment history, my student loans had a starting balance really close to what I am borrowing now.

Stats - 126995 income before bonus (take home 88,582), 1955 PITI payment, 1.2k secured payment/SLs, 900 CC payments. No missed payments ever, just high util. FICO 8s - EQ/627/4 INQ, EX/666/1 INQ, TU/671/1 INQ. 95% total revolving util. AAOA 2 years.

[Anonymous]

If you let BBVA know the purpose of the debt is for consolidation, the banker/underwriter will ask which debts are being paid off and the monthy payments of those debts withh not be calculated in your DTI. BBVA will no pay off the debts for you, they will give you the funds for you to pay yourself. I know this for 100% fact

[Anonymous]

You have PenFed....do you ever get any pre-approvals for credit products when you log into your online account management? I am pre-approved for up to $25K. PenFed's lowest rate is 9.9% for up to 5 years (60 months). 

I've had two previous personal loans with PenFed (PenFed also offers consolidation loans-same thing really). This was back when they had 8.99%. It was easy as can be; applied online, saw the approval after a few days; received the check, signed the promissory note and that was that. My loans were much smaller than what you are after ($5K and $7500) but it was very easy.  PenFed is an EQ puller. I would call them and apply over the phone so you can tell them your situation so that it is noted. And with PenFed even a denial can turn into an approval with the survey they send after you apply for something. I would go PenFed over BBVA Compass any day. 

[Anonymous]

I don’t think I have any preapprovals, I log in and I get nothing. Where would I see those?

Back when my NFCU account was reporting incorrectly PenFed closed my credit products and sent me a notice of major delinquency. I will call and see what they say.

[Anonymous]

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Ok, so update time. I was eligible to apply for a BBVA loan again on Sunday, but had to wait until today due to the holiday. I drove to the bank, it's closed due to weather. I called BBVA asking for any open branches, turns out the entirety of Central and Southern Texas has their BBVA banks closed.

I called to do an app over the phone, and was told that no security questions were generated, so my app was denied. I was told I now get to wait another 6 months. I called a few times, getting different agents, just to confirm that one person wasn't mistaken. I asked when the call started what system they use for validation, they couldn't tell me.

If anyone is planning on getting an app in to BBVA, make sure everything is unfrozen, including LexisNexis and Equifax. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

TL;DR - Looking to apply for 32k personal debt consolidation loan. Interest rates on current cards suck. Need stats.

Backstory - Last year I closed on my home, moved cross-country, paid for closing delays of a month, furnished said home. Then my daughter needed medical treatments that came 40% out of pocket after deductibles, resulting in promo periods expiring on the cards I intended to pay. Prior to that we had a lawsuit against a home seller that took off with our down payment (entire savings), we won the lawsuit but he still owes us and we have liens on his property. I ended up in more debt than I wanted, but I can recover. I want to pay it off at the lowest interest rate possible. Medical bills are still coming in, so I can't exactly snowball right now, I need a more reliable payment. I also want to get my credit score back up to where it was. I am being balance chased by my creditors, so my DTI is not going down no matter what I am paying. It's a lose-lose right now.

Has anyone gotten approved for one of these personal debt consolidation loans? What terms were available? 3 - 5 years? Interest rates? DTI approved at? I applied through DCU but was told that my total debt load was more than my income per year (373k secured debt, 32k unsecured) so I was not approved. I found that odd, total debt instead of DTI. BBVA Compass claims that they will disregard my unsecured debt in their DTI calculations because they will be paying that off, but I don't know what my odds are of that. I have 3 secured loans (1 house, 2 cars) and refi'd student loans with perfect payment history, my student loans had a starting balance really close to what I am borrowing now.

Stats - 126995 income before bonus (take home 88,582), 1955 PITI payment, 1.2k secured payment/SLs, 900 CC payments. No missed payments ever, just high util. FICO 8s - EQ/627/4 INQ, EX/666/1 INQ, TU/671/1 INQ. 95% total revolving util. AAOA 2 years.

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I'm afraid this isn't going to happen with your scores and utilization. You are going to need to really work your budget and hammer on your debt to get your UTIL in line and perhaps then some options will become open to you.

I would consider renting out or selling the house and moving somewhere less expensive and/or selling your financed cars and buying cheap cash ones.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Stats - 126995 income before bonus (take home 88,582), 1955 PITI payment, 1.2k secured payment/SLs, 900 CC payments. No missed payments ever, just high util. FICO 8s - EQ/627/4 INQ, EX/666/1 INQ, TU/671/1 INQ. 95% total revolving util. AAOA 2 years.

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Agreed with other commentors -- you won't get a personal loan with your scores and utilization.  It's the ultimate gut punch in credit: when you need a loan, you won't get one, but when you don't need a loan, you'll get daily mailers for one.

The thing is, your tax home income of $7381 per month should more than cover this debt and then some.  You're looking at $1200 in loans, $900 minimum in credit cards leaving you with $5281 a month left.  Cost of living shouldn't even be 20% of that if you life on a very tight accurate budget, so you'd likely be able to pay down your credit card balances in 8-12 months.

What am I missing in this picture?

[Anonymous]

What’s missing is my daughter was diagnosed with schizophrenia and BPD which led to 150k in medical bills not covered by insurance. Long term care is not covered for mental health.

If I can’t get a loan I can get by. Was just trying to lower my interest rates since they are between 24 and 29%. We just built this house. I am ok paying this off either way.

[Anonymous]

My cars are about $500 a month for mine and my wife’s total. That’s not where my problem is. I can get by as is, I’m just stuck at minimum payments until my daughter isn’t in a hospital anymore.

[Anonymous]

An update - I paid off 2 cards completely and got my Experian score up to 680. I got a new job with a nice raise too. I shoveled as much money as I could towards the medical debt.

I applied for a Freedom Plus loan and got it for 30k, which is just enough to pay off all my credit cards. My stats had me at 86% utilization overall, with 2 paid cards and the rest pretty much maxed. My interest rate is 12.99, and I am on a 3 year term. I’m happy and relieved, and will update once more with a score update after these cards show paid.