Maybe a personal loan?

[Anonymous]

Current FICO 8 scores 

EX 652 EQ 661 TU 657 AAoA: 6.8 years , oldest acct 17.3

Income 41,000

Lenght of Employment:16 years, 8 mo 

Debt-to-Income (DTI): 26%

Was about to purchase a newer car with Cap One Auto Navigator which I qualify for on my own. 

I have a mortgage in my name with excellent payment history, student loans which are in forebearance for 6 more months with no lates reported.

A $2000 installment loan with excellent payment history, $957 balance, and a small monthly payment. 

I have 2 Cap One CCs with $500 CL each currently combined for 57% util.  One is 17 years old and had recent 120 day lates but has been on time for the past 4 months. 

The other is 2 years old and never late.  

I sent GW letter to Cap One about the lates and was denied.  

After my CR refreshes my util will go from 69% to that 57%. 

Here's the deal.  My husband had stopped making the minimum payment on his CCs and student loans.  He defaulted on SL and both CC have been CO.  

He owes about $5700. 

We are going to take care of the SL right away which is about $1100. 

He thinks he should try to get a settlement on his CC (one is with PRS) and the other in collections, and then start making monthly payments to pay off in 12 months.  

That would make it hard to make a car payment.  Our cars are fully paid but getting older and have needed a lot of repairs.  I'd rather budget for a car loan than have random repairs popping up.  

Considering different strategies...

1) Apply for and get a consolidation loan through Sofi or Lightstream to pay his debts and then have a manageable payment.  And wait on getting my car until it's paid off.

2) Get my car AND the personal loan to pay off his debts.  

3) Just pay his debts and not take on any new debt til it's paid off and hope no car repairs come up.  

Not sure if I'd be able to the personal loan approved with those recent 120 lates.  But my scores have been going up.  

[tcbofade]

Pay those cards down to 48% and you'll see a nice score boost.

Take that car payment that you can afford and put it into your savings account every month.  You'll have dollars available IF a car repair is necessary.

If it were me, I would not take on a new loan right now.

Good luck!

[Pit-Smoker]

Agree in full with @tcbofade, but if you feel you MUST get a personal loan, I would recommend going through one of those 3rd party apps that will float your info out to a bunch of banks all at once, instead of just picking one 'cause you saw it on a commercial.   CK, Wallethub, Nerd Wallet, etc.  YES these companies are sponsored there and yes it's a bit of a racket... but that's the point:  Some of them are looking for borrowers just like you and will use a soft pull to determine compatibility. 

If I had to 'pick and choose' the lender one at a time when everyone was rejecting me, I never would have found the few that WOULD lend to me in my position.  

Also when I finally got my personal loan, my scores were right around yours.  My last 120-late had been from about 12 months prior.  

Hope that helps. 

[FlaDude]

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@Pit-Smoker wrote:

Agree in full with @tcbofade, but if you feel you MUST get a personal loan, I would recommend going through one of those 3rd party apps that will float your info out to a bunch of banks all at once, instead of just picking one 'cause you saw it on a commercial.   CK, Wallethub, Nerd Wallet, etc.  YES these companies are sponsored there and yes it's a bit of a racket... but that's the point:  Some of them are looking for borrowers just like you and will use a soft pull to determine compatibility. 

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I've gotten three personal loans for debt consolidation and found all three via the method above. It was a lot quicker and easier than trying to shop 20 lenders one at a time. I was able to quickly find the most competative option. One thing to be aware of is that some lenders charge an "origination fee". This is typically 1-5% that they take from the loan proceeds. For example, a 10k loan with a 3% fee will only net you 9700. Orgination fees are not necessarily bad, but keep an eye out and understand what that means. Lenders often don't make it clear up front that there is an origination fee, but if there is a significant difference between the Interest rate and the APR, there probably is one. If the interest rate and the APR are the same, there isn't. The moral here is to shop by APR (because it takes any origination fee into account) and not just interest rate.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for your advice!  I will not need to take out a personal loan.  The monthly payments for his student loan rehab is very low and his PRS collections account is small as well.  So just leaves Capital One and he will have to call there to make a payment plan.