Credit getting worse. Need advice.

[Onix]

Started with not much credit history earlier this year besides 1 paid off vehicle and some student loans that have been paid well. Score was in 670-680 range.

Made a few bad decisions taking some personal loans to try and get some extra money for a wedding coming up, and to build credit. Also overspent a little on credit cards.

I make a little under 100K per year now, and I have been doing pretty great paying things on time, especially this year. I currently have 4 cards on top of the personal loans. The loans total $3K, and the cards are: Quicksilver $500 CL, Robinhood gold $1K CL, Credit One visa $300 CL, and Self secured $325 CL currently. Usage is about 85% currently.

My credit is slowly falling I can feel and see it. I took on too much at once being early in my journey, wanting to establish credit and build age, and making decent money.

I know my next moves need to be to lower my utilization asap, but could use some wisdom on anything that would help me start my journey back up. My payment history is improving thankfully, and credit mix is good.

The new credit and utilization are killing my score. I feel it would be easier to manage one loan instead of the two separate. Should I try to seek out a debt consolidation loan from somewhere to pay those two off and lump them into one, and also to pay down my utilization quickly?

[dahx]

Your CC credit lines are small. With your income, you should be able to pay those balances off quickly?

I would do that firstly. If it were me, I'd also pay off that credit one CC and close it. That CL isn't helping, and it will still help toward credit age until it falls off after 10 years. And after closing it, should you choose to do so, keep an eye on the account for a few months as that business is sketchy!

[GZG]

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@Onix wrote:

Started with not much credit history earlier this year besides 1 paid off vehicle and some student loans that have been paid well. Score was in 670-680 range.

Made a few bad decisions taking some personal loans to try and get some extra money for a wedding coming up, and to build credit. Also overspent a little on credit cards.

I make a little under 100K per year now, and I have been doing pretty great paying things on time, especially this year. I currently have 4 cards on top of the personal loans. The loans total $3K, and the cards are: Quicksilver $500 CL, Robinhood gold $1K CL, Credit One visa $300 CL, and Self secured $325 CL currently. Usage is about 85% currently.

My credit is slowly falling I can feel and see it. I took on too much at once being early in my journey, wanting to establish credit and build age, and making decent money.

I know my next moves need to be to lower my utilization asap, but could use some wisdom on anything that would help me start my journey back up. My payment history is improving thankfully, and credit mix is good.

The new credit and utilization are killing my score. I feel it would be easier to manage one loan instead of the two separate. Should I try to seek out a debt consolidation loan from somewhere to pay those two off and lump them into one, and also to pay down my utilization quickly?

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how much are the personal loans? 

this is a spending problem, not a credit problem 

list out all of your income/expenses and figure out really where all of your money is going, you should have more than enough money and if you don't, stuff needs to start to go

[Onix]

@GZG 

$2K and $1K.

You're definitely right. I didn't save the best when I was younger and have had to spend on the wedding, a car accident, a new home recently. I'm cognizant of it, and want to start taking the best steps I can moving forward. Thankfully I've contributed into a 401k since about age 22-23, so I've been building that up decently, but most of my other savings are a little depleted currently.

[MissLiz]

All of your loan and cc balances are low enough where you should be able to quickly pay off and close the Credit One card, then practice AZEO with your remaining cards, and get both of your loan balances below 9%. Once you do that, you'll see major credit score gains. 

[GZG]

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@Onix wrote:

@GZG 

$2K and $1K.

You're definitely right. I didn't save the best when I was younger and have had to spend on the wedding, a car accident, a new home recently. I'm cognizant of it, and want to start taking the best steps I can moving forward. Thankfully I've contributed into a 401k since about age 22-23, so I've been building that up decently, but most of my other savings are a little depleted currently.

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yeah with the amount of money you make... this should be taken care of in like 3-6 months if you can't do that, there's a problem and only way to work through that is to write down all of the money coming in verus all of the money coming out and see what can be cut so you can get out from this. 

at this income, this truly is not a ton of debt, but ~5k turns into $10k turns into $30k turns into bankruptcy, so putting a foot down, eating beans and rice selling all of your posessions, going complete scorched earth until people think you're insane until you get this paid off is a pretty good strategy 

[FicoMike0]

I agree with the others, you have a spending problem. Your credit problem is having too much, not too little. I say that even though your credit to income ratio is small. You're not managing the limited credit you have well, more credit will mean bigger problems.

I won't add to the chorus that you need to get spending under control. It's great advice, but some folks simply cant. In that case, limiting available credit is the best option. If you're going to spend every dollar you can get your hands on, don't let any of those dollars be borrowed.

[KatzNDawgs]

Chiming in with others that at your income, that debt should be able to be gone relatively quickly and would not rec a consolidation loan that would likely just add on origination fees, etc. If you haven't, make out a budget and get a detailed view of what you *really* are taking in vs spending every month. It is easy to fall into that creep and end up spending way more than you should on going out, fun purchases, subscriptions, etc. Cut the extra out that you just *want* and don't *need* and this will be gone fast.

Do you have any mortgage or car payment/insurance? Do you have any lates? If the lower score is only due to util, it will come back up quickly. If the lower score is due to lates, that will take longer to age off.

Also please make sure you are contributing to retirement as well, especially if you have an employer match.

[Onix]

Just a car payment for about another 1.5 years.

I had a few 30 days  before I payed much attention to my credit, but nothing in the past 14 months. Before the new credit/utilization my score was around 700. I know I can get these things paid off soon. I just want to make sure I'm taking the correct steps moving forward, and starting a better journey post paying it off.

I have been contributing to a company match 401k for about 5-6 years now, and will definitely continue. Just started a Roth, as well.

[CreditCurious]

85% utilization on the cards will hurt your credit score.  Getting that down by paying off your balances will help.  However, your limits are so low that you almost cannot help but have a high utilization.  You may have to suffer through this until your score improves a bit (catch-22 I know) and you can get some limit increases.

When did you get all these credit cards and personal loans?  How money of them have opened up in the past 12 months?  Anything that opened up in the past 12 months is going to be a drag on your credit score until it ages a bit.  After it ages, your score will increase a bit.

You say you have 30 day lates on your history.  Even at 14 months, these are going to drag your score down.  You need to be patient and let these age out to increase your score.

It sounds like you have a lot of new accounts.  This means your AAoA is probably pretty low.  The only real solution is time. As AAoA increases, your score will increase a bit as well.

I do agree with the other posters.  You need to pay down debt.  But most likely you also need to stop applying for new credit as well.