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I had a score around 680 1 year ago (now 500), over the winter the military sscrewed up my pay so I was late on all my credit cards for the month of December, I need to get my score back up to 640 because we are in the process of applying for a home loan when we sell our current morgtage, mu LO says she can go in with and waive the fact that i will have late payments within the last year because I have a letter from my finance dept saying how bad my pay was screwed up. I went 4MONTHS without pay but finally got my back pay and can pay off this debt we occured while not getting paid.
How should I go about paying these down to get the most point increase???? Should I pay them 100%, 70% or 50%.....I need my scores up by July/August.
Credit One (master card) maxed out $750
First Premier (master card) maxed out $350
Orchard (master card) maxed out $3000
MIlitary Star maxed out $3700
I have no other derogatory issues on my report just the maxed out cards and late payments for Decmeber on all my cards.
Thanks
Justin
Justin
Might be better addressed in the Rebuilding Credit section. I would GW and see if your creditors will wipe your slate clean due to circumstances beyond your control. Did you call your creditors during this or did you just let your accounts go past due? Most lenders are willing to work with you if you call them.
You might want to post this in the 'Rebuilding your credit' section
Thank you for your service.
You need to get your balances down, because they will effect your plans almost as much as the missed payments. It screams I can't afford my current debt, my head is barely above water.
Also try to get your lenders to remove the late payments, Write GW letters point out that this happened while you were in the service. If you can accomplish this your scores will go back and perhaps even go higher.
Having your cards maxed out is killing your scores. Since you have the money, pay them off. There's no need to continue paying interest on them.
For maximum scoring purposes, you would want to have ONE card report a small (<10%) balance and the rest report a $0 balance. But even reporting $0 on all cards won't hurt you nearly as much as having them maxed out. Pay them off 100% so that you don't continue to accrue interest. After that, you can use them but always PIF BEFORE the statement cuts, with the exception of one card that you allow to report a small balance. That would be your best score strategy.
ETA: I'm going to move this to the Rebuilding Your Credit forum because you may be able to get some additional help regarding the lates. Those are also hurting your scores, even if the mortgage company is willing to look past them.
Ok thanks for the feedback so far, I sent out 4 letters abd got 4 letters sent back to me denying me of taking off the late payments. I will try again, in the mean time ill pay down all the cards and see where that gets me next month.
Any other ideas??
I would call each company and offer to PFD and explain the situation. They might want to see proof of your pay situation. Lot's of company's will work military people.
Good luck. You can do this!
Wait...are these cards open or closed?
If they are open, then pay them off right away and you should gain most of your points back.
If they are closed because you didn't pay December, then you might have to do a pfd. The pfd won't help you increase your score if the only open cards you have are the maxed out cards you listed.
Try reducing the utilization as everyone above has stated then see where you are in your score. Give it time to post the new paid off balances first.
all of these cards are open and I have always had good payment history except for December, should I pay the 100% or pay them down and continue to make payments to show good history?
after you paid them all off....You should sign up for auto paid which paid the minium on your cc bills each month without worry about missing payment.