@Anonymous wrote:
Hello myFico Forums,
I am new to this but very familiar with the Fico Score. I had a subscription last year, which I cancelled of course, and never valued the Community (so much information!). I am now, seriously, working on getting my credit together. I had tried in the past but never kept up with making on-time payments and just could NOT stop applying for credit when I knew I would not get approved.
As a starting over grad student (MBA from MPA) with LOADS of student loans, it is time to get my finances together. I made HUGE mistakes by taking out loans while attending community college seven years ago and during my remaining studies at a university. Now I have over 94k in federal loans and INTEREST with two years of grad school remaining. Yes, I took the max they allowed me to. I was an independent student. Offer 12.5k with tuition/fees for the year only 3k? Where do I sign?! I did not know the impact. Enough of the personal rambling.
Over the next several months I am paying off a lot of revolving credit debt. I have several collections that range from $240 to $5,500.
I have nine revolving credit accounts:
- Macy's SC: 0/100
- Wal-Mart SC: 335/400
- CO QuickSilver One: 699.35/700
- Gettington: 134/400
- Barclay/Apple: 1,013/1,000
- Fingerhut: 170/750
- Amazon Store: 101/600 (Opened 4/1/16)
- CreditOne: 470/700
- CO Platinum: 0/500
- CO Platinum Secured (Closed 3/27): -8.00 (deposit applied; closed out at 421 awaiting update)
Collections:
- Public Record (apt. co-sign): 5,424 (other person discharged from ch. 7 bankruptcy)
- Herff Jones: 400
- SouthWest Credit System (Comcast): 591
- Credit Protection (Comcast): 236 and 590
- State Collections: 2,527
- D&A Services, Student Apt: 2,907 (HAS NOT HIT CR)
- Two Failed Semesters of Grad School: 1,541 and;
- cont. 2,657 (HAS NOT HIT CR)
Goals:
- Eliminate ALL balances on revolving credit accounts by July 2016
- Maintain a 30% utili on each revolving account OR total 30% utili, forever!!!
- Pay off Collections 2, 3, and 4 by end of August 2016
- Pay off Collection 5 by December 2016
- Pay off Collections 7 and 8 by January 2017
Note: One a limited income this is VERY difficult to do. I am thinking of getting each of my revolving accounts down to 30% utili FIRST instead of paying them off. Then, I would focus on the collections monthly. Any ideas for a grad student (I am working on obtaining a summer internship OR permanent position)? Based on the myFico Score Simulator I can get into the lower 620's by paying off the revolving accounts. I am taking any and ALL advice under heavy consideration. Thank you, all!!!
Nope, wrong way to go, IMHO. You're trying to prop up your score, when your score is not going to help you RIGHT NOW. You need to "snowball" these accounts - Start from smallest one, throwing all available dollars at it, while making minimums on the rest. Work your way up, rolling each payment into the next as you pay them off.
You need to sock drawer all of them them at the outset, to reduce the risk of charging them back up again.
I hope your graduate degree is in something marketable.
