Warning: Long Post -- thank you to all who read the entirety!
A little hesitant to post because the $$s noted below are high (read: embarrassing) but I think it'll be cathartic for me and very useful to any of you who are into data points.
So this Fall, DP and I embarked on a goal of ours which we've had for several years--to refinance the mortgage on our house (which is in his name) and also begin focusing on paying down debt. We've both had problems with handling debt in the past (still struggling--but getting there!) and it's been a long process. When we started the process, we had a high % mortgage, boatloads of student loans and lots of CC debt.
We applied with one of our credit unions for a 15 yr refi mortgage with cash out (to pay down CC's) on 9/1/17. DP's previous mortgage was @ 7% (
) through Ocwen--most of the payment was still going to interest, less than $200/mo going toward principal, 17.5 yrs left on the mortgage (originally 30 yrs). Our CU was able to approve us @ 3.25% (lowest middle mortgage score was DP's @ 655, no idea how we pulled this % off), deed and mortgage now in both of our names, and gave us enough cash out to pay off every CC we had to $0. Monthly mortgage payment increased a little over $100 but will now be paid off 2.5 yrs sooner than under the prior mortgage & we no longer have approx. $50K in CC debt between the two of us (large majority of it is in my name since my credit has historically been better). Loan officer said he's never seen a refi opportunity so life changing. Don't know if he was just being a good salesman but I definitely think he was right. Mortgage was fully funded and cashout in our CU account by 10/18/17. We didn't hesitate to pay off every one of our CC's.
That said, here are the data points for my profile as of 10/18/17, the date I paid off all CC's:
Absolutely all data consistent across all bureaus, except inq's which will be noted:
AoOA: 13 yrs 6 mos
AAoA: 4 yrs 6 mos
AoYA: 1 yr 3 mos (why, oh why did I accept that JCP MC upgrade from Synchrony??)
12 open CC's, 5 closed CC's
1 closed auto loan
1 student loan (owe $77,946 on original $71,076 --yes, over 100% util on this loan... went through student loan rehab)
Inq's: 1EQ/1TU/2EX (refi inq accounts for 1 inq on each of these)
Scores (as of 10/18/17):
EQ 689 / TU 688 / EX 687
Score factors @ start:
Negative factors: Heavy use of revolving credit, remaining balance on mortgage/non-mortgage loans is too high, amount owed on revolving accounts is too high, you have not established a long revolving credit history.
Positive factors: No missed payments, you have an established credit history, not actively looking for credit, many accounts in good standing.
Starting CC balances and limits:
| Card | Balance | Limit | % Utilized |
| Capital One | $4,837.00 | $7,450.00 | 64.93% |
| Bank of America#1 | $7,419.25 | $11,000.00 | 67.45% |
| Bank of America#2 | $1,621.91 | $3,500.00 | 46.34% |
| Barclaycard | $4,654.21 | $8,900.00 | 52.29% |
| Chase | $0.00 | $1,500.00 | 0.00% |
| Citibank | $9,933.08 | $16,600.00 | 59.84% |
| Discover | $893.97 | $5,000.00 | 17.88% |
| eBay MC | $2,514.22 | $5,800.00 | 43.35% |
| JCP MC | $0.00 | $6,500.00 | 0.00% |
| Amazon | $1,971.09 | $4,100.00 | 48.08% |
| Lowe's | $4,890.10 | $8,500.00 | 57.53% |
| Walmart | $1,131.52 | $5,000.00 | 22.63% |
| Total | $39,866.35 | $83,850.00 | 47.54% |
After paying off my CC's one of the things I wanted to do was to consolidate by closing my Walmart, JCP and eBay cards (which I did), and I'm toying with closing some of the others, as well (I know this is a controversial topic on the boards, but I feel it's the right thing for me... just feels like juggling too many balls). In the meantime, I wanted to grow my BofA, Citi DC, Discover and Lowe's cards.
Here are the specifics on score movement as card payoff, card CLI, mortgage and TU inq (for BofA CLI) hit since 10/18/17. The grid is up to date as of today.
| Date | Equifax | TransUnion | Experian | # of Accounts @ $0 | Overall Balance | Utilization | Change Description |
| 10/18/2017 | 689 | 688 | 687 | 2 of 12 | $39,866.35 | 47.54% | **START** (All cards paid off) |
| 10/26/2017 | 692 | 691 | 687 | 3 of 12 | $37,895.26 | 45.19% | Amazon reports $0 |
| 10/27/2017 | 696 | 699 | 687 | 4 of 12 | $37,001.29 | 44.13% | Discover reports $0 |
| 11/2/2017 | 705 | 701 | 701 | 4 of 12 | $32,219.57 | 38.43% | CapOne reports $55.28 |
| 11/5/2017 | 705 | 701 | 701 | 4 of 12 | $32,219.57 | 38.43% | New mortgage reports |
| 11/9/2017 | 719 | 730 | 731 | 5 of 12 | $27,565.36 | 32.87% | Barclay reports $0 |
| 11/10/2017 | 737 | 730 | 731 | 5 of 12 | $20,220.29 | 24.11% | BofA#1 reports $74.18 |
| 11/11/2017 | 737 | 730 | 731 | 5 of 12 | $18,612.89 | 21.43% | BofA#2 reports $14.51 & CLI to $6500 from $3500 |
| 11/12/2017 | 749 | 743 | 756 | 7 of 12 | $14,967.15 | 17.23% | eBay reports $0; Walmart reports $0 |
| 11/13/2017 | 762 | 773 | 756 | 8 of 12 | $10,077.05 | 11.60% | Lowes reports $0 |
| 11/18/2017 | 784 | 791 | 785 | 8 of 12 | $145.49 | 0.17% | Citibank reports $1 (sigh) |
| 11/21/2017 | 784 | 784 | 785 | 7 of 12 | $179.49 | 0.21% | JCP reports $34; BofA inquiry reports on TU |
| 11/26/2017 | 784 | 784 | 785 | 7 of 12 | $179.49 | 0.21% | Discover reports CLI to $5300 from $5000 |
| 11/30/2017 | 782 | 784 | 785 | 5 of 10 | $179.49 | 0.23% | Walmart reported as closed; Amazon reported as closed |
| 12/1/2017 | 782 | 784 | 785 | 4 of 9 | $179.49 | 0.25% | eBay reports as closed |
| 12/2/2017 | 784 | 784 | 785 | 5 of 9 | $124.21 | 0.17% | CapOne reports $0 |
| 12/10/2017 | 784 | 784 | 785 | 5 of 9 | $188.03 | 0.24% | BofA#1 reports $138.00 & CLI to $18700 from $11000 |
| 12/11/2017 | 784 | 791 | 785 | 6 of 9 | $173.52 | 0.22% | BofA#2 reports $0 |
Still working on AZEO (BofA#1, Citi, JCP currently reporting but Citi & JCP should report $0 a few days from now). Here's what my cards look like now (as reported--Citi and Lowe's CLI's yet to report):
| Card | Balance | Limit | % Utilized |
| Capital One | $0.00 | $7,450.00 | 0.00% |
| Bank of America#1 | $138.00 | $18,700.00 | 0.74% |
| Bank of America#2 | $0.00 | $6,500.00 | 0.00% |
| Barclaycard | $0.00 | $8,900.00 | 0.00% |
| Chase | $0.00 | $1,500.00 | 0.00% |
| Citibank | $1.52 | $16,600.00 | 0.01% |
| Discover | $0.00 | $5,300.00 | 0.00% |
| JCP | $34.00 | $6,500.00 | 0.52% |
| Lowe's | $0.00 | $8,500.00 | 0.00% |
| Total | $173.52 | $79,950.00 | 0.22% |
Current score factors:
Negative factors: The remaining balance on mortgage/non-mortgage loans is too high.
Positive factors: No missed payments, limited the use of revolving accounts, you've shown recent use of credit cards and/or open ended accounts, no public records/collections (TU), many accounts in good standing (EQ/EX).
Now that DP and I are no longer spending so much on revolving debt we can save $$. It's very strange to not be living paycheck to paycheck, be able to pay off everything every month and we sometimes wonder if we're missing something. The financial freedom we're feeling is amazing. We're both considering throwing more $$ at our student loans, but not sure if that's the best way to spend our dollars (vs. save or invest). Clearly, since it's the only referenced negative factor on my reports it's probably a good idea so that I'm not standing @ 100%+ util. Would appreciate any advice on this.
Anyway, thanks again for reading. Hope you all find the data useful--if there's anything I neglected to note and you're interested please do not hesitate to ask.
Congrats! Enjoy the relief!
