@jhollow509 wrote:
Hello Everyone,
I was hoping to maybe get some advice on my current credit situation. I’m hoping to get a mortgage with my partner in around 20 months or so (Gonna renew our rental one more time). I think I messed up a little trying to build my scores to begin with and have went from thin file to super thick file within the past 2 years. I’m trying to learn everything I can about credit and build myself to be better than my background, but I’m a little lost. Would y’all be willing to help me figure out what the best courses of action to take with my accounts would be? (Also, couldn’t really figure out if this was the right thread to post this in. If not, let me know!)
Details:
Cards: Name/Balance/Date Opened/APR
Discover it: 2340/2700 (Opened 10/18) 0% APR till April ‘20
Discover it: 1377/6000 (Opened 09/19) 0% APR till 01/21
Cap1 QS: 113/500 (Opened 08/18) 21.49 APR
Cap1 QSO: 450/500 (Opened 02/18) 21.49 APR
CareCredit: 1140/6000 (Opened 04/19)
Amazon store card: 360/400 (Opened 02/19)
Ikea Projekt: 3090/8000 (Opened 02/19)
West elm: 1300/5600 (Opened 02/19)
Lending club: 5750/8000 (Opened 01/19) 0% APR 12 months
Express: 57/750 (Opened 02/19)
Overstock: 522/2650 (Opened 02/19)
Mission Lane: 0/600 (Opened 02/19) 29.9 APR
Gettington: 167/1000 (Opened 10/18)
Amex BCE: 0/1000 (Opened 10/19)
(Amex APR unsure. Locked out my account till I get my card.)
Accounts:
Santander: Car Loan, balance is $11,444 (upside down- 16% paid off) APR is 16.89%
Student loans: $80 a month. $15696 balance
(0% paid off, been paying for 2 years)
Payment history is Exceptional, no lates.
7 closed secured loan accounts, all paid off. Closed in 2017. (Joint accounts I got with my mom to build credit).
Experian Score: 694, 20 inquiries, 0 Collections
AAoA: 4 years, 10 months. (Reports a few accounts of my Great-Grandfathers as mine from 35 years ago for some reason. All positive though).
Equifax Score: 632, 18 inquiries, 2 Collections One PFD hasn’t updated. Other is 127$ settled in full/closed (Reported on 01/19) For some reason FirstPoint (Agency) reportes it as a 60+ day late as well.
AAoA: 2 years, 2 months.
Transunion Score: 675, 15 inquiries, 1 Collection(Waiting for update. PFD)
AAoA: 2 years, 2 months.
My Discover/LendingClub balances are high because I just had a major dental surgery done that put me out of work (no pto at my job) for over a week.
My goal is mid 700 scores within the next 18 months, and to increase my Amex/Discover/CareCredit limits. I also want to refinance my upside-down car loan, but I owe like 147% of what it’s worth.
Monthly income after taxes is around $2700. Rent is $650, bills come out near $400. The rest goes to cards, car, and savings.
Cap1 balance is high because I used it to pay off that PFD collection. Was planning to transfer that balance to my Discover Card at 0% APR.
I feel like I got trigger happy, so I need to close some cards. Also feel like I’ve moved past my bucketed Cap1 cards, and planned to close them eventually.
Any ideas? All input is appreciated!
1. No new credit applications.
2. Don't close any open accounts.
3. Pay revolvers down. The more zero balances the better.
4. Keep working on getting rid of negatives.
These plus the passage of time will increase your mortgage scores.
@jhollow509 wrote:
Thanks everyone for all the input! Sorry for replying late, catching up at work has been killer. I’ve been curious about one thing though; I understand I shouldn’t open any new accounts, but would it be a bad idea to trade in my car for a newer one at a lower apr and just roll the negative equity? Especially if I could find something with rebates?
That would be a bad idea.
Since the heading of your post is "trying to build my scores" the answer is a resounding N.O.