Hi everyone! I am happy to report that after following a year's worth of advice on this forum, I have completely paid off my credit debt of about 3500! To me, that's a lot of money, and I am grateful that it's gone. I also had a weird student loan situation in collections, and after a year of paying the Attorney General diligently, the school in question (Ohio State) took my account out of collections - and I just sent them a check to cover the remainder balance! My credit score has gone up a little over the last few months, only on TransUnion unfortunately, but it's increased with them over 75 points - form 545 to 615. I am curious as to what my next directive should be. At current, I have 300 bucks on a card with a 1K limit, and two other cards that have a zero balance - all secured credit cards since my credit was sucky, and I could not get a regular card. I want to get a regular card somehow and close ALL of these secured cards - but what do you suggest I do? Does it look better to have a bunch of available credit OPEN, or should I close these cards? Your advice would be wonderful, as I have followed everything else here to the letter. Thanks!
Congratulations on the debt payoff! Your first action should be to celebrate! (but don't charge it!) If your next goal is an unsecured credit card, first wait until you are sure the balances on these cards is reporting as a $0 balance. This could take 30-60 days. Second, try to pay off the last $300 balance. Then I would first try requesting upgrading these current cards to "unsecured". Request an account review from your issuers, and simply request being taken to an unsecured status. If there is no success there, there are companies listed on this forum who specialize in the subprime market, but...without knowing who your current CC issuers are, it is difficult to point out certain companies (as they may be the ones you have already). If you're comfortable doing it, let us know who your current cards are with, perhaps then we can suggest other friendly issuers. But, do try with your current credit card issuers. Especially since you've obviously held the cards more than a year.
I also forgot: the only loans I'll have are my auto loan (perfect history) and my student loans (about 65K, in good standing, and in economic hardship deferment). Any advice on whether to close these cards or not? I'd really appreciate it!
I forgot to add this item, do NOT close the accounts/cards yet. Keep them open until you have a satisfactory CC in your hand (and activated). You want to keep the "good history" running as long as possible. Keeping the accounts open also raises your FICO score with a better utilization factor. Don't close them until it makes good financial/credit sense!
thanks BizWiz! No worries, let me list them here. I have the following: 1 Household Bank credit card (1k limit) 1 Merrick Bank credit card (1400 limit) 1 CreditOne Bank with a 1k limit (these guys used to be Bank of Marin, or something like that) You mentioned that my balance will report as zero in a month or two - is there anything I should be doing in the mean time? Writing letters to the reporting agencies, anything like that, to ensure that the cards get "noticed," per se? Thanks! This is honestly one of the most exciting times of my life. Isn't that sad? I'd like to go back about ten years and just kick the living sh&$ out of my little self for running up debt and damaging my credit in the first place. If I had known then that my poor behavior would get me this kind of crap ten years down the road... We live, we learn.
There is nothing you can do to expedite the reporting process, just have some patience. If the cards are reported on your credit reports, then the $0 balances will be reported in short time. Re: Household Bank, my bet is that they would upgrade you to unsecured. If you've had a good overall history for a year or two, this should be doable. The same with Merrick. Not to assume, have you tried requesting an unsecured status from them? Yes, it always feels great to get the debt monkey off your back. Again, reward yourself for this accomplishment, believe it or not, celebrating a success is a great tool for building good "habits". You've "learned", and you've accomplished, now reawrd yourself!
Update: My "present" was a small one, paid for with cash. I bought a new laptop hard drive (50% off) so I can run a dual boot XP and Ubuntu. Just so you know I celebrated a little!
