Hello all.. been reading for a while and had to join! I am 35,000$ in debt at an avg of 8% intrest and my FICO is 623. I've never been late on a payment in the last 6 years but all my credit cards are maxed. MBNA Platinum plus - 12,000$ Visa - 8,000$ Student Loan - 15,000 I need to get my score up so from what I've read if I just pay my bills and don't apply for anything I should jump fairly high! As for my wife she has about 10 things in collections and 4 chargeoffs and is at 498 CR... she can't get anything.... do i just start with the letters??????? Also, should I just take care of my debt and worry about her's later??? I also thought about BR and just saving all the money I'm putting toward CC's.. help please!
Your interest rate isn't that high, so I assume you're keeping up with your payments. If that's the case, I wouldn't file bankruptcy. One thing you can do, if your credit is good, is to try to get some limit increases BUT DON'T USE IT! That will help your ratios and therefore help your score. Then, pay any extra that you can on the highest interest rate first, when that's paid off, and the total payment you were making there to the next account, and so on.
What are your goals? Are you trying to pay off debt, buy a house, save enough for one of you to stay home with the baby? If you could clarify exactly what you're trying to do now, it would help the gurus here to give you some direction. Being 35K in debt means one thing if you make $25K a year, another if you make $150K/yr. In general, I would suggest you focus on raising your own scores, which at the moment are higher than your wifes. Hedwig makes an excellent suggestion that if you get (but don't use) an increas in your credit lines, your scores will look better. Make a list of all your expenses, make a strict budget, and apply all your extra money to your highest balance card. Meanwhile, begin disputing the collection accounts on your wife's cards - demand validation, etc etc etc. There's lots of good info at the top of the board under "PsychDocs Credit Repair Primer." Good luck! You'll get there. Poochie
Just a suggestion ... As I know being an AU on someone's card or having joint account reflects on both person's score. Shouldn't they split the accounts, if there are some?
