Working on my Refi-Loan

[IBroke]

Isn't it amazing how much utilization affects the score?

Indeed. Hopefully, it will also help my auto-enhanced score. My goal is to reach 660 which should get me the 9% interest.

The TU-score should be higher by now as well and I'm going to get an update on that the first week of March. Right now, there is just no sense in spending money to monitor the progress on that one.

[justbroke]

Isn't it amazing how much utilization affects the score?

[basketsbears]

Keep going! You are doing great!

[IBroke]

Update:

The first $700-account reported a $0-Balance EQ-score went up 626 to 643. Two to go (one has to be paid off to $0, the second left with a small balance).

[IBroke]

Update:

After the first two $300-CCs reported the $0-balance, I received a FICO Equifax score-alert today. Score went up from 614 to 626. Current total utilization at about 50%. As of today, three cards at $0-balance, three to go (two have to be paid off to $0, the third left with small balance).

[IBroke]

Well, almost 7 months have past since I purchased my CPOed Lincoln and at 18% interest, I think it's time for a better rate.

This thread has the purpose of keeping you informed about my (hopefully successful) auto-loan refi-project.

Right now, I have two old car-repos (both more than 5 years ago). After the repo, I obtained a car-loan from a buy here/pay here lot that fortunately reported to 2 of the 3 bureaus. I paid off that loan over 36 months - never late. Unfortunately (the month after it was paid off), the car died and last August, I had to get a new (and current) car. My current loan-balance is at $21K. Since I wasn't prepared for that loan, my CCs were all maxed out when I applied - so I got stuck with an 18% interest-rate. I paid every installment on time (and a few bucks extra) and on February 1st, I started my credit-preparations to get the best refi-loan possible.

My current Equifax FICO-score is at 614 at a UTIL of 68%, spread over 5 of my 6 CCs. The 6th CC is a retail-account of a local auto-dealer with a $1,000 CL and already paid off. Altogether, the CCs have the following CLs:

$1,000
$700
$700
$300
$300
$300

Once I'm done, every CC is going to report a $0 balance - except one of the $700 CCs which is going to report a balance of $60. I'll keep that balance below 9% of its CL. All updated balances should be reported by the end of the month. I'll apply for the refi-loan the first week of March (after a couple of inquiries will drop out of the 12 month window).

I'll keep you updated on my score-progress (I'll pull an updated FICO-report for TU and EQ the day before I apply). My goal is to at least cut my current interest-rate in half (9% or better). When I apply, there will be 59 payments left on my loan but I want to refi the balance over 36 months instead.