Working on my Refi-Loan

[basketsbears]

I'm so happy for you. Thanks for letting us in on your experiment.

[IBroke]

FINAL UPDATE:

Sooooo....I'm finally in the position to announce that my refi-project has been finalized.

After all, I did NOT take the offer from Capital One. I somehow had the feeling that I could get a better deal than the 12% interest they offered. Turned out I was right. When I applied over lendingtree, I received the message that I had a pending offer from Fleet Financial. I thought I'd give it a try and called them. They were able to get me approved through NuVision Federal Credit Union from California - and they offered 9.32%. Now THAT'S darn close to what my goal was!

The CSR from Fleet Financial did a great job and I could always reach him when I had a question (BTW, if anybody is interested, just send me a PM and I'll gladly provide you with info how to get in contact with them).
Today, I received my paperwork from NuVision FCU and set up my online-access. Was pretty easy.

So after all, I think I can consider my mission "accomplished". From 18.24% to 9.32% interest does make a difference...

My loan was extended to 72 months (they simply did that on their own) and my minimum monthly payment changed from $547 to $394 - but as I said before, I'm planning on paying it off much, much faster..

[lostinnola]

It is crazy what paying off your credit cards does to your credit score. I have a discharge of May 2010. I have no late payments on anything since then. I paid off 2 credit cards with my tax refund and my score shot up (literally overnight) 40 points.

[basketsbears]

I am a member of a local CU as well and considered that, too. But I really prefer NOT to have any auto-loans with the financial institutions where I'm doing my daily banking. Might sound odd but I'm not a huge fan of financial "packages" where everything is tied together. I like to be more independent and keep it balanced.

I understand that. I am so happy for you and your "experiment". It is helping us all. Thanks!

[IBroke]

I wondered tho, can you apply at maybe some local credit unions, or other places where you may get a lower rate like you had wanted.

I am a member of a local CU as well and considered that, too. But I really prefer NOT to have any auto-loans with the financial institutions where I'm doing my daily banking. Might sound odd but I'm not a huge fan of financial "packages" where everything is tied together. I like to be more independent and keep it balanced.

[basketsbears]

Hi,

I have been interested in reading how this works as well. You have done a great job! I wondered tho, can you apply at maybe some local credit unions, or other places where you may get a lower rate like you had wanted.

Keep us posted!

[ValleYum]

You are welcome! How about we just consider these the "warm up" act?!?!

I will find something else to have a party for you when it is a 100% done deal!

[IBroke]

These hamsters are having a party for you!

Thanks!

But as I said, I'm not going to celebrate until it's a done deal. A 100% done deal..

[ValleYum]

Congrats on the new rate!!! I like how you have the built-in safety net, too. Just in case because at least once all of us have one of those times.

I have enjoyed reading your experiment and seeing what changes in scores occurred with your utilization % decreases.

These hamsters are having a party for you!

[IBroke]

Ok, I've completed my journey! after all CCs have updated, my current scores are:

EX (FAKO): 659
EQ (FICO): 663
TU (FICO): 672

I'm quite satisfied with that. today, I went to lendingtree and applied for the Refi-loan. Capital One approved me at 12.09% interest. Not quite as good as I wanted (they used Experian and stated that my credit-score was 643), but MUCH better than the 18.24% I'm currently paying. I was aiming for 9% but I found out that the difference in interest between 9% and 12% are only $30/month at the beginning, getting less every month. I chose a 57 months term because the interest-rate was the same as it would have been for 36 months. However, I'm still going to pay off the loan over 24 months. I just picked this option as a safety-net.

Right now, I don't want to celebrate too early because they needed a paystub as proof of income which I already faxed in. In addition, I find it hard to believe that Capital One approved me although my last auto-loan with them ended as a repo where they lost more than $10K. So I guess I will know for sure in a couple of days if I'm REALLY approved. It was an interesting project and shows what you can accomplish with the right utilization. take my TU-score, for example: the only thing that changed since November 30th of last year was my CC utilization. The score went up from 575 to 672. I wouldn't be surprised to reach 700 in September - once my BK-filing has its second birthday. Amazing...

EDIT: After closer examination (because the TU-score went up almost 100 - a bit too much for even for utilization), I found out that the only two collection-accounts on file were removed as well. They were still reporting in November and were scheduled to dropp off much later so I missed that. So the score-increase was the result of two deleted collections AND the utilization. My bad..

[IBroke]

IBroke, which is the BEST site, in your opinion, to obtain one's current scores??? we see so many of these sites and apparently, which ever you are using sounds excellent. can you share than information, if you don't mind?

Sure!

The source of my EX-score is USAA. They are only providing a FAKO-score but I'm using their service for about $12/month which allows to pull all three reports on a daily basis. So basically, I'm using them to check the CONTENT of my reports. If you are looking for your SCORES, you have to go to myfico.com.

I'm not purchasing credit-reports and scores from them on a regular basis - that would be much too expensive. However, I'm using their scorewatch service for Equifax which is $14.95/month which gives you regular updates and their TU-monitoring for 4.95/month which includes a FICO-score every 3 months. Once you are signed up with scorewatch, you can pull two additional credit-reports with score for free and receive a discount on further reports. You also get a discount on TU-accounts when you are signed up for their TU-monitoring.

So $30/month for credit-monitoring is everything but cheap but I've yet to find a better package that delivers more for less.

[tobee43]

IBroke, which is the BEST site, in your opinion, to obtain one's current scores??? we see so many of these sites and apparently, which ever you are using sounds excellent. can you share than information, if you don't mind?

[IBroke]

This is a good experiment.

It certainly is. I just received a monitoring-alert on myfico.com from TransUnion. That report still shows the final two CCs with the high balances. Considering that, however, the current score of 649 isn't that bad at all. After BK, TU has always been my lower score.

[justbroke]

This is a good experiment.

[IBroke]

Update:

The final $300 CC reported the $0 Balance. Only the update from the remaining $700 CC is missing. That card closed yesterday with a statement-balance of $57 which should be just perfect. They already reported to Experian but not to the other two. The update on the $300 CC only brought up my score from 643 to 649 which is a bit less than I thought. Hopefully, the final, bigger CC gets me the missing 11 points.