xdorkx

I got a 2nd job working from home that pretty much doubled my income....I just put $1300 on two credit cards yesterday and completely paid them off. I've been in debt 5000+(about 11,000 total as of last week) for the past 3 years, now i'll be able to pay it off completely in the next 2-3 months where I haven't been able to make a dent in it before... so once I get my stuff paid off i'm getting a nice apt in OC, buying my girlfriend a car, pimping my car and apartment, and getting a crap load more tattoos (dont worry, only gonna use credit on the car for my gf, lol)...

so yeah, any advice for getting my credit rating back up? I think i'm going to keep my credit cards all open so i've got the available credit, and i'll use ONE of them monthly and pay it on time of course...any other advise?

Its 5:43am and i'm at work, i'm bored so forgive my long boring post

amdforever

Supposedly from experts only go to 30% of your cards worth and pay it over a 6 month period. They claim thats one way to get your credit rating up pretty quick.

xdorkx

I read 20% max for credit cards...but hey I can live with 30%, haha, thank you very much I learned my lesson and i'll be doing that! LOL

matt_a

Congrats! Debt sucks...period. Even extremely smart people can easily get into big trouble with credit card debt. Get totally out of debt and then NEVER carry a balance on your card. My wife and I use a Visa for everything we do (gas, groceries, clothes, entertainment...etc) because it accumulates milage points for travel. But we pay the entire balance every month without exception. The biggest luxury of all is no debt.

amdforever

Yeah, I got three cards....all three over 50% of their limit, one is in the 80s now Got to stop buying car parts

citizen01

I buy gas and pay it at the end of evey month. No exceptions. I have too many friends who I guess thought it was just free money. They are in a lot of hurt right now.

xdorkx

/\/\/\ LOL yeah, i'm getting mine paid off, then not going above 30% unless it's an emergency

seattledave

you know on some cards, capital 1 and a few others i believe, if you don't go above 30% or whatever certain dollar amount, then it appears to future lenders that's all they gave you for a limit.

shadow12one

Man I could go on about personal finance and being smart financially. But I dont want to steal this thread lol. Ill just add whats been mentioned. Pay off those cards right away. Dont lapse on any payments. Try to stay below 30% but never ever go above 50%. Most companies raise your limit if you go above 50%.

Btw credit card companies have whats known as Universal Default. Meaning if you miss a payment on ANYTHING at all they can raise your interest. Sure you might get a 0% interest card but the moment you miss a car payment, student loan payment, or any other payment to a financial institution they can automatically raise your interest to whatever they want. Usually 10-20% just like that. And its gonna keep goin up from there.

Haha I gotta stop myself. I get excited talkin about this stuff cuz what I do normally is help people get their financial lives on track, so I could go dissecting mortgages and the crap people get sucked into, credit cards, insurance, mutual funds, savings, etc. But I wont. haha.

If anyone wants a quick overview about building their financial house the right way so they can become financially independent and retire in dignity PM me. Otherwise ill let everyone continue their discussion.

matt_a

I really do not agree with that 30% rule. I'm not sure how you guys are set up, but I have three major credit cards. Two of them have a $30,000 limit and one has a $20,000 limit. That means I have the potential to have $80,000 of debt on credit cards. If I went by that 30% rule, I would be $24,000 in debt. It would take a big monthly payment just to cover that. I would have to continue to put items on the cards, because I would be broke from making the payments (with interest).
I still say the best way is to pay it off totally every month. You won't get in a habbit of spending more than you can afford, and I never pay a dime in interest.

shadow12one

Right you dont want to constantly spend and not pay it off to rack up 80,000 or 24,000 of debt. That will kill you. Ive seen people with 80k in debt.

matt_a

I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I mean, I do have about that much debt now, but that's my mortgage on my home...NOT high interest credit card debt. My mortgage is at 4.5% fixed and I overpay every month. It'll be paid off in about 10 more years!

shadow12one

Your a smart person. Fixed mortgages that allow you to pre-pay without penalty are the best. Even an extra $200 to $300 could cut you down about 10 years in payments and save you over $50,000 in interest.

If you can afford it, get a 15 year mortgage with a fixed rate, not a 30. haha im so tempted to start goin into mortgages and explaining everything haha.

by the way i meant credit card debt when i said debt. If you include mortgages and other personal debt then its alot more than that

matt_a

Yeah, that's what we have. A few years ago when the rates dropped a lot, we refinanced to get a fixed rate 15 year. I have about 10 years left, but it will actually be more like 8 or 9 years because I overpay each month.

shadow12one

Thats good to hear. Do you know your Financial Independence Number? The FIN what you need to retire financially independent.

matt_a

No I don't. I've heard of it, but I have no idea how to calculate it.
My retirement doesn't need to be expensive. I plan to move to Fiji and live in a grass shack on the beach.

shadow12one

If you lived around the Chicago area I could do that for you free of charge.

xdorkx

I just got laid off from a mortgage company 2 months ago after being there for 1 year & 3 months, not my favorite thing to talk about now, lol, BUT i've got a good job now and an even better possibility lined up, so hey why not

SW_PinkSylk

I like this topic. Let's keep talking about it!

Jenna

I just want to say... because it's sort of OT and I'm very happy about it...

We finally were able (knocks on wood, we're still a property line adjustment away from signing) to refinance our house after 5 years. Long story... nobody would touch us because not only credit but problems with the details of my property.

Anyhow, we were up to about 10% interest on our original loan of $150k. Our house appraised for $240k last month and our new interest rate is 6.5% AND we have all the issues resolved so that future refinances and/or sale of our house will go through easily.

We refinanced at $190k which will give us enough money to pay off a past repo, all bills and our xB (now both will be paid off). Our house payment even goes down. With all that other stuff paid off, we're shaving about $600 a month off our bills.

What is even better is that we're going to move to Wisconsin next year. If we indeed can sell our house at $240k (and with the HUGE boom in growth around here, the house might be worth more), that gives us like 40k (assuming after fees and stuff) to take to Wisconsin for a down payment on a house and houses there are like 1/4 the price they are here. I could almost literally pay 50% of my home cost with that money, lol.

Sorry to ramble. I'm just so happy to get everything back on track and not be forced to feel broke all the time, forking out all that money!