by "Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
Published 10/11/2017 at 21:32
by "Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
Published 10/11/2017 at 21:32
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STARS: 5
...and I make my final car payment on the Mazda5. Just a partial payment of $205 and she’s all mine. It was a bit of a challenge to keep up the payments during that period of unemployment last year, but thanks to Bank of Dad I didn’t face repossession.
Does anyone know how this will affect my credit score? I’m assuming that I should get a decent bump for paying off such a large loan, but I don’t know how many points I can expect. I’m still recovering from the previously-mentioned unemployment, so any boost will be good, but I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment by expecting too much.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
10/11/2017 at 21:33, STARS: 2
The mention of unemployment makes me shutter to think what it would have been like without a job and a car payment. That would have been stressful as hell.
"XJDano" (xjdano)
10/11/2017 at 21:43, STARS: 1
Congrats on the payoff. It felt good to get my jeep paid off years ago.
My wife paid off her car that is now mine and in a few years we’ll pay the van off. It is a great feeling.
"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
10/11/2017 at 21:44, STARS: 0
Oh yeah, it was a tough time. Still had credit card debt, utility bills, rent, etc. Kind of hard to focus on finding a job when you’re facing life on the streets. All savings (incl. 401K) - wiped out. Again. I still haven’t got the gas turned back on over a year later, but it’s only for hot water and the dryer and I’ve learned to live without. My boss did mention that, at our agency, it’s almost impossible to get fired, and given how many old farts like me work there I can believe it.
"E90M3" (e90m3)
10/11/2017 at 21:50, STARS: 0
I can’t imagine. I was fortunate enough not to have to touch my savings. Finding a job was stressful enough.
"Nothing" (nothingatalluseful)
10/11/2017 at 21:55, STARS: 1
It won’t bump your score a bunch. Your credit scores update with the balances you carry, so you’ve basically eliminated $205 in debt at this point. You’ve been incrementally utilizing less of your available credit. Obviously, yippie! on paying off the loan, though. I’m so looking forward to that with the Taco and Jeep.
"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
10/11/2017 at 21:55, STARS: 3
Next time I’ll marry for money...
"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
10/11/2017 at 21:59, STARS: 0
For the last year my report stayed pretty consistent. Use a little more debt one month? Down 20 points. Pay down that debt the next month? Upward swing of 20 points. A frigging yo-yo. I was hoping that this would be a permanent upswing of 30-40 points, with more increases as the extra income is used to pay down debt.
"Nothing" (nothingatalluseful)
10/11/2017 at 22:13, STARS: 2
Your biggest swings will be from credit card utilitization going down (meaning balance carried) and from any lates dropping off. Basically, the less you’re using of your available credit, the better your score will be. You can dispute lates with reporting agencies, or call a creditor and see if they will do a good faith removal. Some will, some will claim it’s illegal (it isn’t).
Credit score is basically risk. Installment loans aren’t as risky as revolving credit. You can easily go from 0 credit used to 100% on revolving pretty easily. Collection accounts really kill scores. If you have any of those, you can offer a pay for delete. Offer to pay 10% or so of the balance if they’ll remove it from you credit. Do NOT do an installment plan on any collections. That can re-age the debt, depending on how nasty the collection agency wants to be.
"nermal" (nermal)
10/12/2017 at 09:22, STARS: 0
Congrats! You probably won’t see a yuuuuuge change to your credit. Your payment history will still show up on your credit report, good or bad. Your average account age will change, which may be good or bad. Your debt-to-income will go down.
The three biggest things you need to do to keep your credit score high are: 1) Make your damn payments 2) Don’t max out your credit cards 3) Don’t open a bunch of new accounts all at once.