Frugally improving credit score???

**catzz64** · 12-31-2005, 11:18 PM

I'm just curious if there are others out there like me who are, besides trying to cut expenses and live simply, trying to improve their credit score?

We, my DSO and I, because of me being out of work 4 years before going on disability, and medical expenses, both wrecked our credit and now are trying to fix it! Mine has never been good so this is a huge step for me...I am/was a shopaholic and at the age of 18 had 13 credit cards (back in the early 80's when you could blink and have a card), so this has been a long haul for me that has followed me through my adult life.

Finally we have the ability, as long as life throws no curve balls, to attempt cleaning up our mess and trying to buy a home within the next few years...God bless all of you disciplined young 'uns who have found the wisdom to set your future as a priority. Back then, it wasn't a priority to me...I was invincible...lol

So, anyway, we are trying to watch what we spend, pay extra to everyone, including paying bills that are sometimes quite old but we are very moral and feel we need to for our own piece of mind (rather than file bankruptcy, as was suggested by his mom).

BUT...we are also watching our FICO scores on myfico.com monthly to monitor changes. We just got a credit card with a very small credit line for emergencies only. We don't want to pay everything off and have NO debt, we need to have some debt that will improve our score.

Just pondering some thoughts, please share your thoughts as well on this...I appreciate anyone's input

**Sari** · 01-01-2006, 01:39 AM

Check out the articles on MSN Money. I've been doing quite a bit of reading today. According to those articles, paying off some old debts may actually make your score go down. I don't really understand it, but that's what they say.

Good luck!

**Jeanna** · 01-01-2006, 11:02 AM

I suggest that you check your credit score. Around here most places go by the Equifax score. We went thru some very bad financial times around 6 years ago and even filed chapter 13 bankruptcy, the problem with no credit and no savings things such as dr bills and broken appliances came along and we couldn't even make the payment on the chapter 13 so it was dismissed. Anyhow we have had no credit cards since about 2000 and have only had car payments from a buy here pay here place so we did not think there was anyway we could get a loan for another house. But they run our credit report and offered us a loan at 6.5% interest.
I guess what I am trying to say is, it might not be as bad as you might think.

Good luck

**catzz64** · 01-01-2006, 02:23 PM

Thanks for your input...I do read anything I can get ahold of, including the MSN Money page. I don't understand how it can go down either but not much in the credit world makes a lot of sense!

We did attempt to trade our car in last year and were denied so we did get our credit scores then and do watch our Equifax through myfico.com. They give you all 3 if you want but Equifax is what is used here mostly....plus the FICO...they are starting to come up but still in the low 600's.

We toyed with bankruptcy but since student loans aren't wiped out, and other than that it is just a lot of little bills, not totalling $8000...we opted not to (also we don't own a home so no advantage there either). We were also at risk of having a lot of medical bills (difficult pregnancy, and I have a lot of medical issues). I didn't want to file and then have another $10,000 in medical bills that would make another mess!

I have a feeling that we should just let a lot of the older stuff (>4 or 5 years) just fall off to bad debt, knowing we did our best and work to pay the more current stuff. We did attempt to get a mortgage about 2 years ago and were denied, but at the time I had no income, had just started getting my disability.

We live and learn, huh?

Thanks, Jeanna for sharing your story...it is a huge help!

I think I will try to talk to a financial planner, or bankruptcy atty again.