Quick and General Advice [School Consolidation]

[Scubasteve2365]

OK, I've recently found this site and love it. I feel like I would have an 800 credit score if only I had learned about it a couple of years ago. Oh well, I will start working now.

Right now, my credit sucks, but not un-repairable. I range from 575-630 between the 3 CRAs. My goal is to start preparing to buy a home approximately 18 months from now [Good for me to start working ahead of time huh?]

In the mean time, I'd like to get approved on financing Lasik Surgery. I constantly see 24 month S.A.C. advertisements, but I know where I stand now I probably wont be approved. Hell, I'd be happy to simply be approved with interest on a lasik procedure. Moving on....

I have several bad accounts on my CR.

2 - Midland CAs that should hit the 7 year mark next summer

1 - Paid Discover charge off won't go away until 09' but will try to get it deleted since they havn't reported since 02'

1 - School Loan that went into default. I took it out of default and went back to school and completed my B.S. in Engineering. The account was transferred to another account and is in perfect standing. This bad account will be gone in 2010, I of course will try to get it removed before then

- Several other small dollar collection account that I think I can DV/Dispute away, that should NOT be on my report [Video stores, phone companies ect]

On the upside, I have recently acquired some sub-prime CC accounts from First Premier and Orchard Bank. Both are unsecured. I will keep both of these guys at about 5% util.

I also have 8 or so good standing school loan accounts. I want to know if I should consolidate them. I get consolidation availibility notices in the mail frequently. If I consolidate them, it's going to take my number of good standing open accounts way down. I fear being able to organize and pay several monthly payments once I begin making payments. As of right now they are still in the post-graduation deferment.

Any Advice?

[CantCU]

I also have 8 or so good standing school loan accounts. I want to know if I should consolidate them. I get consolidation availibility notices in the mail frequently. If I consolidate them, it's going to take my number of good standing open accounts way down. I fear being able to organize and pay several monthly payments once I begin making payments. As of right now they are still in the post-graduation deferment.

Any Advice?

I know that consolidating loans of less than 2 years will initially hurt your score, but it is only temporary. Some advice from a mom who is paying back Parent Plus loans right now...

First of all, if you consolidate, your interest rate is locked in to whatever the interest rate is at the time you do the consolidation. It may not seem like a big deal, but it would be worth a call to your credit grantor to see how much the "new" rate will be after 7/1/07...it does go up every year. If all of your loans are with the same grantor, then you still only have 1 payment per month. They will divide it up amongst all the different loans. If they are with different companies, you will have minimum payments on all of them.

Second, talk with the company who has your loans about getting the lower payment (forget what it is called) but it starts out low, and goes up about every 2 years or so. You can do this with or without consolidating, and make the payments more within reach until you start making the big bucks!

If you set it up for automatic withdrawal from a checking account, they will also give you a discount.

The student loan companies want you to pay on time and offer great incentives to make it so.

Start with them...they are trained on how to help you pay back your debt, and work diligently with you to make it easier to do.

[Scubasteve2365]

Thanks, the bulk of the loans are through Sallie Mae, and in fact, between all of them I believe that I only have Sallie Mae and Purdue University that I show. I can definitely manage 2 monthly payments, and won't mind to do the monthly set-up.

Thanks for the advice.

[CantCU]

I failed to say if you do the consolidation, you'll only have 1 payment. But if you can manage 2, it'll keep you with 2 TL's.

When did you graduate? My daughter graduated 5/5/07, and she's already gotten letters saying how much her payment will be after the post-graduation deferrment.

[Scubasteve2365]

I graduated this spring as well. Which has gotten me in the mood of setting all my ducks in a row.

I just reviewed my credit report, and it shows 3 companies, so I will have to manage 3. Which is fine. I was just worried about making 8 separate payments. [5 separate TLs with Sallie Mae]

If I can setup an automatic payment with them for the minimum I will be happy. At this point I'm not overly concerned with paying them off very fast.

I have a new question though concerning Credit Card utilization.

It appears that the credit card reports monthly, assumed via an automated system. Let's for example say that report date is on the 21rst of every month. I want to keep my util very low, and I only want to PIF every month. Would I need to make sure that the balance is reported first, before I PIF?

What if I put a tank of gas on there [Approx $40] lets say on the 5th and then later that evening go into my PNC bank billpay and pay the $40 which would post the next day. Leaving me with a $0 balance on the 21rst of the month, which would mean $0 gets reported right?

How do I make sure this minor utilization is reported to the CRAs?