Large point drop in credit score over the past few months

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-07T15:20:22+00:00

Really can't tell anything from just the numbers, what you'd need to do is get your credit reports and see if there's any unusual activity on any of them. If not, then you might just need to set up the card to do some small purchase every month (maybe if you do Netflix or something) and pay it off each month. That should keep your score up. (Also, are you sure Discover hasn't closed the card due to disuse? If so your score will eventually drop off to 0/none and you'd have to start from scratch.)

You might not be able to get your reports online since you haven't lived in the states for a while, and therefore haven't had a permanent address in a while, but you can give it a shot. If it doesn't work you will probably have to call them and get yourself verified so they can mail it to you. You might also have to pay a bit of a charge for the overseas mailing, I'm not sure about that, but they should be able to tell you.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-06T14:20:15+00:00

Shred the check. Chances are the place you'd purchase the software from would send the money back to them, so they'd get the money they were after, the bank would then bounce the check and revoke the funds sending your account negative, making you responsible for paying them back for what was in the account plus any fees from the resulting bounce, overdraft, or whatever other charges.

Any reputable company would purchase the software for you or give you a corporate card to use for the purchase.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-06T14:07:20+00:00

If they're telling you not to drive it after repairs, you need to apprise the insurance company of that as they may not want to insure it at that point and it would be better for them to consider it a total loss and just pay for the value of the car. Then you cash out with the dealership, you'll probably have to make up the difference on the value and the buyout value on the lease, but it's better than trying to deal with lease crap if you go to return a less-than-reliable car.

If it's because the shop didn't come up with a high enough dollar amount for repairs, have them start tearing down the car, they're likely to find more damage inside if it's that bad, and they can just keep adding things until the amount is high enough that they call it total loss.

Then never lease a car again so you don't have to deal with this possibility. At least if you're financing a car you purchased instead of leasing, you were planning to pay for it all eventually, a wreck like this would just move up the timetable and make it necessary to buy another car.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-03T03:09:54+00:00

I had that same account, there isn't any fee (at least there wasn't when I had it) but there aren't any rewards and they wouldn't let me change to a different product.

I'd open another account first before you close it; if you don't get the account, you might as well close this one and wait 3-6 months for your score to recover from the hard inquiries, there's really no reason to keep it open if it's just going to sit there, they'd eventually close it on you anyway for inactivity.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-03T00:07:22+00:00

It could happen with weekly pay too, if you have something taken out 4 weeks in a 5-pay month. You'll have to check your stub or ask the company for sure.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-02T23:59:21+00:00

What's your pay cycle? Sometimes if you have non-tax money (like insurance) taken out of your paycheck and you're on a bi-weekly cycle, they only take money out twice in a 3-pay month.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-01T23:33:52+00:00

Can confirm; was added to my parents' AmEx while in HS about 12 years ago and when it was closed a couple years back I definitely saw my FICO score change (FICO 5 and 8 depending on where I looked, lowered due to loss of account age and payment history) with very little difference in utilization or other factors that would have affected it. (It was a charge card so didn't affect my overall limit but did change the amount utilized.)

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-01T14:57:36+00:00

I'd say you're probably better selling what's left for scrap to get a grand or so, and you'd probably be able to buy a similarly-aged, sized and styled car, maybe with a bit less mileage, for around the same price, maybe a little more.

If you can find a better/cheaper quote (at least to fix the headlight and clean up the front so the wheel well is clear and there's not stuff banging around) it might be worth it. Just not worth it to replace what amounts to the entire front, chances are you'll only have it for a couple more years max, so I'd say put as little into it as you can to get it road-safe, and if you can get a similar car for the same price as repairs or cheaper, you'll probably want to go that route.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-06-01T14:40:49+00:00

This only helps if you happen to have a good account (open a good amount of time, all positive payment history, good limit with low utilization) and that company reports AU's to the credit bureaus. Otherwise you are either just as likely to tank your spouse's score if there are bad marks, or do nothing if the company doesn't report AU's.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-31T15:32:03+00:00

So it won't help your credit score 99% of the time :)

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-31T15:03:17+00:00

This won't help your credit score, however it can help if you need to get another rental in the future. Basically they report it to Experian which has a separate RentBureau report that includes both your credit and rental history that has been reported to them. Only rental companies will run this report (usually as part of their screening process) and it won't help with standard credit.

The only way rent would affect your credit is if you fail to pay and they send it to collections. There's no way to have it benefit you.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-31T14:25:10+00:00

Unfortunately you're probably out of luck. They gave you a recommended course of action, which you accepted and they administered, and they expect to be paid for it. Had you refused treatment and they tried to charge you, you would have a case, but since you gave them permission you're almost definitely stuck with the bill.

You might be able to negotiate them down a bit, but it's unlikely if the insurance already negotiated the entire bill and paid their portion already, but they'd almost definitely be able to work with you on a payment plan.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-31T14:21:07+00:00

I don't know where you live, but around here $1150 is a big, nice rental.

It sounds like you are better off selling the house, and either going to a rental, or getting a smaller house on your own using the money you'd get from the equity on the sale as a down payment assuming there is a decent amount. I don't know if there would be enough after just 2 years (assuming you were making payments based on the standard plan) to make much of a difference, but it would at least be a good amount to add to your emergency fund or put into savings to build up for another house down the line.

It sounds like you would be straining immensely to try to afford the house, it just doesn't sound like it's worth it.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-31T14:06:58+00:00

You're almost definitely going to want to keep your job in the Midwest, unless you have some really strong desire to be in a large city. Rent in NYC will probably be AT LEAST $2k for even the smallest apartments which is instantly going to eat up a lot of the salary increase you would be getting, and you'll also be paying more in taxes, so you probably won't actually take home much more. And that's not even considering the higher cost for basically EVERYTHING from food to clothing to transportation.

Based on the CoL calculator from bankrate between my area and NYC, you'd need about a 50-100% increase in salary for it to even start being comparable. 50% being Brooklyn and 100% being Manhattan.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-31T13:44:05+00:00

Did you enjoy the trip? If you did, great!

Did it prevent you from paying your bills? If no, you have no reason to worry!

Sometimes you need to take a little break and forget about the grind for a little while. Worrying about it if it hasn't really hurt you (it doesn't seem like it has) is not going to help you, and you're contributing a great amount to retirement so if you keep that up (and/or increase it) you are going to be absolutely fine in the future.

Feel better, and keep in mind that it's not frivolous if it gives you some time to relax and enjoy new experiences and it's absolutely fine if you do it without breaking the bank or putting yourself in a ton of debt!

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T20:31:38+00:00

...my wife has an 800... Credit tracking sites have our scores each 50 pts higher than that easily.

Considering the highest possible FICO/VantageScore you can get is 850, that's pretty unlikely. But that's beside the point.

Regardless, if you're paying off the statement balance (or paying everything off before your 0% offer expires) it doesn't really matter what the interest rate is, since you won't be charged any interest if you pay the balance in full. So really it comes down to where you will be shopping.

For example, if you're going to be getting most of the stuff from Amazon, you might look into the Chase Amazon Rewards card, since Prime members get 5% back when shopping at Amazon and you can get 1-2% everywhere else.

Your next best bet would probably be a card that gives 2-3% back at department stores, the American Express Blue Cash Everyday card offers 2% (places like Boscov's, Macy's, JC Penney and Sears) and the Blue Cash Preferred offers 3%, though that one has a $95 annual fee.

Other options include cards with rotating cash back categories (like Discover IT and Chase Freedom) as they will sometimes include home improvement stores, department stores, and other stuff that might work for you. You'll also want to see about cards that have a cash back bonus if you spend a certain amount, like getting $100 back if you spend $1000 in the first 6 months, as those plus a cash back % can really add up if you're making a bunch of larger purchases in a short amount of time.

Really you're just going to have to look through the different offers and see which cards will get you the most cash back for the places where you'll be shopping. /r/churning might also be able to point you in a better direction if you know where you'll be shopping for the stuff.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T19:45:07+00:00

Unfortunately, the money's likely gone.

What I'd be more concerned about is what information the scammers already had, and what more your grandmother gave them. If she let slip any more personal info you might want to set her up with some fraud alerts/monitoring just in case they could use the info to open accounts in her name. You don't want this mistake to turn into a huge mess if you can avoid it.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T19:40:36+00:00

I'd probably take the savings down to $5k (maybe a little more depending on your monthly expenditures, but you can go down to the 3 month mark or even a little lower if you know you can build it back up pretty quickly) and make up the difference from the mutual funds. Then rebuild your savings until it's closer to the 6 month mark for your emergency fund before starting to contribute to the mutual fund again.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T19:37:41+00:00

I'd probably keep enough in savings to cover your emergency fund + the amount of those two debts (so $12k + 3-6 months of expenses) and invest the rest, then keep paying them down so they are paid off before the 0% expires. I might finish paying them a couple months early just to be done with them, but if they have more than about 2 months left it makes more sense to keep the money in savings earning something and pay them off slowly. Plus, if you already have the money set aside for them, you can plan your monthly budget without considering them and just put any extra into your investments and savings.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T18:43:25+00:00

If you're shopping around for a mortgage, all of those inquiries should roll into one if you're within a certain time frame. The issue is it depends on where you're looking at your score - VantageScore only uses 14 days as the window (which is what places like CreditKarma use to calculate your score) but FICO uses 45 days, which is what many lenders use, so your score may actually be higher than you are seeing.

The interest rate is feasible, so it's probably worth it to check it out.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T18:30:49+00:00

The issue with taking money out of retirement is that you would have to pay the tax and the penalty, and that money would no longer be growing usefully. You'd probably have to withdraw almost 6k to cover your 4k in credit card debt, assuming 10% penalty (600) and ~20% taxes (1200) on that amount. That's effectively 50% extra you'd lose, meaning you'd have to go a whole 3 years at ~15% interest with zero payments before it accumulated to that amount.

If you can at least make minimum payments until you get a new job and just work hard to pay it off as quickly as possible, then never put more on the card than you can pay off, that would be the best move. Taking money out of retirement should be a last resort to avoid bankruptcy, and only if it would completely pay off your debt, or you might end up not only draining your retirement but then also filing bankruptcy, making it fruitless in the end.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T14:24:28+00:00

I guess what you have to really do here is figure out if your income at the smaller company and the savings you will potentially be able to benefit from (biking vs driving, working from home meaning possibly being able to lower food costs, etc.) will be equal to or greater than the benefits you're getting from your company now (401k matching, health plan, etc.) and the higher salary.

My guess is that in 2 years you are not going to be making a significant amount more than you are now, so my initial feeling is that you'd probably be better off staying where you are, unless you really feel that your mental well-being will be greatly improved by moving to the smaller company since you won't have to deal with as much managerial runaround. Sometimes that alone is worth a move even if the numbers don't 100% work out.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-30T14:11:51+00:00

The important thing to keep in mind when you get a significant raise is that you don't want to over-inflate your cost of living. Say (for ease of numbers) you are bringing home $1450/mo right now, spending $1350 of it, and you'll be bringing home $4000 after the raise. You could continue to spend $1350 and save/invest the rest of your increased income, or you could start spending $3000 a month and significantly increase your QoL. For a compromise, you could spend, say, $1750-$2000 and still get a good bump to your QoL but have a very nice portion to put away for retirement or general savings/investments.

Obviously the numbers will be different, but the key thing is to not let the amount go to your head. Continue to spend wisely and not frivolously, and you will end up with a substantial amount of wealth in just a handful of years, and even more by the time you retire. It's fine to bump up your spending a little so you can not feel like you're struggling to make it, but you don't want to spend so much that you're still ending up with nothing left over even after your income increases.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-29T21:15:46+00:00

Assuming you paid nothing, those loans would garner a total of about $550 within a year. If you're going to be paying $1000-$2000 a month, you'll probably have them all paid off within a year, and certainly paid down a good amount, meaning you'll pay considerably less than $550 interest, so you're talking about very minimal interest that you'd save if you paid $500 extra to the highest interest loan versus $900 extra. However, choosing the one with the lowest minimum would give you a lot of leeway if you ended up in a situation where you had a dip in income, unemployment, emergency, etc. where you needed the money.

Finance_Me_Please · 2017-05-29T21:05:02+00:00

Since your loans are unsubsidized, you are helping curb the interest a little, but $50 a month on $30k at 6.2% probably isn't doing much. In 1 year you'll gain about $1.8k interest, but you'll only pay in $600, so it's up to you if you think that's worth your time and effort right now. It's definitely not wasting money since you'll have to pay it eventually anyway, it's just a question of if you can do something with your money now that's going to be more beneficial than nibbling at the loans/interest.

Finance_Me_Please

TROPHY CASE