Expert: David - 5/9/2009

Question
Hi, David.  My husband and I are drowning in consumer debt.  Between the two of us, we have ten credit cards and owe about 23,000.  Four credit cards are mine, and the other six are husband's.  Our house loan is in my name, and we have one car financed together.  I had a bankruptcy nine years ago, and my current score is about 650.  My husband's score is about 590.  We are lucky enough to be receiving 36,000 next week, and we do NOT have to pay it back.  We want to refinance our house soon and refinance the car.  What plan would you advise for us on handling our situation?  Of course, we want to raise our scores as much as possible.  Would paying off all the credit cards at once help?  Should we hold on to some money and pay the cards off slowly but paying more each month?  Should we pay off some and pay half on some and then pay it off slowly over the next two or so months?  I would love to hear what you would do.  Please help us get our scores up!

Much thanks,
Ronnie

Answer
Hi Rhonda,

Your score can increase as much as 30% by paying the revolving debt down to 5% of the limits.

If you have negative items on your reports you should get help having them removed.  www.financialscoringsolutions.com can help with that.

You can also use increase your score by varying your credit mix with a few CD secured loans.  It's also a great way to start saving.

An important part of credit repair is also starting a systematic way of saving money.  There are several ways to go about this, just start with something simple.

Feel free to call me if you want some ideas.

David McArthur

www.financialscoringsolutions.com
219-718-8566 Direct