Credit Score

Apparently I'm rocking a 787 credit score based on information on file with Experian.

Since Costco's AMX will be going bye bye in a year, when I was in the bank cashing my paycheck, I got stuck talking to a personal banker because I also needed to order some more checks for our account...

Despite wanting to get in and get out, while he was processing my check order, the banker mentioned that they have an identical card with no annual fee so I went ahead and applied. When it came in the mail, it also came with a slip showing my credit score... 787.

Not bad folks, not bad at all :) 

It also reminded me I need to pull my free credit reports from all three agencies, and get my husband to do the same.

Higher Credit Limit...

I opened my e-mail the other day and found a notice from American Express. We had been automatically approved for a credit limit increase for our account.

Yes, that's right, they wanted to give us more credit. $2,500 more spending power to be exact.

HUH?

I thought that credit was supposed to be harder to get now-a-days? And now they are just dolling it out, unasked for? I remember reading on many personal finance blogs of people paying down debt only to have their available balances reduced and their credit scores being negatively affected as their debt ratios were too high...

and now where are we?

I know that for many people out there there hasn't been a recovery... but I feel like we as a society have begun to embrace a "new normal"... Without getting into politics, we are a divided social economy. There are those who are feeling the recovery, and many more that are not. For those who still don't have a light at the end of the tunnel, I offer my well wishes and hope for a better tomorrow... but for SCB and I, the latter half of 2013 has been good for our family. We refinanced and our condo has increased in value, I got a promotion, SCB got a job, then he got a better job... and now a raise.

I finally feel like we are moving forward after 3 years parked somewhere on the finance highway...

So, we took the extra credit. We don't carry a balance on our Credit Cards... in fact we just pay them off in full every month and use the rewards programs for fun, but having a $9,000 limit will be better for any future loans we apply for when we go to get a bigger place in a couple years.

So here's to the glass half full.

Why do I try to refinance...

Back when I was calling BOFA to get a check for my property tax over payment, I talked to them about refinancing my mortgage.

Up until now, refinance has been out of the question because they have changed the rules of FHA mortgages and the mip payments have doubled so all the money we would save resetting our mortgage would be eliminated by the fee increase... and since I bought 3 months too late for the new program they have out now, we were stuck.

But I discovered another option. There's the possibility of kicking the FHA to the curb completely and trying for a 20 year fixed rate mortgage at 4.25% with no fees.... for the SAME MONTHLY PAYMENT WE ARE ALREADY PAYING...

OR we could do a 30 year regular mortgage and get a smaller monthly payment...

Only hic-up is that we would need to pay our mortgage down to 90% loan to value.

The loan officer was going to look around and see if she could get a better idea of the market area and what our place is worth, but I found out I have a 780 Credit score... which is pretty darn good if I say so myself. If the place was worth $120k, we would only have to toss in $3k in principle reductions... But realistically we are guessing our place was worth around $115,000.00 so we would essentially pull $8k out of savings to give us a smaller payment since SCB isn't working and our mortgage is our largest monthly expense...

Our MIP payments and PMI payments would be nearly identical and since this is a pretty big deal and there is a lot about BOFA I don't like (and I think I can get a better rate elsewhere), I also contacted Churchhill mortgage and Chase Bank to get information on 30, 25, and 20 year mortgages...

But no one would ever call me back after they took our info.

I'd call back and get referred to another person... and start over.

Then a month passed... and then 2.

Part of us was just looking to lower the monthly payment and interest rate... but if that couldn't happen and we could keep our payment and knock off some time on the loan, we'd still be sitting pretty.

I was all set to go into a bank in person since I was tired of the phone run around when I found out that a unit in our building sold for $100k a week ago...

$100k.... ***shakes head in shame because she knows we don't have that much money...***

I guess I was right the first time...

We really can't refinance our home.

:(

Credit Score and Credit Report

I pulled my Equifax, & Experian & transunion credit reports from annualcreditreport.com The only FREE one on the web that doesn't enroll you in some monitoring service.

I wanted to see how badly my credit score nose dived since last year now that I have a mortgage and 2 loans for all the work. Normally I pull all three at once and pay for the credit score number, but I want to see how my score changes after I pay off those loans once i get my tax return. I pulled all three reports... but only paid for 2 scores:

4.10.2010- Equifax credit score: 713
4.10.2010- Experian Credit Score: 755

Credit Score... WOOT

Transunion: 856
Experian: 829

The only advice on "increasing" my score is to keep my accounts open longer, and not apply for any new ones.

It also notes that it would look better if i had more available credit... but i don't want to apply for more, or ask for increases now when companies and cutting people down.


BUT HOLY WOW!!!! above 800!