Balance Transfers & Loan Consolidations & My Credit Score

Frugal, Debt, Debt Free Living

Consolidating & Organizing My Financial Mess

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After a frustrating three days of endless phone calls, our financial life is a lot closer to being in order! I got my credit line raised on the Citi Upromise card I just opened, and so I requested my balance transfer check. I requested $6850 out of the $7000 available on the card, just so I wouldn’t max it out completely. This should allow us to consolidate 3 out of 4 of Fiance’s cards onto one, so we can pay that off. I also filled out the paper work to consolidate all 10 of my different student loans (thats a LOT of loans!).

I haven’t submitted the paperwork on the student loans yet because I am waiting for a PIN number from the federal government which can take 1-3 days to go through (I hadn’t remembered my old one so had to create a new one). Once I do, hopefully I’ll hear back quickly and the interest rate will be low enough to make the deal a decent one. I really just need to consolidate because having 10 different loans will drive me crazy!

If everything goes according to plan, then this is what we will be left with

One huge consolidated student loan for me (with the Federal Government)
One huge consolidated student loan for Fiance
One Citi Private Student loan for me (can’t consolidate that)
One Perkins loan for fiance (I don’t know why he didn’t consolidate this with his others?)
One $6850 credit card balance (the card we did the balance transfer on)
Fiance will have 1 remaining card w/ a balance hovering around the $4000 mark

Doesn’t seem like its all that much simpler, but sadly it is compared to what we have now!

As for what this did/will do to my credit score:

Before I applied for the Citi card with the balance transfer my score was 788. After applying, my score went up to 790. I was surprised by this, because I thought the inquiry would have hurt me. But, I guess the advice from True Credit that I needed more mainstream cards was right. Plus, having a lower debt to credit ratio may also have helped.

I just requested the balance transfer check today so it hasn’t hit my credit report yet. When it does, I expect the score to go down a little.

I don’t know what consolidating my student loans will do to my score. I know the inquiry will be bad because this is a lot of inquiry’s in a brief period of time. But, I suppose if it shows all the consolidated loans as one, that might be better? Anyone know how this works?

I’ll keep you updated!

August 23rd, 2008 in Debt |

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2 Responses to “ Consolidating & Organizing My Financial Mess ”

# 1 Aaron Wakling Says:
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
You know, I have to tell you, I really enjoy this blog and the insight from everyone who participates. I find it to be refreshing and very informative. I wish there were more blogs like it. Anyway, I felt it was about time I posted, I
# 2 marci Says:
August 24th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Sometimes debt can be just so confusing that it drives you crazy. The consolidation is a great way to go - simplified! While there is still a bit to keep organized, it sures sounds better and more manageable than what you had before!

Good luck with getting the debt payment plan working on it all