Eric's Credit Community

Hi!  I am Scott from Atlanta, GA, 34, single and just moved to Atlanta over a year ago.  I am originally from West Virginia and moved to Georgia for a great job opportunity with an Internet Security Company.  I am an Engineer and manage several projects for the company.
 
While I consider myself a good project manager, I have not done a good job in managing my finances.  I attribute this to making immature and careless spending decisions in my 20s, and being naive about how the repercussions of my credit decisions would affect me later in life.  I now have a wonderful girlfriend (of about 9 months), a great job for which I am paid pretty well and I actually enjoy what I do.  As I looked to the future at possibly settling down, I see buying a home in my future, but with ?E? credit due to my delinquent payment nature in my 20s, it seems that it would not be easy to do unless I took control.   As I turned the corner into my 30s, I have become responsible and paid down a large portion of my debt ($15,000 down to about $5,000) ? which you can see because my DTI of 9% is fairly low (DTI used to be around 35%).  I am almost complete in resolving my past delinquencies, but the interest rate and penalties for delinquency have made digging out very tough.

    So, for the past few years, I have been on a solid budget that takes most of my disposable income and applies it towards my debt.  I have been extremely sensible the last couple of years, but most of my debt repayment seems to go more towards interest and fees and does not make enough of a dent in the principal.  This loan would accelerate the final step for me.  It would allow me to pay off the remaining balance of my debt, saving me a lot of interest and penalties that continue to accumulate despite making regular on-time payments over the past 18-24 months.   Below are my income, living expenses, and total debt. 

Income:
$81,000 per year, $51,600 after taxes and deductions (monthly:  $6750 gross, $4300 after taxes and deductions)  

Living Expenses on Average:
$700 Rent
$330 Car Payment
$135 Car Insurance
$105 Cable/High Speed Internet
$120 Gas/Electric
$ 65  Phone
$100 Gasoline/Transportation  

Total:  $1555/month  

Total Debt:
Active Credit Cards:  $1200  (payments have been made on time)
Old credit Card debt:  $3000 (this is the one that is killing me with the interest and penalties, was $7500, but I have paid it down to $3,000 ? payments were delinquent and charged off in 1998-2002)
Medical debt:  $700 (Costly ambulance ride for sudden kidney stone, insurance had high deductible)  
Total:  $4900  

How I plan to pay this loan back:
Once I can payoff the old backlogged debt, I can easily handle an additional $200 monthly expense and save hundreds in interest.  I would also be interested in paying off this debt ahead of time if possible with multiple payments per month occasionally.   Through this loan, I will finally have several delinquent marks in my credit history marked as paid, and over time as those items fall off the credit report, my rating will improve.  If I can get my rating back up to a B or C in a couple of years, I will have a fighting chance to purchase a home should that opportunity arise.  

Thank you for taking the time to consider my request for this loan.
Scott