Eric's Credit Community

Thanks for stopping by and considering my request.

I just got married to my long time girlfriend. Life's great BUT, even though I can manage my payments, the wedding, my wife's school and a tax bill this year have made it difficult for us. I want to consolidate ASAP, fix my rating and get a new start.

I want to be honest about my situation; I'm a reliable person and I legitimately need help. I will also take your advice if you want to drop me a line, even if you're not bidding on this. I unfortunately recently made some mistakes credit wise and got sucked into 0% APR offers without reading the fine print. 0% sounds pretty good but it became a problem when I used it to for pretty large expenses and unfortunately, paid by internet and was late on 2 cards (which never happened before). My interest rates shot up overnight.

I've been since paying it down as fast as I can, but these rates are making it hard. Even without late payments, the 0% APR has expired on another card and the regular rate is too high. Time to consolidate.

I work around the clock and can't seem to get ahead, and it's frustrating because we're not big spenders... we're just living a pretty frugal life and paying for necessities like rent, and we don't get to enjoy much of it. Living in a big city is expensive, but we need to be here for career and school reasons. We're on a strict budget and cut costs wherever we can; our rent is easily 30% less than rents in our neighborhood, we go out of our way to shop at the most affordable places and didn't go on a honeymoon.

I have a secure marketing job and make decent money with the prospect of getting a big raise and higher position in 07. My wife is a student and isn't able to work full time now. She graduates in June 07 though and with a 4.0 GPA, has brilliant prospects.

Until recently I had a very good credit rating (above 700). I'm not the type to default on a loan or miss payments. Truthfully I am baffled at the HR rating, because although I did have a few hiccups in my history, I have not defaulted on anything.

I guess the two late payments, the fact that I paid for a wedding, tax bill and school expenses on credit all within a pretty short amount of time, plus accepting those 0% APR offers (opening more accounts) affected my rating more negatively than I thought. Still, the credit bureau seems to have incorrect info and I am working with them to change it.

Now delinquent: 0
Delinquencies in last 7y: 0
Public records in last 10y: 0
Fico says: Your FICO credit score is 610

We have an option to take a loan from relatives at 10%, but we would rather not because we're not comfortable mixing family and money.

Income: $90,000 before taxes

Monthly costs:

Rent: $1600.00
Credit Cards: $900.00
Car Payment: $200.00
Car insurance: $124.00
Fuel: $140.00
Utilities: $90.00
Phone: $137.00
Cable/Internet: $140.00
Groceries: $200.00

Despite the designation I am not a HR borrower. With my salary and our budget, we can certainly handle the monthly payments . We are asking for a compassionate lending rate so we can get a fresh start.

Thanks very much for your time.