how long do late payments on stuff stay on your credit history h:

 

forbearance shows as "current" for the account so really, it shows the same on your report. but for the account itself, you're accumulating interest.


too long :reechy: payment history stays on a LONG time but we all have our ruts, so if you show late,late,late,late or a long delinquency (more than 60 days) but then current,current,current etc most places will give you the benefit of the doubt.

 

i messed up a couple years back when i was unemplyed h:

 

yeah i got fouled up with my student loans, it destroyed my score. what's worse, credit score is important in my line of work cuz we're supposed to be "role models" and they also think that if i have bad credit, its going to affect my decision to lend to others with bad credit. im working at getting it back up but its not an easy process. most people have some sort of stuff on their credit report that they arent too proud of.

 

so how bad exactly would one late payment be in a looong list of ontime payments?

 

nothing. it will show as being late (if its more than 10 days late) but nobody will care.

 

Since student loans aren't unsecured, would it be a good idea to maybe pull out an LOC (if you had a current mortgage payment) and payoff the debt on the student loan with that LOC, then have a secured debt instead of an unsecured debt?

 

do you mean like a home equity?

you could do that but the benefit wouldnt necessarily make it worthwhile.

if you can find a secured LOC with an interest rate as low as a gov't issued student loan, then yeah its not a bad thing. but, chances are you wont be able to. right now prime is 8% i know my student loans are like 3% if it's a private student loan (key loan for example) it will probably be more worth your while cuz some of those have insane rates.

furthermore, a lot of creditors look at student loans as .... "clutter" i guess is a good way to say it. its there but if you have 20k in credit card debt, they see that as "bad debt" but if you have 20k in student loans its not as bad. kinda weird.

also, having something like a home equity cuts back on your houses LTV (loan to value) which is just a relationship to what you owe and what it's worth. that only matters if you wanted to refinance or something.

either way (student loan or home equity) your interest is tax deductable. thats a good thing. but overall, might not be worth it.

 

How long ago was it that you ran your credit report? If it was within the last 6 months it really isn't worth it to run it again. When we do multiple deals for a customer, we won't run credit again until closer to the one year mark. However, if there are extraordinary circumstances (either good or bad) then there will most likely be a significant change.

If you have credit cards, you want approximately 70% available. This shows you can manage your debt without letting it get out of control. Things like student loans and your car show up as a term/installment balance. While this is still a factor in calculating your estimated monthly payment, it affects you differently than your revolving balances. This is because you can't increase your installment/term balances like you can with a revolving balance.

 

Well, any line of credit attached to a mortgage should feasibly be secured, right?

And yeah, good point on the interest rate difference, I didn't even think of that. But it does make sense from a creditor standpoint why a student loan isn't seen equally as credit card debt. A student loan is for education, meaning the person is atleast someone intelligent enough to maintain a decent credit score. Only in theory, of course.