When we refinanced the house a year ago, we found a company willing to take a gamble on us.
I remember when we were going through the qualifications and reviews and stuff, and the agent
asked us what we thought our credit scores were. I honestly had no idea.
He told me what it was. It was ghastly. Like, low 500s ghastly. This, friends, is the lasting
effect of spending every last dime and every penny of your credit on a move that ultimately will
not be reimbursed via your tax return.
Still, he got us the refi, and we were grateful to drop our rate down to 4%.
Today, Laurel told me she wants to refi again. We're getting letters telling us we could get
rates as low as the upper 2%s. But the real excitement came when she checked our credit scores.
We have worked very hard to get out of the crippling debt we incurred nearly two years ago.
Laurel came up with a really good plan, and we've done our best to work it — I spent months
putting in extra hours each week to make it happen, and Laurel cut out a few extras and sold
stock periodically.
The payoff: my score is now just below 700. It's SUCH a great feeling — I tried to explain to
kiddo what it means — I don't want her to be like I was: At 16, I was driving around without
insurance. My parents never told me about car insurance or what it meant. My silent oath to
my daughter is to make sure she at least knows there are things like this in the world. Sorry.
I'm taking us off topic...
If another refi can happen and we can get a rate like that, we could pay more debt off with
the money we'd save in not having a house payment for a couple of months, plus, of course, pay
free up more money to throw at bills by saving hundreds on our mortgage payment. Another boost
to my credit score should happen later in the year, when the note on my car is paid in full.
It's SUCH a great feeling. (I mean, I'm feeling good about my score, regardless of whether
we can actually refinance again.)