Nov 21, 2008 9:18 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Credit Score Game Champion
Janneh Johnson Is Buying a House After 119 Point Jump
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
Call Kurtis showed you just about anyone can raise their credit score in just weeks.
Tonight Kurtis Ming is here to tell us how one woman raised her score 119-points in four months. We can all learn from her.
"A master bathroom, what a wonderful idea."
As Janneh Johnson shops for her first home, she remembers a few months back when lenders wouldn't return her calls. Her credit score was a fair 658. When she raised her score to an excellent 777, the lenders were nice to her and called her back much quicker.
"I can afford to buy a home," she told Kurtis.
Johnson was pre-approved for a loan putting her a step closer to the American dream.
"To get into a house, and actually have multiple bedrooms, is a whole new concept for me"
How'd she do it? After our story last May on how to raise your credit score, Janneh attended a seminar put on exclusively for CBS13 viewers by credit score expert Al Bingham.
He wrote, "The Road to 850 and spent years studying the complex credit scoring system.
Janneh sat in his class and followed all of his advice.
"The biggest difference in my credit score was bringing down all my balances below 50% (on her credit cards."
In other words any credit card with a limit of $5000, you lower your balance by half to less than $2500. Janneh then spread her debt among all of her credit cards, and paid them down.
She then called each credit card company to see exactly which date each month they submit their customer's balances to the credit bureaus. In order for the bureaus to never see her credit cards charged up high, she tricked the system by having her bills due 5-days before the reporting date.
She learned from the seminar, the credit bureaus saw her as a risk simply because she financed her car through the dealership's finance company. Bingham says those loans are seen as riskier than car loans through banks. Janneh paid off her car loan.
"It really began with a decision" Janneh told Kurtis. "I decided overall I wanted a house by the end of the year."
She stuck with it cutting expenses here and there, and now is saving more than a thousand dollars each month in credit card debt and interest. She's being offered a loan only given to people with excellent credit.
"Now the interest rate is 6.25 30 year fixed," Janneh said.
Bingham says Janneh torched the system.
You may not have the means to pay off your debt, but Bingham says that doesn't mean you can't see your score go up. The whole goal is to change the way the credit bureaus look at you.
"You can make a 40 to 60 point bump in your credit score if you can go in find out what's affecting those credit scores and make those changes," said Bingham.
Janneh hopes to be moved into a new home by Christmas.
Al's holding two classes exclusively for CBS13 viewers next week in Rancho Cordova. They'll be held on Monday, November 24 and Tuesday, November 25 at 6pm.
The cost is $10 to help pay for the facilities and printing costs. Seating is limited.
You can sign up at the top of this page.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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