Did Enrolling in a Credit Card Debt Repayment Program Hurt Our Credit Rating?

Our first attempt to get a loan after enrolling in the program.

The month is April 98 we have been on the credit card debt management plan now since November. I am scheduled to retire from the Navy at the end of June 98 and we still don't know where we're going.

I have sent off many resumes to the Western North Carolina area hoping to get a job in the area. Neither of us are from the area but the area is beautiful and very similar in atmosphere to Maine.

In preparation for the move from Maine to North Carolina we had to tie up some loose ends that were going to cause us grief. First on the list was a mini motorhome built on a 1 ton Toyota pick-up truck chassis. In 94 when we moved from Florida to Maine parts of the motorhome had rotted and needed to be rebuilt. The motorhome has had its day we had a good five years before our first child and used this vehicle quite a bit. Now we had three kids and could use a vehicle that was more family friendly.

We looked around and found a Ford dealership that sold used program cars. These vehicles were used by a company for a year for their sales force and were ready for sale at a set no haggle price. They had 30,000 to 40,000 miles on each vehicle and were priced below Bluebook.

The dealership had many 98 Taurus wagons that all had Cruise control, power everything and car phones. But the best feature was a third seat in the back. This allowed the kids to spread out a little on long rides.

We went to the dealership when it was closed and looked over the lot. We then checked on the internet to see what kind of track record these models have had. It turned out the first model in the late eighties and early nineties had problems with engine mounts that ruined many transmissions. But that was corrected long ago and the current models benefited from the earlier mistakes.

We did our home work, we knew which car we wanted and we decided to trade in the motorhome. Our hope was that we were not upside down on the loan for the motorhome. We also were worried because we were on the credit card debt repayment plan. Would that prevent us from getting the loan needed to purchase this car?

They test drove the motorhome and came back with $1500.00 over the payoff amount of the loan. That was good news, now we had to wait.....

We got past our first worry.

Would we get past our second worry? Would we be able to get the loan or would we suffer from voluntarily consulting and enrolling in a credit card debt counseling and repayment program?

...the dealership came back with a decent interest rate through Ford's finance group and our loan was approved.

We got past our second worry, the loan was approved.

So what is the answer to the big question above?

No! We had a good credit rating prior to enrolling in the credit card debt counseling and repayment program and we still had a good credit rating after enrolling.