I was a Navy Nuke and used to work at a civilian plant, but left before 9/11 and have been self employed for over a decade. I've applied and been POSS tested (waiting for results) for a job as an NLO. While reading here, I've become a little concerned about the credit check that will get done. Some of the statements on this site have mentioned about having high CC debt. Over the past couple years, I've racked up 34K on plastic. Basically, I took advantage of some zero % interest for a year loans on a couple cc's, to buy equipment when things were going real well, and then the economy went slowly, then fastly south and I haven't had the income to pay off these revolving loans, as I had initially intended. I am, and always have been current on all payments. We own our house and vehicles outright, and have no other debt. I just pulled my credit report, and it gives me a score of 789 out of 850, and says we're excellent. There is no negative info whatsoever on the credit report.
Here's the question. I have some cash savings and savings bonds (my emergency funds) that I could use to reduce the total cc debt to about 10K, without having to liquidate anything that's in a real retirement fund (IRA's, 401K etc.) However, I've been resisting this, because I really would rather pay interest and have debt than have little savings on hand. But, if it would mean the difference between passing the credit check and getting the job, or not, by all means I'll cash out and take the job.
There may not be enough time to pay down, and then get the credit report to reflect my new (low cc debt) status before a check is run by the utility............. I can send the check today, but can't make time stand still while it gets reported.
Anyone who really knows the inside workings of the credit check as it applies to passing a security check, or who has recent experience in this area care to comment?
