@brbmake wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:You know, I replied to your "why so many" post and forgot to welcome you aboard. So, welcome! I'll tackle a few things for you.
First, while Credit Karma is great for tracking trends and changes in your credit, the scores it gives you are Vantage 3.0 which are not actual FICO scores. For some people they are in the ballpark of their FICO 08 model scores (the ones used by most lenders), for others (usually with limited or spotty credit) they can be significantly higher, and for people with thick, clean credit files they can be as much as 100-110 points lower than actual FICO 08 scores! I'm in that last group - I can qualify for pretty much anything I want, but Credit Karma thinks I may be better off with a secured credit card to establish credit or by getting a high interest, high annual fee card from a predatory lender like Credit One. It is very important to know where your scores actually stand. You can get a huge number of scores from this very site (although it is admittedly pricey). Many people suggest using Credit Check Total which offers a $1 trial and gives you all three FICO 08 scores (I actually have a running subscription with them - if you call to cancel, their automated system will actually offer you 50% off so it's $15 a month - not bad for monthly FICO 08 scores from Equifax and TransUnion, daily Experian scores and credit monitoring alerts for all 3). There are also some free options available. creditscorecard.com is run by Discover and gives you a free Experian FICO 08 score monthly. If you have an iPhone, there is an app called Lenny that gives you a free monthly Equifax FICO 08 score (it may take as long as a month before your first score appears). Many lenders also give regular credit scores. I am not sure if or which one USAA does, and CapOne is a Vantage 3.0 score like Credit Karma.
As the USAA is the joint account, until you get the CapOne cards paid down I would not add him as an authorized user yet as his utilization is just under 49% (still high but not as high as yours). Can you tell us the opening dates (month/year) of the cards? Any annual fees on the Capital One cards? How soon do you think you will be able to pay down the CapOne cards to under 29% (I know you stated January for all 3)? If it were me, I would pay those down first then add him as an authorized user so that he gets the account ages and payment history on his reports - then once you have the newest one paid off, plan to combine the limit into the oldest card (and if the Platinum is the oldest, do a product change to either Quicksilver or Venture One first) at a later date, but make sure that before you do that you have acquired at least 1 additional revolving credit card, which I would not apply for until your overall utilization in under 29% and I would not do within a year of getting a mortgage. Also, have you requested credit line increases on both Capital One cards? There is no harm in asking as it would be a soft pull, and if they do grant them that would greatly help your utilization right now.
I got the Cap1 platinum Oct/2014, and the QS Nov 2015. They sent an email about a month or so ago that I could update our income to have a CL increase, but I didn't know if that was a good idea or not, so we didn't. We do make about $50,000 more per year than we did in 2014.
I would do this immediately, there is absolutely no harm in doing so and it could lower your utilization as soon as those increased lines report with your next statement! If you are denied, nothing negative will happen. Log in to your CapOne account, click Services, More..., Request Credit Line Increase. Remember that for annual income you can use household combined income. Request on both! I would make a plan for later to do a product change on the Platinum to a Quicksilver or Venture One (both no annual fee) and combine (and close) the existing Quicksilver limit into the older Platinum card.
Can I assume that if you are able to be USAA members that you also qualify for Navy Federal Credit Union? If so, I would make joining a part of my plans at least 12 months before buying the house. With your auto loan, I would probably make that a priority to do now even with less than perfect credit (I know you have nothing bad, just thin files with high util) as it'll save you a ton of money on not just the loan, but also on interest if you can pay your cards down faster. Navy should be able to drastically lower your auto loan (and Pentagon Federal Credit Union would be even lower, but not sure if you want to open a ton of new accounts now).
So, you think I should transfer my auto loan to someone with a better rate? Would that in it of itself be a new line of credit?
That would indeed be a new line of credit, but depending on the amount you owe that could save you a TON of money and get your cards paid off much faster. Again, just make sure you do this more than a year before the mortgage. Debt-to-income rtio is one of the biggest factors in mortgage rates and approvals, so in my opinion having a lower monthly payment (and paid off revolving debt) will be more helpful to you than the sting of a relatively newer loan.
Other than that, I wouldn't get too crazy with opening new accounts if a mortgage is in your near future. Just my $0.02
Also since you mention USAA, are you and/or your husband veterans by chance? If so, a VA mortgage is going to be the way to go and you both likely already qualify for the lowest rate so I would change a few things in my response
For USAA- we are not veterans. My grandfather was and we have accounts because of him. If we ever got rid of our USAA accounts, we could never get them back. So, does that mean we could do Navy Federal? Not sure......
Your grandfather may still be a ticket into NFCU: https://www.navyfederal.org/how-to-become-a-member/how-to-become-a-member.php
There was a loophole for otherwise ineligible people to join, but that has now closed. PenFed is open to anyone willing to join one of their charitable organizations and their auto rates are actually even lower than Navy's.
@HeavenOhio wrote:
@MrDisco99 wrote:
Get an INDEPENDENT mortgage brokertaking lenders' advice
Do what your INDEPENDENT broker tells you. Don't take advice from lenders.
@brbmake wrote:First off, I want to say thank you to everyone here. I have asked a couple questions already and everyone has been so kind in answering. :-)
I am looking for a game plan . Here is where I (and Hubby) am with life: married at 18 (18 years ago now), 3 kids, one of them in college. We were very young and dumb with credit in our early years, but have finally gotten a lot better and need a game plan for our lives. HAHA, nothing big, right? Anyway, we have 3 credit cards between us. (2 that are just mine, one that is joint). His credit score is 703 and mine is 680 according to credit karma. We have nothing bad on our credit report other than high utilization (like 68%). We have a plan in place to get those 3 cards paid off by January. My real question is what is the next move in the game? Let me bullet point for you guys.
What do we do now? What do we do when our cards are paid down?
We want to buy a house within the next 18 months. First time home buyers.
We have a car loan right now (USAA) that has 3 years left on it. High interest rate of 6.99% because our credit was not great when we got it, but we have never missed or been late on a payment.
We will need a new car to replace our second car within 2 years.
Should I add hubby as a user to my cards (mine are older than our joint)? Will that help his credit? Should he get another card?
We also want to start traveling, and someone said that you can get a card for travel rewards on another post I made. (this is how new I am, I have no idea how this works)
Thanks for all the help directing my life!!! :-)
Cards we have now: Capital one QS (me) $4000 CL, $3000 balance, Cap1 Platinum (me) $6000 CL, $4000 balance, USAA rewards (joint) $7200 CL, $3500 balance
1. Start getting your FICO scores. Credit Karma's Vantage scores are useless for your purposes.
2. When you get the cards paid down, let 1 report a small balance & the other 2 report zero balances.
3. Make no applications for new credit until after you close on the house.
4. Keep paying the car loan down; do not refinance it because that will be new credit and will ding some of your scores. Once you get it down to 9% of the original amount of the loan, do NOT pay it down to zero until after you close on the house.
5. Do NOT get the new car and new car loan until after you close on the house.
6. It doesn't matter whether you add your husband or not to your cards.
7. No he should not get another card; no new credit applications. But if he is going to try to get one he should do it now, rather than later.
8. I wouldn't apply for a card for travel rewards until AFTER you close on the house, and AFTER you've researched which card would be most useful for you.
9. When you're ready to apply for the mortgage, be sure to get your MyFICO mortgage scores (EQ 5, TU 4, EX 2). You need those to be informed as to what your mortgage FICO score is. I know of no place to get those other than this site.
@SouthJamaica wrote:6. It doesn't matter whether you add your husband or not to your cards.
I agree with much of what you said, and I'll propose that we should agree to disagree on the auto loan. 
For #6, I think it does matter and I mean that respectfully. If he were added now his scores would likely plummet a bit. He's currently showing a single card at 49% util. If he were added to the two CapOne, that's a 67% util card and 75% util card being added to the mix, raising overall util to 62% and having high util on 3/3 cards rather than 1/1. In my experience from going the other direction, both 50% and 60% overall were noticable FICO point gains/losses. As an aside, getting hubby to 29% can be relatively quickly done by paying $1400 on the USAA card where he would likely be in good shape. Once they're paid off (with one being used and reporting a modest balance preferably under 9% as SouthJamaica hit on with #2), then it would be good to add him on to the CapOnes so that he gets the account history as well as having 1/3 with balances rather than 1/1 is the USAA is being used or 0/1 if only one of the CapOnes is being used.
OP you've gotten some really great advice. I can tell you only as someone who is a year out from purchase of my house, get a mortgage broker who knows their stuff. If you're with a really good credit union, you may want to stick with them for a mortage because you could get a great rate without points. Ideally though, you both want to have scores in the mid 700's for the best rates on conventional, so planning for that now is essential.
If you're 18 months from looking for a house and 24 months from purchase, now is the time to get balances under control. If you app for a CC now, don't app for anymore until after you've closed on the house. The other reason why app now while you can is because a single card could mean 3 inquiries, and those take a while to fall off. When I started on my house I had 2 INQ's. During the process I got dinged for 3 more...but again they don't really count those.
Prior to talking to a broker do what you can to get your DTI in the best possible shape because they do pull preliminary scores to see what they can do for you.
My broker told me to keep UTIL below 9% optimally but importantly stay below 12%. Heck yes I listened!! I did pay down to 0 only once and that dumped my scores. Don't do it. Leave something on at least one card. 50-100 bucks. Last thing you want to do is dump scores because of that.
When you're going through mortgage, you want to keep your report clean and you really need to make sure every single duck is in a row.. Basically get into the habit of saving checkstubs and bank statements. My broker told me I had one of the most painless mortages she ever had The information I glened from her was like gold to me. I used the things that worked and kept the process moving in a positive direction. The rest, well.. some was just overkill and didn't pertain to me anyway
Finally, you might want to head over to the Mortgage section of the forum and do some reading. Good advice and people help each other wade through that stuff.
Welcome aboard 
@Chickenpotpie wrote:OP you've gotten some really great advice. I can tell you only as someone who is a year out from purchase of my house, get a mortgage broker who knows their stuff. If you're with a really good credit union, you may want to stick with them for a mortage because you could get a great rate without points. Ideally though, you both want to have scores in the mid 700's for the best rates on conventional, so planning for that now is essential.
If you're 18 months from looking for a house and 24 months from purchase, now is the time to get balances under control. If you app for a CC now, don't app for anymore until after you've closed on the house. The other reason why app now while you can is because a single card could mean 3 inquiries, and those take a while to fall off. When I started on my house I had 2 INQ's. During the process I got dinged for 3 more...but again they don't really count those.
Prior to talking to a broker do what you can to get your DTI in the best possible shape because they do pull preliminary scores to see what they can do for you.
My broker told me to keep UTIL below 9% optimally but importantly stay below 12%. Heck yes I listened!! I did pay down to 0 only once and that dumped my scores. Don't do it. Leave something on at least one card. 50-100 bucks. Last thing you want to do is dump scores because of that.
When you're going through mortgage, you want to keep your report clean and you really need to make sure every single duck is in a row.. Basically get into the habit of saving checkstubs and bank statements. My broker told me I had one of the most painless mortages she ever had The information I glened from her was like gold to me. I used the things that worked and kept the process moving in a positive direction. The rest, well.. some was just overkill and didn't pertain to me anyway
Finally, you might want to head over to the Mortgage section of the forum and do some reading. Good advice and people help each other wade through that stuff.
Welcome aboard
Welcome, OP!
I just wanted to higlight the bit about mortgages through a (good) credit union vs a broker. If this will be your first time purchasing a home, I would REALLY research what credit unions have to offer. Many credit unions will have a special program for first time home buyers (or buyers that haven't owned a home for several years) that basically have NO closing costs other than the cost of the home appraisal. As an example, when I purchased my home through Landmark CU, my closing costs on the $140,000 loan were $450. Amusingly, I also got rates from Quicken Loans at the time, and the guy I talked to implied that the CU was giving me the wrong informatoin because "the average closing costs for Wisconsin are close to $2,500." I still chuckle when I think about it.
As everyone else has said, I'd stay away from opening any new lines of credit if what you have is serving you well now. Pay down that util so you get as low a DTI as possible before you apply.
And welcome do the Forums!
@Dalmus. Agreed. But when one has a good relationship with a credit union, its often the best place to start at least to see what their process is. I started talking to PenFed as I had an account with them over 10 years. Thats not where I ultimately ended up (I found a great broker for the state I moved to), but sometimes you start with what you know If I had moved to a different state, I likely would have stuck with PenFed as the rate was excellent. I didn't do too shabby though
The Mortgage boards are a gold mine of info especially for which CU to use or avoid.
