whats hurting my TU score

[Anonymous]

ok in reading my current report from TU(pulled from myfico) it says that i have 1 thing hurting my report (score is 711) i have 1 account with a balance on it out of 6 accounts listed.

its a secured loan on my toolbox the loan was 5070 my balance is 2700 and i realize that its probably the utilization more than anything thats hurting it since its just over 50%

i guess what i would like to know is if people out there with car loans or other loans see the same thing in there reports. is carrying 1 balance such a problem? i guess i shouldn't complain since i haven't paid late and im actually a few hundred ahead in payments but i just want to see transunion not lag so far behind my other two scores EX750 and EQ778.

i am going to be applying for a mortgage within the next few months and i would like to see my scores go up just a bit more. specially the 750 since its the median score so i guess getting this paid down is whats going to make me hit a new mark?

[haulingthescoreup]

What happens when you play with the FICO Score Simulator at the end of your report? (screen 9) There's also a link up at the top.

If your loan is an installment loan, it shouldn't make that big of a difference. A lot of people find that once their scores get into the 700's, the comments and explanations get pretty silly. I would think that you might get more benefit by taking out a credit card and airing it out every now and then, letting 1-4% of the credit limit report, and then pay it off before it's due. But it would be interesting to see what the sim says.

[dizzier]

you know, my scores are in the 700's and the comments don't make any sense anymore. on one line they say i don't have enough revolving credit and so i should open a card and then the next time says i have too much credit and should close some TLs. I've honestly just started ignoring the comments. I know what I need: waiting for Macys to delete a 30 days late, waiting for credit to age, will be adding a card in a few months.

[Anonymous]

ive done the sims in many different ways and i always hit high 600s's as a low and maybe 721 at the high...

then i hit simulate best action and it says if i pay on time for the next 24 months i will be between 711-731??? (TU)

EQ with same scenario would give me 788-818
EX for some reason doesn't simulate does anybody know why? that one really would have been nice to see since its my median score...

i applied for a CCCU CC 2 weeks ago still havent been approved or denied but my app has been looked at and assigned to a loan officer... i saw the Inquiry on my EX report and it didnt change it at all, dont know if it will stay that way once the line is opened or if it will cost or give me points.

[haulingthescoreup]

EX won't play nicely with FICO. If you'll notice, you also don't get happy comments on screen two, where you usually see the what's hurting your credit, what's helping your credit. EX just tells you what's hurting. They're my best score, so I wish they would behave, too!

The pay on time for 24 months is like the pay down your balances over 24 months --it's basically saying to keep on keeping on. I wish they had an option for something like use your credit cards. I still wonder if that would help you.

Will this mortgage be your first? I could swear that I remember reading posts that make me think that TU penalizes those without mortgages, just as EQ nails those with lates. (Example: see below! ) If that's true, you might not see it go up until you have a mortgage. If you have started visiting with mortgage brokers, especially those who work with first-timers, you might ask them if they see TU scores lower than the others.

But actually, you have fantastic scores, and usually mortgage lenders go with the middle score. It's maddening, I know.

[Anonymous]

If its one thing I have learned from reading credit books, things on line, and even advice from Suze Orman from her show is once your credit score gets to a certain level, its going to be alot harder to get that score higher for example your 711 via TU is probably based on you having more information on your TU CR compared to CR's from EQ & EX.

This is the point Im trying to make. Someone with a score of 650 will see a bigger increase then someone with a score of 720. You'll see a few points here and there but time is your friend with that score and all of them getting better as long as you remain on time and keep util between 1-9%.

Overall its just a time thing, your score may and may not catch up, so you may want to check all 3 reports and compare information to see whos reporting what, that could be the reason why TU is lower then the other two and why those two are **bleep** near identical in score. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

Are all 3 CRAs reporting the same information? You've gone through each of them side by side to determine all the information is there and accurate on your TU report? Do you have a good mix of credit types on your TU?

- AZQ