CAN I GET A MORTGAGE BY FEBRUARY 2014????

[cazz]

Hey guys im in need of some advice.. to make a long story short im working with a lender and shes been helping me with my credit. When i first contacted her in February of this year i had 5 collections no credit cards and basically no good credit so now my scores are 605 ex. 673 eq. And 602. Trans. And 3 cc with 9% util

So my issue is i just got a bestbuy card and used 80% util i know its terrible but i paid it off just after the statement date so for august i know my scores are going to drop but how long will it take for my scores to go up?? I need to be at least a 640 by december is it possible to get a mortgage by then?? 

By the way my trans and experian scores are that low because a random collection popped up and has since been deleted so my scores may be higher but i havent checked since the deletion which was about 2 weeks ago. 

[jmoore87]

I would be optimistic! I started in February of this year right around the 600 mark. Opened a Capital One $500 CL card and learned the dates that I need to have that thing showing 5-9% utilization. I have just that one card, a brand new auto loan for $21k and a mortgage loan for $109k. Making on-time payments, and over just 4 months, I got my mid score to 647 lender pulled.

I did the exact same thing you did with your BB card. The first month my Capital One statement came out, I let it show a 50% utilization (even though I had all the cash necessary to pay it). Because the card was still young and my credit was on a general upward trajectory, I didn't see a point drop that month, but it wasn't a big point gain. I got that thing reporting 9% for the next statement and got a 20 point jump that month.

Everybody's reports are different, but if you keep your utilization at 9% and pay on time, those 30-40 points could definitely be yours by December. Like you said, you're probably better off than 605 and 602 because the collections are gone. You might already have those ones in the 620-630 range or higher! If your credit monitoring program doesn't chart your score changes, mark them down each month to try and see if there's any upward trend. After 3 months, you should have a good idea of if you are on track or not.

[cazz]

Oh ok thank you yes i also have a brand new car loan  for $19,000 that i got less than a month ago so it doesnt report until august 10th so im hoping for a score bump. I definitely checked those report dates to make sure i pay my credit cards down before the statement date i only got screwed on the best buy card because they didnt send me my card or any information until 1 day before the statement date so by the time i called it was too late... if you dont mind me asking... what was your score when you got your mortgage? And how much are your payments?

[jmoore87]

I got the mortgage back in the end of 2006, so it's not a new one. I'm currently working towards a new one, but I'm dealing with an underwater condo first.

I was 19 when I bought that condo, and I have no idea what my scores were. They could have been as low as 550 for all I know, because we went with a first time homebuyer program that had almost no score restrictions at the time. (This was when subprime lending was running rampant). After a year of living on my own, I all but destroyed my credit and didn't really care to improve it until this year. I never really had the income to do anything about it, but I managed to more than double my income over the past 2 years, so I'm taking charge now.

Anyways, on that condo I financed $123k at 5.4%, and my payment (P+I plus PMI and taxes) is $985/month. I wish I could lower it, but I've got no refinance options.