Crazy scores and confused just where I'm at!

[RW771]

I have been working on cleaning up my credit the best I can for a few years now. Problem is my credit is very limited to begin with, so the things that do show up on my credit weigh very heavily. I'm hoping to head back to the bank in either November or December to see if I'm given a thumbs up on buying my first home this time! I went back in June and met with my LO to see where I stood and what I needed to work on, and have been busting my tail since. My lender will approve loans for scores as low as 620 and as sad as it sounds, I've been working so long now to be able to barely make it to that point.

My question is, how do you know when you're in the free and clear range scorewise? I know this is a very vague question, but after pulling all of my CR's the other day, I really don't know just where I stand. My EQ (FICO) was a 586, my TU (FICO) was a 672 and my Experian FAKO was a 667. Funny thing is EQ is always my lowest, and has the least negative items being reported on my CR. So why this score remains so much lower than the other 2 is beyond me.

As stated earlier, my credit is so limited, so my credit moves at a snail's pace. I have no mortgage loans, no auto loan, 1 student loan account with an $8500 balance that's never been late, 2 share secured Visa cards for rebuilding purposes all with $4 balances and paid on time each month and a few paid collections left. I have successfully had 7 of the 11 paid collections removed from my account, and am continuing to try to have the rest removed. And that's it. I have been renting the same apartment for the past 3 years and just renewed my lease for another 4 months, hoping to be able to buy a house by January, and I REALLY hate the place I'm currently at. I just don't want to go to the bank and find out I'm close but not quite there, just basing them off these crazy scores that differ so much.

Any of you knowledgeable mortgage folks out there have any advice or any clue where I may roughly be at this point? Thanks for any responses.

[Walt_K]

One thing to do, try having only one of your Visa cards report a balance instead of both of them reporting a small balance.  That might get you a couple points.

Was your TU FICO pulled here or from a lender?  Unfortunately, if it was pulled here, that is TU98 and it may not be what the lender uses.  A lot of them use TU04 now, and you can't get that here.  With a TU98 of 672, you are likely safely clear of 620, but I've seen people reporting rather large differences between their two TU98 and TU04 scores.  In general though, since you can't get your EX score, to be "in the clear" you have to get your EQ FICO and TU FICO above 620.  Then you know that no matter what your EX score is, your mid score will be 620.  

Keep working on those collections.  That's the biggest thing holding your score down.

One suggestion.  Do you know anyone, parent, spouse, friend, etc. who has an account with a long history that keeps a low or zero balance and has no late payments? If you could have someone add you as an authorized user to their account, it would give you some account history to help your AAoA.  If there's any concern about you charging on the account, they can keep possession of the physical card.

[RW771]

Thanks for your reply.

I keep changing it up as far as the balances on my share secured cards go to see where the points come in the most. Of course it's hard to know whether it was the cards or the old paid collections that are being deleted that seem to be helping me lately.

My TU was pulled from here...when I went to the bank in June my scores from the lender were: TU 630, EX 577, & EQ 557. I basically just pulled my reports from all 3 this week just to see what all was still on there and what all had been taken off.

I'm definitely hanging in there working on those old paid collections. EQ is only showing 4 of them, TU is showing 5 (1 still remains thats was deleted from EQ) and EX still shows almost all of them! I just don't see how EQ has the least amount of negative info. and my score is the lowest with them, and EX has way more of the collections still showing and yet I'm roughly 80 points higher through them and TU?

I wish I had someone that would add me as an AU to their accounts for this very purpose. Unfortunately my dad and I don't have a relationship and haven't since I was in middle school and my mom is the paranoid type that even if I let her have the card would somehow come up with a way to dream up that I would ruin her credit lol.

I just hate walking into the bank not having a clue how close these scores are. I'm going to try and hold off until December so that I can get 2 more months of reporting to help boost those scores up (especially Equifax). Thanks for your help, I really appreciate your input

[sharpie]

FYI

MY FAKOS:

TU 583

EX583

EQ 640

MY FICOS (FROM MYFICO)

TU  667

EX  N/A
EQ  589

MY FICO (FROM LENDER TWO DAYS AGO)

TU 618

EX 669

EQ 589

MY FICO (FROM LENDER YESTERDAY)

TU 622

EX 667

EQ 589

So, it seems they are all over the place no matter what and the FAKOS certainly do not correlate at all.  The lender yesterday mentioned the VANTAGE score, and I nearly fell off my chair!   "What???? Why are you even talking about that?"  He said, "Well, most people come in here thinking they know their score, and all they have is a VANTAGE score which nobody uses.  But you, for some reason, seem to know what you are talking about."

edited to correct spelling errors.

[GregB]

FAKOs completely irrelevant.

Your EQ FICO from here is exactly the score the lender would pull for a mortgage.

The TU FICO from here is one version behind the one lender would pull for a mortgage. Its as close as you can get - nobody is selling you a TU Classic 04. Most people will find it a bit lower than the TU FICO you get here.

Unless you are a member of one of the few places that provide you with an EX Fair Issac v2 Score, only your mortgage lender is supplying you with the score that they or any other mortgage lender uses.