Disputes and balances

[NYKnicks65]

Hello forum, I have a few questions for you. I have disputed some items on my credit reports and I see that my scores have dropped. Once the disputes have been resolved, will my score increase, drop or stay the same?Also, I have 4 credit cards. Limits are 400.00 - balance 10.00, 400.00 - balance 10.00, 1100.00 - balance 300.00 and 5200.00 - balance - 4700.00.. The estimated completion of my house is OCT/NOV. Will underwriting request that I have the full remaining balances paid in full or will I be safe with the current balances I have.. Do I need to pay the remaining balance of 300 down to about 100 and continue to pay on the biggest balance? Thanks

[StartingOver10]

You will need to remove the disputes after they are resolved. The process to remove the disputes is detailed by ShaneTheMortgageMan in this link: 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Mortgage-Loans/Best-Way-to-Remove-quot-Account-In-Dispute-quot-for-M...

As to if your score will go up or down - we don't know.

Your score would benefit by paying off all of your small balances and paying down the large one as much as you can do - hopefully, you can get it to less than 30% of the credit limit and ideally less than 9% of its credit limit with the other cards at zero. That large balance is 90% of your credit limit which means you are maxed out on that card so you are getting dinged for being maxed out as well as getting dinged for having a balance on 4 cards. 

Having a balance on all of your cards is hurting your score.

There is no reason to have $10 reporting on your cards when you have a balance reporting on one of the other accounts. 

Pay off those small balances right away and work diligently to get that large balance way down and you will see your scores increase. 

[NYKnicks65]

Correct me if I am wrong but I read that paying your balances off to zero will drop the score..Is that only if you have one card?

[StartingOver10]

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@NYKnicks65 wrote:

Correct me if I am wrong but I read that paying your balances off to zero will drop the score..Is that only if you have one card?

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Yes, if you have one card and pay it to zero it will drop your score.

That is why it is easier to manage 3 cards rather than 2 when trying to optimize your score. The scoring formula, from what we can ascertain, measures both total utilization against your total credit limits and utilization per card. 

You don't want to have a balance report on every card, only on one card (optimally). 

[NYKnicks65]

Thank you!!