Trying to get my scores in the 720 range for a refinance/construction loan to perm mortgage financing (want to rebuild after Sandy and move family out of double wide trailer on front lawn). I wasn't expecting much from my EX FICO score since my EQ FICO and TU FICO from MyFico are at 671 and 679, respectively. EX FICO from MyFico came in at 753 (talk about an outlier). All these scores were pulled at exactly the same time on 6/17 from MyFico. All credit reports have pretty much all the same "good" and "bad" stuff. I have some 60 and 90 days lates on all three from 2009/2010 and a few 30 day lates over the past 24 months. Been climbing my way out of a deep hole since 2008 and just about out. Tried GW letters for the worst of the delinquencies, but with very limited success (very frustrated with a few OCs for CC that are closed and fully paid). Otherwise, no COs, no collections,no public records (in no small part thanks to the all the IRS tax lien withdrawal info on these forums), and the last 12 months is spotless,. I have an AAoA of 11 years. In a week or so, I will have a zero balance on all my closed cc's that were closed back in 2009 (that will be another 7 closed accounts zeroed out). I will have a total of 7 open TLs of which 4 have a balance. Got my utilization down under 10%. The ones with a balance include a mortgage, a Heloc, a CapOne cc with a $30 balance, a personal installment loan with a balance of around $6,000 (original loan was $8,000) and a car lease (installment loan) with a balance of around 13,500. The other 3 open accounts with a zero balance are 2 department store CCs and a $5,000 checking overdraft TL.
Since MyFico only offers the older TU98 version and the new EX FICO8 and no lender uses them, could the EX FICO8 model correspond more closely to the TU04 model that most mortgage lenders pull? Also, how different is the EX FICO8 from the EX FICO v2 or v3? I seem to get decent bumps (8 to 9 points on EQ) every time I pay off closed account. Would it help if I got increased CLs on the open cards? I'm just nervous about any "hard" pulls since I need every point I can get. I'm just trying to manage my expectations as I clean up all that I can on all 3 CRs. Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
