Sold our home (in which we took a substantial loss & have to bring cash to the table to close). We took the loss because we are ready to move on to our hopefully "forever" home. 2nd child on the way & were out of space in our first home!
Bottom line, is that on 10/30/12 we went to get pre-approved to make an offer on a new home....I had been monitoring my credit through a monitoring service, in which I believed to have 630 - 640 score (not ideal, but acceptable for FHA at least i thought). However when actual credit was pulled my score was:
- TU = 609
- EXP = 573
- Equi= 582
Husband's midscore was around 700 - so his were fine. Problem is that I am the breadwinner & he stays at home....so I have to be on the loan to get approved. With current lender, I need to get my mid-score to 620. Here is a summary of my report:
- 76% utilization of cc's
- 3 collection accounts (each under $100 - were medical bills that I was unaware of)
- a 60 day late in July '12 on a Macy's card because of a mixup on my budget file (kicking myself HARD for this one)
I am working with a credit repair company that has started the dispute process on my collection accounts that are now paid. I also sent a GW letter to Macy's - have yet to hear back from then, but just sent on Friday. All of my credit cards will be paid down to $0 except one - on which I will leave under a 9% balance. From what I can tell all of the credit cards should be updated on reports by early December.
Based on the simulators, paying off my cc's - seems to have a significant boost (myfico simulator is telling me my 534 score will go to between 620 - 640.
My questions are:
- How accurate are the simulators in your experience?
- Do I have a fighting chance of getting that big of a boost in December
- Anything else I could do to improve my chances?
In the meantime, we'll be living with my Mother in Law until we can get approved for a mortgage!!! At least we're not homeless!!
Starting Score: 534 (10.30.12)
Decreasing your util will be your best boost I think. I paid mine down from 80% to 29% and saw a near 50 point increase once the new balances reported. Hopefully Macy's will show some love.
