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Probably a personal monthly schedule that ensures when new reports are bought, all creditors have reported for the month.
Hi! By "paying off credit cards" did you pay them entirely? I am trying to get a mortgage and while my regular Fico score is in a great range, my mortgage score is much lower. I am nervous to pay my credit cards off completely as I was told that the monthly payments will help to improve my score over time, whereas if I pay in full it will give them a minor boost and then they will stay at that score. I don't know what to do! Thanks
Thanks everyone for the replies. It sounds like I'm being impatient and have to wait for my monthly report to pull to see the updated mortgage scores.
I'm happy to say that in just a month, by paying off my credit cards, my scores have drastically increased! Just excited to see my mortgage score update as well.
EQ 608 --> 663
TR 623 --> 650
EX 625 --> 673
My monthly report pulls again on 4/30, so I'll report back if the mortgage scores also increased. Thanks again!
@wendlan wrote:
My mortgage scores gained points when I paid my credit cards down to 8% usage, one mortgage score went up 20 points.
was that ALL your CC's or just over all CC limit?
@Lemmus wrote:
...what "monthly report" are you speaking of? ...afaik the myFico mortgage scores NEVER update unless you pay for a new report ...or wait for the ANNUAL report update ...only the myFico cc scores update on a frequent basis as the CRAs update them ...even then the contents of your reports do not update ...only the alerts and any reported cc score changes ...hth
Some members have subscribed to the Premier 3B product which offers one 3-bureau report monthly...
http://www.myfico.com/Products/FICO-Premier-3B/
See:
@Anonymous wrote:Hi! By "paying off credit cards" did you pay them entirely? I am trying to get a mortgage and while my regular Fico score is in a great range, my mortgage score is much lower. I am nervous to pay my credit cards off completely as I was told that the monthly payments will help to improve my score over time, whereas if I pay in full it will give them a minor boost and then they will stay at that score. I don't know what to do! Thanks
It's possible that a mortgage officer may have told you this. If so, it is untrue.
The FICO mortgage models like it best when exactly one of your credit cards is showing a small positive balance with all of your other cards reporting $0. If all or most of your credit cards are reporting a positive balance, you are being penalized for certain, possibly more than just a bit.
The loan officer's advice is reasonable if you are talking about a long-term run-up to the mortgage -- i.e. if you have another 12 months to go. Then it can make sense to use your cards naturally, allowing many of them to report balances, This is a bad approach in the 40 days before your score is pulled (whether for pre-approval or final underwriting).
I suggest you do not rely on my advice alone, but head over to the Understanding FICO Scoring forum. Tell them what you had been told, and then what I told you, and then get some more feedback. Thomas Thumb and Revelate know a lot about the mortgage models, as do other folks there, and they should be able to ket you know if I am right.
Monthly? I subscribe to the 3B but it says my next report isn't going to be run for 3 months. I was just going to cancel and buy it again rather than paying $30/month for something that only updates quarterly.
Ultimate 3B product is quarterly; Premier 3B is monthly. See my earlier post for more info.