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Mortgage FICO Question

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isntthisfun
New Member

Mortgage FICO Question

So I my wife has fallen in love with a home and wants to make an offer.  We checked our scores on myfio and we have the following mortgage scores from FICO.  She has 685, 695, and 695 and I have 659, 660, and 685.  These are our mortgage scores as all of my other scores are much higher than our mortgage scores for some reason.  I know they use the middle score of the lowest person right?  So for us that would be my 660 score.  I'm not certain we can get a conventional mortgage with that score - I think minimum of 680 is required?  I do see a problem on my credit report but I'm not certain if it is affecting my mortgage score in anyway.  My wife thought it might be as our credit profiles are essentially the same and my scores are lower than hers.  The mortgage we have had for 16 years with no late payments is showing up for me as an authorized user and on hers as a joint account holder.  My credit report should also say joint account holder.  Could this be having any impact on my mortgage score?  My wife thought maybe it was calculated differently for an authorized user as opposed to account owner.  I don't want to make an issue of it if it isn't having an impact on my score but it definitely is inaccurate.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Mortgage FICO Question

You can get a conventional loan with a 660 score, however, your PMI may be high as those rates are tied to your scores. If a lender is requiring you to have a 680 score, then that is a requirement only with that specific lender called a "lender overlay". I believe approval scores for conventional loans start at 620. 

 

In regards to your mortgage scores, do you have any credit cards? If so, are the balances on those cards really high? If yes, then that is one of the things holding your score down. 

 

I will let the experts handle your question regarding how the mortgage is reporting. I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. 

Message 2 of 4
isntthisfun
New Member

Re: Mortgage FICO Question

rookie08 -Thank you for the quick response!  My wife actually has more credit card debt than me as well as 2 medical collections of about $375 combined from 5 years ago. We can pay them but I was cautioned not to until talking to a lender.  I have no collections but my mother in law was in the hospital for a few months and my wife who usually logs in and pays our accounts messed up and forgot to pay the Barclays card in May.  That gave me a 55 point drop at the time for that 30 day late.  Not much I could do about it because it wasn't paid on time and I know that only time will make up for that lapse.That is the reason for such low scores though.   Across the board I have Barclays 917/2500, Capital One Venture $9/2000, Capital One Quicksilver 0/850, Home Depot 0/1000, Discover 800/4000, and Chase 414/3000.  My Barclays I plan to pay $500 on this week and it usually reports a few days after my statement prints on the 10th.  I really don't want to apply for a mortgage with less than 680 as a credit score because that 660 is so borderline.  If the inquiry drops it even lower than we are sunk.  Don't have to worry about PMI as we plan on putting down 20%.  I wonder if paying the Barclays down will help at all as it will take it under 30%.  I'm certain not a 20 point jump but maybe enough that an inquiry won't drop me out of the running.  Do you think?

 

Message 3 of 4
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Mortgage FICO Question

If the 30-day late is your only missed payment on Barclay's I would call and ask for what's called a "goodwill adjustment". Let them know what happened to cause you to make the late payment and see if they're willing to remove it. If they do, you should regain close to the amount of points you lost. 

 

For your credit cards, your total utilization is 16%. For mortgage scoring, if you can do it, it's ideal to have all cards with a $0 balance except one. The one that you leave a reporting balance on, should be between 1-9% of your limit on that card. Paying $500 on the Barclay's should help you because that will take you from a 36% individual utilization to 16%. If you could pay $667 on it, that might be better because it will put you to 10% utilization. 

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