What next?

[sr383]

Hi everyone. I've been lurking here for several weeks, reading, learning, and trying to figure everything I could about how to best optimize my scores in advance of a proposed home purchase at the end of the year (or whenever I'm convinced that the market has more or less bottomed out).

I've made pretty good progress, so far:

November 2006  - 520 / 496 / 501

March 2011          - 702 / ??? / 712

I have four collection accounts, three of which will have aged off later this year. (I’ll be disputing the fourth.)

My payment history is perfect on every report. This includes several paid car loans, as well as my current car note, which runs through March 2012. I’m concerned, though, about my meager revolving credit accounts. I have two:

JC Penny - $124 limit, no balance 

Emblem MasterCard - $995 limit, no balance

Here's the summary pane from TrueCredit. (It matches the data from the reports I pulled on annualcreditreport.com.)

		TransUnion		Experian		Equifax
	TOTAL ACCOUNTS:	12		10		9
	OPEN ACCOUNTS:	5		3		4
	CLOSED ACCOUNTS:	7		7		5
	DELINQUENT:	0		0		0
	DEROGATORY:	3		0		1
	BALANCES:	5310		4761		4761
	PAYMENTS:	424		424		424
	PUBLIC RECORDS:	0		0		0
	INQUIRIES (2 years):	0		1		1

Oldest account: Approximately 13 years

AAoA: Approximately 6.5 years

I’ve requested a CLI with Emblem and was told that the company has imposed a moratorium on all increases. A few questions:

1. Would my scores benefit, over time, by adding new accounts, maintaining utilizations of about 7 percent, and paying them monthly?
2. If so, how many new accounts would be optimal?
3. How quickly would the benefits be realized? (The myFICO simulators show that I would gain or lose about 20 points in the short term.)
4. Would getting an additional account in the near term be likely to benefit my scores by December, or should I stay the course until I’m in my own house?

Suggestions?

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Felt bad since you spent so much time on your post and you haven't rec'd a response.  Your credit depth/history is fine to qualify for a mortgage, however your questions relate more to improving your score rather than qualifying for a mortgage, so they'd be best answered in the Bouncing Back from Credit Problems or FICO Scoring and Other Credit Topics sections.  IMO you probably just need to wait for more on time payments to report, it takes awhile for scores to get back into the mid/upper 700's after being ~500.  I'm sure when the collections age off it'll help as well... and make sure that dispute has ended prior to applying for a mortgage.