Any last miute advice?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I have been reading everything I can on these boards for a month and it has been very informative. I started attempting to repair my credit 2 years ago but once I got to the place that I could get auto loans and credit cards easily I just stopped working on the old stuff thats still showing. Recently my husband and I decided to move closer to our jobs so we put our current home up for sale (inherited, no mortgage) and started looking for a new one. We found the new one quicker than expected and now I seem to be in a race to raise my credit score a little. Currently EQ FICO is 634, my worst but it's what my lender uses. If I can get to 680 then it will bump me into a much better loan. Working off of EQ here is where I stand:

The Bad

-120 late on my student loan from a year ago, I have sent a GW letter but don't have any expectations of it being removed.

-2 medical collections from the same company, I did a PFD and am waiting for my report to update.

-Certegy $10 check charge. Paid in full through Orion which was also reporting/now removed. Can't get Certegy to remove or update info. They are reporting it as closed with the  status as 120 days late. Sent them the paid letter from Orion but they haven't updated yet.

-Capitol One card with $2500 limit was at 95% util paid down to 60%, waiting for report to update.

The Rest - These accounts have always been in good standing, never a late payment.

-Auto loan Hyundai from Dec 2010. Originally 31K. 29K owed.

-Auto loan local bank from August 09. Originally 10K. Balance was $5900, paid in full yesterday.

-Auto loan Carmax from Jan 09. Originally 13K, paid off in Dec 2010.

-American Express,  No limit, usually shows around $300 a month. Paid to 0 balance before closing, waiting for it to report.

-Victorias Secret card, $500 CL, paid down to under 30% util, waiting for it to report.

-Zales card, $750 CL, paid down to under 30% util, waiting for it to report.

-American Eagle card, $500 CL, 0 balance.

-Macys card, $500CL, 0 balance.

-Khols card, $500CL, 0 balance.

-Childrens Place card, $500CL, 0 balance.

-Dell, $2000CL, 0 balance.

-AU on my grandfathers Discover. $13,000 CL, average 9% util, paid in full each month (after reporting).

-AU on my grandfathers Sears card. $12,000 CL, 0% util.

Because I've been an AU on 2 of my grandfathers cards for years my credit history is older than I am.

At this point I'm just looking for some advice on what else I can do. None of the things I've done have reported yet but I'm no good at sitting and waiting so if you have any suggestions I'd appreciate the advice.

[mauve]

I'm concerned about if you can get approved (regardless of score) with a late that recent, but that would definitely be a lender / underwriter question. 

The easiest way to raise your score is to pay down that utilization.  Ideal scoring for that will happen when all but one of your revolving accounts (that includes the AU ones) are reporting 0 balances and the remaining account is reporting less than 9% utilization.  The closest you can get to that, the better.  You're scored on both individual lines' utilization as well as overall.  That alone should boost your score into your desired range.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding. As far as getting approved with the late student loan payment, I am going through my local bank and the LO said it would not be a problem. I wrote a letter of explanation and she seemed satisfied with that. Hopefully it doesn't come back to bite me in underwriting.

If they do not remove the late I may contact them to see if they will delete my entire history if I pay in full.

[mauve]

Student loans are difficult to get anything done with.  Check out the SL boards.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to update. The large payment to get my Cap1 below 60% util hit my report yesterday. I got an alert this morning that my score is up 33 points from 634 to 667! So far of all the things I have done this payment is the only one to report. Hopefully something else will come through this week and give me the other 13 points I need.
Thanks again to everyone who contributes to these boards. I didn't realize how important util is until I started reading here.