Next best step

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to increase my scores to get the best rates on a mortgage within the next 6 months to a year.

Right now I'm around 680 mortgage score all the way around.  I have two late pays on two mortgages that where both closed almost 5 years ago.

I have 3 prime CC's with utilzation at 40%, one has zero balance.  I'll get both of those paid down to zero in the next two months.  The only other open account is a student loan that is only a year old but I've been making payments on it for six months.  It's been paid down to about 90% of the original balance.

My concern is that I have several new accounts all under one year and these are my only open accounts.  I also have 3 good accounts that will fall off in the next year due to age.  Credit history is long 25+ years.

1)Should I stand pat, just pay down CC to zero or near zero.  2)  take out an installment loan on a car or 3) something else.  I've tried to get the 2 late accounts removed but they won't do it until they fall off in Nov. 2016. So let's assume they stay for now.  Having them age off would be great but its over a year away and I'd rather not wait that long to buy a house.

Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I'm trying to increase my scores to get the best rates on a mortgage within the next 6 months to a year.

Right now I'm around 680 mortgage score all the way around.  I have two late pays on two mortgages that where both closed almost 5 years ago.

I have 3 prime CC's with utilzation at 40%, one has zero balance.  I'll get both of those paid down to zero in the next two months.  The only other open account is a student loan that is only a year old but I've been making payments on it for six months.  It's been paid down to about 90% of the original balance.

My concern is that I have several new accounts all under one year and these are my only open accounts.  I also have 3 good accounts that will fall off in the next year due to age.  Credit history is long 25+ years.

1)Should I stand pat, just pay down CC to zero or near zero.  2)  take out an installment loan on a car or 3) something else.  I've tried to get the 2 late accounts removed but they won't do it until they fall off in Nov. 2016. So let's assume they stay for now.  Having them age off would be great but its over a year away and I'd rather not wait that long to buy a house.

Thoughts?

---

Paying the cards down is good but you want one (and only one) to show a small balance of less the 10% of it limit. That will maximize your UTI potion of you scores to within a few points.

The "something else" I would recommend is opening an account with SDFCU and getting their three year, $500 secured loan. Payments will be $14 and change. Make an initial payment of $50 on it, then set it to autopay from the freed up savings fund. Set it and forget it. That will cover the installment loan portion of you Credit Mix for the next three years.