Newbie here...go easy on me, please.
HOLY COW! I didn't think I was going to be this wordy! Apologies if this is too much, but any advice the "pros" can give me would be greatly appreciated.
I have historically had good, but not great credit. A recent unemployment encouraged my wife and I to relocate and we sold our house. In searching for a new mortgage, we're getting hit by a couple of my mistakes. My scores from the lender's report pull show me at (with adverse info):
EFX Beacon 5 - 647
-Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown
- amount owed on revolving accounts is too high
- number of accounts with delinquency
- time since most recent acount opening is too short
XPN FICO II - 668
- Ratio of balance to limit on bank or revolving or other rev accts too high
- too many accounts with balances
- length of time accounts have been established
TUC FICO Classic 04 - 637
- Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown
- Proportion of balances to credit limits is too high on bank revolving or other revolving accounts
- number of established accounts
- Time since most recent account opening is too short
Full disclosure, I had a 30-day late reported on a $240 past due balance in December 2015 on a bank credit card that had a 5700 balance on a 5500 limit. I got up-to-date with that and used proceeds from the sale of our house to pay that off just this past week. I have also written a "goodwill" letter to the lender (SunTrust) to own up to the mistake and see if they'll consider removing it.
The other items on my report include:
1 mortgage with Chase, current, never late but we did have it modified under HAMP, which shows up. We closed last week and this should hopefully be reflected soon.
3 installment loans with Lightstream (2 car loans and 1 home improvement) - we paid off the home improvement loan with proceeds from selling our house, also this week
Credit cards:
Discover card - opened 6/2011 - 6500 balance on a 9500 limit, never late (paid off since report)
AmEx - opened 5/1996 - 2200 balance on a 25900 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Barclays (Apple Store) - opened 10/2014 - 1100 balance on a 3000 limit, never late (paid down to 650 since report)
AmEx (SkyMiles) - opened 8/1996 - 0 balance on a 1400 limit, never late
USAA Visa - opened 8/2014 - 60 balance on a 16000 limit, never late (paid off since report)
USAA AmEx - opened 2/2007 - 0 balance on a 12000 limit, never late
Bank of America - opened 11/1998 - 0 balance on 21000 limit, never late (NOTE: This account was CLOSED by me in 2009; Dispute filed with Equifax to correct this)
Sears Card - opened 7/2005 - 0 balance on 2001 limit, never late
Charge accounts:
Home Depot - opened 6/2011 - 1000 balance on a 5100 limit, never late
Macy's - opened 5/2011 - 600 balance on a 1900 limit, never late - Open for 0% interest deal; Closed due to inactivity in 7/2015 (?!?!) (paid off since report)
Nordstrom - opened 5/2008 - 0 balance on a 750 limit, never late
MicroCenter/Wells Fargo - opened 8/2014 - 0 balance on a 3600 limit, never late
So my thought is that the SunTrust (late, utilization), Discover (utilization), and Barclays (utilization) cards are what is really hurting me. My wife is in better shape (EFX 757, XPN 688, TUC 714) with the XPN key adverse factors curiously being listed as:
- Lack of recent revolving account information
- length of time accounts have been established
- lack of recent bank/national revolving information
- proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high
Her derogatory information includes:
Macy's charge account opened 5/2003, showing a balance of 100 on a 1000 limit; had a 30-day late in 6/2014 (paid off since report)
Shell credit card opened 12/2005, 0 balance on a 450 limit; had a 30-day late in 2/2012
She has written goodwill letter to both of them, but we're not holding our breath on the Macy's card from what I've read (Department Stores Nat'l Bank/DSNB) but figured it was worth a try.
She is joint on the mortgage and the 3 Lightstream loans.
Her credit cards include:
Bank of America - opened 7/2003 - 600 balance on a 2100 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Chase card - opened 1/2014 - 400 balance on a 15100 limit, never late (this has been our "moving charges" card...why not earn Disney points while paying those jerks at U-Haul, right? 
)
AmEx Skymiles - opened 10/2007 - 160 balance on a 8000 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Capital 1 - opened 12/2003 - 0 balance on a 2500 limit
Charge cards
Nordstrom - opened 7/2007 - 400 balance on a 7500 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Banana Republic - opened 12/2007 - 80 balance on a 6400 limit, never late, (paid off since report)
MicroCenter/Capital 1 - opened 11/2004 - 0 balance on a 3100 limite, never late
Rooms2Go/Capital 1 - opened 8/2006 - 0 balance on a 5000 limit, never late
JCrew/Citibank - opened 10/2002 - 0 balance on a 5000 limit, never late
Belk - opened 12/2012 - 0 balance on a 2500 limit, never late
There's also a bunch of closed stuff...old car notes, closed credit and charge accounts, ect.. but none of them had any derogatory info.
Plan for RIGHT NOW!
Goodwill letters to all lenders reporting derogatory information - DONE!
Pay off anything with utilization > 20% - DONE!
Begging and pleading with lenders who we have recently paid off/paid down to update with the bureaus to report the most recent info. (What is the best way to attempt this??)
Plan for AFTER the mortgage closes:
Close all our store cards as they really don't give us much. I realize we're throwing away a lot of credit limit, but we are probably due for limit raises on the stuff I plan to keep. There's also some long histories, but some of those stores aren't convenient anymore based on where we moved to.
Close all of wife's credit cards except the Chase card...because Disney points
I'm going to close Barclays/Apple and the Sears card
My rationale for keeping my cards is as follows:
AmEx - nearly 20 years of history, a high limit, Starwood points (there's an annual fee, but I'm comfortable with it)
my AmEx Skymiles - long history plus what we save in baggage fees pays for the annual fee
my USAA cards - high limits, low APRs (currently 9.9% for both), and USAA has never done me wrong
SunTrust - 8.9% APR
Should I close Discover or not? It has a high limit and there's no annual fee, but there's not much history there. Thoughts?
@Anonymous wrote:Newbie here...go easy on me, please.
HOLY COW! I didn't think I was going to be this wordy! Apologies if this is too much, but any advice the "pros" can give me would be greatly appreciated.
I have historically had good, but not great credit. A recent unemployment encouraged my wife and I to relocate and we sold our house. In searching for a new mortgage, we're getting hit by a couple of my mistakes. My scores from the lender's report pull show me at (with adverse info):
EFX Beacon 5 - 647
-Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown
- amount owed on revolving accounts is too high
- number of accounts with delinquency
- time since most recent acount opening is too short
XPN FICO II - 668
- Ratio of balance to limit on bank or revolving or other rev accts too high
- too many accounts with balances
- length of time accounts have been established
TUC FICO Classic 04 - 637
- Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown
- Proportion of balances to credit limits is too high on bank revolving or other revolving accounts
- number of established accounts
- Time since most recent account opening is too short
Full disclosure, I had a 30-day late reported on a $240 past due balance in December 2015 on a bank credit card that had a 5700 balance on a 5500 limit. I got up-to-date with that and used proceeds from the sale of our house to pay that off just this past week. I have also written a "goodwill" letter to the lender (SunTrust) to own up to the mistake and see if they'll consider removing it.
The other items on my report include:
1 mortgage with Chase, current, never late but we did have it modified under HAMP, which shows up. We closed last week and this should hopefully be reflected soon.
3 installment loans with Lightstream (2 car loans and 1 home improvement) - we paid off the home improvement loan with proceeds from selling our house, also this week
Credit cards:
Discover card - opened 6/2011 - 6500 balance on a 9500 limit, never late (paid off since report)
AmEx - opened 5/1996 - 2200 balance on a 25900 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Barclays (Apple Store) - opened 10/2014 - 1100 balance on a 3000 limit, never late (paid down to 650 since report)
AmEx (SkyMiles) - opened 8/1996 - 0 balance on a 1400 limit, never late
USAA Visa - opened 8/2014 - 60 balance on a 16000 limit, never late (paid off since report)
USAA AmEx - opened 2/2007 - 0 balance on a 12000 limit, never late
Bank of America - opened 11/1998 - 0 balance on 21000 limit, never late (NOTE: This account was CLOSED by me in 2009; Dispute filed with Equifax to correct this)
Sears Card - opened 7/2005 - 0 balance on 2001 limit, never late
Charge accounts:
Home Depot - opened 6/2011 - 1000 balance on a 5100 limit, never late
Macy's - opened 5/2011 - 600 balance on a 1900 limit, never late - Open for 0% interest deal; Closed due to inactivity in 7/2015 (?!?!) (paid off since report)
Nordstrom - opened 5/2008 - 0 balance on a 750 limit, never late
MicroCenter/Wells Fargo - opened 8/2014 - 0 balance on a 3600 limit, never late
So my thought is that the SunTrust (late, utilization), Discover (utilization), and Barclays (utilization) cards are what is really hurting me. My wife is in better shape (EFX 757, XPN 688, TUC 714) with the XPN key adverse factors curiously being listed as:
- Lack of recent revolving account information
- length of time accounts have been established
- lack of recent bank/national revolving information
- proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high
Her derogatory information includes:
Macy's charge account opened 5/2003, showing a balance of 100 on a 1000 limit; had a 30-day late in 6/2014 (paid off since report)
Shell credit card opened 12/2005, 0 balance on a 450 limit; had a 30-day late in 2/2012
She has written goodwill letter to both of them, but we're not holding our breath on the Macy's card from what I've read (Department Stores Nat'l Bank/DSNB) but figured it was worth a try.
She is joint on the mortgage and the 3 Lightstream loans.
Her credit cards include:
Bank of America - opened 7/2003 - 600 balance on a 2100 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Chase card - opened 1/2014 - 400 balance on a 15100 limit, never late (this has been our "moving charges" card...why not earn Disney points while paying those jerks at U-Haul, right?
AmEx Skymiles - opened 10/2007 - 160 balance on a 8000 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Capital 1 - opened 12/2003 - 0 balance on a 2500 limit
Charge cards
Nordstrom - opened 7/2007 - 400 balance on a 7500 limit, never late (paid off since report)
Banana Republic - opened 12/2007 - 80 balance on a 6400 limit, never late, (paid off since report)
MicroCenter/Capital 1 - opened 11/2004 - 0 balance on a 3100 limite, never late
Rooms2Go/Capital 1 - opened 8/2006 - 0 balance on a 5000 limit, never late
JCrew/Citibank - opened 10/2002 - 0 balance on a 5000 limit, never late
Belk - opened 12/2012 - 0 balance on a 2500 limit, never late
There's also a bunch of closed stuff...old car notes, closed credit and charge accounts, ect.. but none of them had any derogatory info.
Plan for RIGHT NOW!
Goodwill letters to all lenders reporting derogatory information - DONE!
Pay off anything with utilization > 20% - DONE!
Begging and pleading with lenders who we have recently paid off/paid down to update with the bureaus to report the most recent info. (What is the best way to attempt this??)
Plan for AFTER the mortgage closes:
Close all our store cards as they really don't give us much. I realize we're throwing away a lot of credit limit, but we are probably due for limit raises on the stuff I plan to keep. There's also some long histories, but some of those stores aren't convenient anymore based on where we moved to.
Close all of wife's credit cards except the Chase card...because Disney points
I'm going to close Barclays/Apple and the Sears card
My rationale for keeping my cards is as follows:
AmEx - nearly 20 years of history, a high limit, Starwood points (there's an annual fee, but I'm comfortable with it)
my AmEx Skymiles - long history plus what we save in baggage fees pays for the annual fee
my USAA cards - high limits, low APRs (currently 9.9% for both), and USAA has never done me wrong
SunTrust - 8.9% APR
Should I close Discover or not? It has a high limit and there's no annual fee, but there's not much history there. Thoughts?
I would not close the discover card because this will affect your AAOA. Those late payments will carry a major role on your credit because they normally have a lasting effect for 2 years sometimes longer. Also, I would continue to make all payments on time for the next 12 months and keep your Uti down between 5-10%. However, once your Uti is down carry a very low balance on the card(s) that has the oldest trade line from when you opened it. Again, the lates make up the 35% which has a very high impact on your score.