Why isn't my score going up?

[SunriseEarth]

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@Alberio wrote:

I am pretty new to rebuilding my credit.  My FICO scores are 646/646/681.

When I got my credit reports about a month ago, I took three immediate actions:

1. I paid off my lowest balance credit card.  I am still at 60% total credit card utilization and I still have three cards carrying balances, but my overall utilization went down 8 percentage points, I did not increase balances at all on any of them, and I knocked out one carrying a balance altogether.

2. I paid off my lowest balance student loan.

3. I paid off my second lowest balance student loan.

These actions took a few weeks to hit my credit report, but now they are all in - two student loans closed and one credit card paid off (plus decrease in balance and utilization over all) and the impact to my FICO score was... +0 points.  No change.  Ugh. 

I thought at least I'd get a few points for that. 

This is half vent and half looking for guidance.  Why no increase for these actions?

Thanks!

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Installment loans don't have as much of an impact on the scores as the revolving accounts.   It would have made more sense scorewise and interest-rate wise to pay down on the CCs.   UTIL of 60% is still considered high, but it sounds like you have a good plan overall to get it down.  Good luck!

[slweal87]

Just for curiousity's sake, did you actually get approved and did you actually take out a mortgage at that credit score? I am around there and I always assumed that was way too low.

I am gardening and getting down my one high utlization card (even thinking about moving the balance even though it's at 0% APR for 10 more months) in prep of applying for a mortgage. My total utililization is about 20% though- my CL being 25,000.

[Alberio]

My LO pulled my score at 671, so that may have made a difference.  He did say that between us, my husband and I would qualify for a conventional loan (not a jumbo) with my 671 score (since it is the lower of the scores that govern mortgage eligibility, apparently, and my husband's is 710).  We are putting 20% down and we both have significant income and no issue with DTI.  We spoke to our LO on Friday, however, and it looks like we will still be better off interest-rate wise putting the mortgage entirely in my husband's name, even though I will contribute the bulk of the down payment.  Since we are married that is not an issue and the UW will just need to see my bank statements to ensure it is really "my" money to give.  Hope that helps with understanding our mortgage situation.  My understanding from reading these boards is that people can still get FHA loans even with minimal down payments with scores in the 640s and 650s.  Because we can make a higher down payment and because we can rely on my husband's credit score (and income) alone to qualify, however, we are not going that route.  Good luck!