Oops! Sorry for misunderstanding laFenix!
Thanks for pointing out my mistake Em71. 
@MikkiD - no worries! 
... your most recent post came while I was typing the other one, and I didn't see until after I posted lol. we all make goofs 
I definitely have, at least, or else I wouldn't be on this journey, yeah? haha
@gdale6 wrote:
@sarge12 wrote:
@gdale6 wrote:
@sarge12 wrote:
@rmduhon wrote:
Mortgage is an instalment loanTrue a mortgage is....but a HELOC might be considered revolving debt that is secured with your home equity, so I think may be figured in revolving credit utilization. Does anyone here know for sure how a HELOC is treated by Fico?
HELOCS 35K or less they are typically treated as revolving debt any higher and they are installment debt.
@gdale6....are you saying 35k balance or 35k credit limit on the HELOC?
AFAIK its balance not the CL.
Neither actually senor; the only relevant score that my 27K CL HELOC is factoring into (5K balance reported during my test) is EX FICO 2; TU FICO 4, EQ FICO 5, all FICO 8, and all FICO 9 flatly ignore it as a revolving account.
It is explicitly listed as a HELOC on all three bureaus, as a result I suspect all HELOC's are excluded as long as they're flagged as such rather than their being some limit which was just a SWAG before by forum members... or if there is a limit it's less than 27K and since PLOC's and credit cards routinely get to 20K and beyond, at this point I doubt it's a dollar value on it.
Jury is still out as to whether it counts as installment though, not quite sure how to test that unless we find an upper bound on installment utilization at least for my own testing purposes on my file.
@Anonymous wrote:@@rmduhon According to my reports pulled directly from equifax, mortgages (against real estate property) are a separate category from installment loans (like an auto loan).
That's been there for a long while on Equifax, as near as I can determine it doesn't hold with any FICO algorithm since 2004.
Something that needs more testing but from all the points I gained from having a nearly paid off installment loan (which is incidently still open today), I lost when my mortgage opened... which suggests they are both being counted for installment utilization purposes, which further suggests they're both installment loans rather than seperate.
VantageScore 3 does seem to mark them seperately though, I jumped ~40 points there with a mortgage reporting IIRC, but that's not really relevant in the current credit market (unfortunately, I hit 803 there this morning haha).
(Note: I actually wrote this thread last week, but somehow didn't post it, so I posted now.)
WOW! What a month! This time last month I was surviving, blinded to the reality of our credit report/score situation. It controlled our lives, but no more! It feels so good to take control of it again. It's an exciting time, that's for sure. My scores aren't great, and there's a big climb ahead for us, but at least I'm taking charge as best I can. I've learned so much, too! Glass mental ceilings are being shattered, and it's feeling really good to strech out my wings for a change. I know before long I'll be flying.
Learning Points:
- There are so many different scores, and so it's important to work on the overall report, simultaneously, while being aware of the score that a particular lender uses
- It IS possible to have more than 500% of one's income extended in credit cards - amazing!
- It IS possible to get a HELOC with at least a 550 score - blessings!
- It IS possible to wipe out a list of pretty bad derogatories within 3 months
- Hope runs high with 40% down payment when wanting a purchase mortgage with NFCU, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed
April Recap:
- Early April started with a big dream to buy a bigger house, so I set out on seeing how to make it happen, knowing DH had NO credit report/score and mine was poor.
- April 7 pulled my first report in a very long time; faced the (unpleasant) music. Started taking action re: fixing my reports (removing derogs, paying down accts, disputing errors, etc). This will be constant until I'm 850x3, I think, but already I'm seeing improvement, so that's encouraging.
- April 13 found hope re: a HELOC (despite FICO pulling at 558
) - April 26 started DHs credit (woohoo)
- May 2 signed HELOC!! (omg I can't believe it ... I'm still holding my breath until it funds next week. fingers crossed!)
May Goals:
- Refi auto, if possible, w/LFCU. Spoke to them today, but they think that they won't be able to offer me a better rate than Chase. Best case: They can, I accept, and I get $200 bonus, plus account perks. Worst case: I'll use the hard pull to open a share acct with online banking and access my EQ FICO score monthly for free. The thought is the sooner I get the HP over, the sooner I can move past it.
- Get DH as Approved-ready as possible for the USAA Limitless. We technically have different state residences. His state is already accepting apps. I'm thinking after he PIFs and it reports, perhaps I'll see a good enough change to be ready to have him app. Keeping those fingers crossed!
I'll work on an updated siggy soon.
OK, so a mini update.
I applied for a loan refinance with LFCU, and was turned down, but I'm not devastated. Either way I wanted to open an account with them, and a hard pull would have been necessary for that. Despite their denial, I'll still be able to open a share account with them, as will my husband, and we'll both have access to our monthly EQ scores, which are hard to get for free otherwise. Also, I can setup Constellation accounts for my kids, which means that when we're in that part of town, I can take them to some pretty neat museums for free. The denial also means I can request another free credit report from the three bureaus, which I'm eager to see, so all's good.
The HELOC funded, and I'm still in awe that I was approved! The score they pulled last month was 558 - their cutoff is 550! The rate isn't great, but it's the tool that we need right now to get things moving in the right direction, and it's less than my credit card rate with a much higher limit (if I were to leave a CC balance, that is).
This month ...
- I'll PIF our cards, and try to start the monthly habit of requesting higher balances and lower rates a few days after PIFing.
- I'll monitor our TU with wallethub (daily access to the report), DC (me), and BoA (him) for our FICOs.
- I'll monitor our EQ scores with LFCU accounts that I'll setup this month and the report with creditkarma accounts.
- I'll monitor EX scores and reports with freecreditscore.com
- I'll also work on fixing my report more. I'm motivated by several derogs that I've been successful in removing, so I'm optimistic about the others.
- I'll work towards getting another HELOC on another property (timeframe June/July), which will help towards the dp on the new house we're trying to buy.
I still need to work on a new siggy. It's coming
Learning Point: After reviewing https://www.equifax.com/personal/products, I realized that the scores that I pulled last month as part of the Equifax Complete Premier package were NOT FICO scores, afterall. The thing is, I actually knew this from years ago, when I was good at managing my credit and whatnot. I just thought that so much time had passed that things had changed, but, nope, not that much. Regardless, the reports are genuine, and I'm still working on correcting the baddies, so it's still a positive.
Progress: I was able to open a Northpointe Bank Ultimate checking account with a potential 5% APY. I've had several interactions with them throughout the process, and I'm quite happy with their customer service, and how they have this account set up.
I'm a bit of a math nerd, so I calculated that if I do 15 transactions averaging $0.27 with only $100 minimum in the account all year, it'll be similar to having a 10% cash back return. If I keep $1k minimum in the account, it'd be better than 100% cash back equivalent. Of course, with $1k minimum, having transactions averaging not more than than $2.70 would result in better than a 10% equivalent. My goal would be to build up to $10k in this account (over and above the $100 minimum deposit to establish the account) to maximize the APY return ($500/yr). Since the potential return here would be better than any of the cashback credit cards (so long as I stay within the appropriate guidelines to make the math work), each month I'd first spend my 15 transactions from that $100 overage, which would only be earning 0.1%, and then transfer what I've spent back into the account to have it ready to repeat the next month. From there it would be business as usual with the cashback cards. This 5% account is much better than what the other banks/credit unions are offering on even their savings accounts, so I'm pleased with the concept, and I'm looking forward to implementing it once the card arrives. The nice thing is that their statement cycles from the 1st to the end of the month, so there's even less to remember with this strategy. I'm not sure why, but it's the little things like this that put a smile on my face lol.
Update: In the meantime, I'm still working on fixing my report. I just wish I could have daily updated access to it for free with EQ and EX like TU offers (https://membership.trueidentity.com/tucm/login.page?). It sure would make things simpler, that's for sure!
Learning Point: My husband has newly established credit, and no installment loans. I came across this post, which seems like it should give a nice point booster before the end of the year. This week the plan is to move forward with it and hope for the best. Here's the link: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Adding-an-installment-loan-the-Share-Secu...
Learning Point: Jimminy Cricket the learning doesn't stop! I just learned that the FICO algorithms are as unpredictable as the rankings on this site. The % of each of the categories is a guideline, but it's not static and varies for each credit report. Wow. More here: http://www.myfico.com/credit-education/whats-in-your-credit-score/