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Hello,
I am attempting to build credit/paid in fulls. I am using transunions tool and it is stating the main factors hurting my score were that I didn't have any open credit cards. I had a stage card and older cards that I paid off and stopped using entirely. (2009 last used). I had disputed some negative info and my score jumped up to 640. After a new credit card its dropped to 626. I actually have two new cards and the 2nd one hasn't hit my report yet. I plan on getting the "paid in full" each month because this is what I was told would help establish credit. My goal is to get approved for a home loan in a year or two. Current debt to income is around 20% due to student loans but they have been paid succesfully on time and I own a rental house that pays the loans essentially. My scores were the following 640 experian 640 transunion and 580 equifax ?!?. Looks like all three will take a 10-12 point hit now. Hope I didn't make a long term mistake
If you didn't have any open revolving trade lines, then you made the right decision. In fact, in 6 months or so, you might want to get that 3rd card. Your initial score will take a drop from having new account, new inquiries, and reduced AAoA. But in 6 months, a lot of this will recover. Remember even if you PIF, your revolving debt utilization might be high. Revolving Utilization is based off of reported balance on the card which typically occurs when the statement is generated. Only revolving debt utilization really matters.
I only had old revolving lines reporting back in 2009. Nothing that is currently active. The first card has shown up on there but the capital one I have has not. I had planned on charging around 20-30% and then paying off each month around due date. I did have two denials during the process and two cards I got accepted on. So maybe the denials are hurting.. I'm done after the four tries and will wait it out.
Are the scores you gave are FICO scores? If not you need to get your EQ/TU scores here to know were you really stand.
From transunions website itself. My equifax score is quite a bit lower than the traunsion and experian ones. This site shows the equifax score correct?
I would only bother to buy the EQ FICO score here. The TU is kind of worthless as it uses an old and not often used scoring model.
BTW, I wouldn't be surprised to see your score take a big jump in a couple of months. It seems like FICO scoring can be delayed with new trade lines appearing.
BTW, you can use the cards as much as you want. However if you want low reported utilization (which is what you want), you need to pay just before billing cycle ends (statement date) so it reports low balance to credit bureaus. Ideal utilization for maximum FICO is 1 card that is reporting between 1-9% of total and card utilization and all other cards reporting 0. You might want to do that one month and pull your score once it all reports just to see what your max fico can look like.
I thought when attempting to get a mortgage they will pull all three and use the middle score? Sorry I've read on this stuff and it seems to contradict itself a lot lol!
So Transunion and Experian give numbers that aren't really part of the three score process?
Brad,
When you apply for mortgage, the get a FICO score (almost for sure using FICO 04) from each of the major credit bureaus (TU EQ EX). They typically use the middle score for credit scoring purposes and determining interest rates.
Can I get the 04 EQ/TU/EX scores here or somewhere else? Sorry i didn't realize there were different year FICO scores. I assumed they would get what I was looking at from transunion themselves.