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Been trying to find a direct answer to this. Ran a simulation for bringing down my credit balance and my FICO8 scores are estimated to improve by 25-30 points. Should I expect my mortgage scores to improve similarly, or are the algorithms completely different?
My mortgage scores are HIGHER than my FICO08 scores. Although, I think I'm a rare case. Most people on here seem to have higher FICO 08 scores and lower mortgage scores.
FICO08 Scores as of June 20:
608 - Equifax
606 - Transunion
590 - Experian
Mortgage Scores as of June 20:
602 - Equifax
626 - Transunion
633 - Experian
@Anonymous wrote:Been trying to find a direct answer to this. Ran a simulation for bringing down my credit balance and my FICO8 scores are estimated to improve by 25-30 points. Should I expect my mortgage scores to improve similarly, or are the algorithms completely different?
In my opinion there is no correlation. Sometimes I've noticed them move in the same direction, but not proportionally.
What are the current scores you are trying to improve?
Some steps, like paying down balances, can be directionally similar, though not exactly the same measure, and the basic structure of your credit file is important as well.
My mortgage scores from earlier this week are EQ 5 693 TU 4 711 EX 2 713. Trying to get them to 720. Since I've ran that report, I had the one negative mark cleared on my Equifax report and my Equifax FICO8 score has already increased by 23 points. Still waiting on the mark to clear on Transunion but that might take another week since I disputed it on TU before I called the creditor so it is stuck in review.
I also used cash on hand to pay down my credit card balance and my utilziation is going from 44% to 35%. Most of that utilization is coming from my card for joint family expenses (vacations, kids, etc.). I didn't realize that having one card near max impacted your credit score on top of your overall utilization, so I brought that back down. We went to Vegas for our 5th anniversary earlier this year and I had most of that trip sitting on the card still. Wasn't expecting to be buying a new house this year, but the opportunity came so we took it. But anyways, paid that card down so it doesn't report being maxed out anymore.
The rest of my credit is pretty much clean (Very good everywhere besides the utilization at 44%). According to the simulation, bringing down my utilization to 35% should increase my scores by 25-30 points, so my FICO8 scores SHOULD be around the 780 range once all of the new balances are reported. Just wondering if that should be enough to get those mortgage scores up by 10 points.
@Anonymous wrote:Been trying to find a direct answer to this. Ran a simulation for bringing down my credit balance and my FICO8 scores are estimated to improve by 25-30 points. Should I expect my mortgage scores to improve similarly, or are the algorithms completely different?
absolutely not! I paid down 60% of my revolving debt.... my FICO8 scores jumped dramatically (two bureaus over 60 pts), but my Mortgage scores only jumped 10-12 points!!! I'm at almost 700s on two of the FICO8 (692, 653 and 696) and my mortgage scores are in the dump (626, 612 and 686). my mid-score is EQ - that FICO8 score jumped the most, at almost 70 pts, but the mortgage score only jumped up 16 pts.
Craziness!!
No, there’s no narrow correlation. In a general sense though, just about any system will increase your score for good credit behavior.
As an amusing tidbit, Thomas_Thumb’s EQ 5 804 TU 4 823 EX 3 830 EX 2 839, while mine are 816 818 831 842. Still, his FICO 8 triple 850 is more solid than mine.