Feeling Helpless - FICO scores causing angst

[alsobob]

Hi Everyone, 

if anyone could offer some advice, please let me know.  
I am about 2 weeks from closing on a house that we've been building.  The house is about 3 months behind schedule, so naturally, we're already stressed about that.   

My 3 scores according to myFico are Exp: 638, TU: 644, EQ: 647

Credit Karma says my TU is 614 and Credit Sesame says my EXP is 621...**bleep**!

Coincidentally, my Lender Pull off of Credit Plus on 6/7/13  had the scores as: EXP 631, TU 638, EQ 642

All 3 FICO scores were pulled and paid for in June 2013.  I even stupidly bought the Experian score tonight for another $20.. what a rip off.. especially because it didn't change from 10 days ago when I first bought it. 

With those scores, obviously I went astray in my credit habit when I was younger including 2 judgments, but nothing bad (aside from the judgment) has happened in over 2 years.  Everything is paid for, satisfied, and out of collections. 

The judgment (tax lien) occurred in May 2013 and caused a nearly 70 point drop in my score from when I received my commitment in April 2013.  This month, I was able to get all 3 bureaus remove the judgment but the scores only went up about 10 points on average.  Ironically, the EQ score which was the lowest before the judgment is now the highest.  

I have 3 credit cards (2 cap one, 1 Amex)

Utilization on the cards are:
Cap One - $1 (out of $750)

Cap One  - $3 (out of $500)

and 

Amex - $118 (prev month $249)

I fear that my $1 balance may be TOO low.  I know it's not 0% util, but Credit Karma says that I am at 0% utilization overall.  I'm thinking of putting the $1 balance up to $7 when the statement closes on July 3.  

Additionally, we have an auto loan and student loans that are paid for on time and monthly.

Today, I received two credit alerts.  One saying that my Dept of Education loan had been closed.  It was sold to another lender. I hope that doesn't cause a problem. 

The other said that MCM had updated my report to show that "Consumer disputes item".  I haven't talked to them since March since I paid off everything I owed to them.

I'm doing an FHA loan and as a result, need to have a mean score of 640 or higher.  Right now, I have that 640 mean score (642 actually) but I'm really nervous. 

I wanted a 660 or higher, which was what the scores were had it not been for this stupid judgment.  

My main question is this, with the month coming to a close, am I being reasonable in hoping that there will be a bump in score as July begins?  I know that a credit score is a snapshot in time, but most of the CRA's update monthly, right? 

According to the commitment, the lender is going to pull the credit file one more time before giving the OK to close.  My CO inspection is on July 1, and we should get the CO probably by July 5th.  We have 15 days from then to close on the house according to the contract.  I'm thinking, if I give the ok to pull the reports on July 8th, the scores would go up. 

Please help me figure this out.  Credit is such a nightmare, modern day slavery really, and these stupid CRAs don't help you at all.  

Also, please forgive me for essentially posting twice, I'm just THAT nervous.  I posted last week about how long it took scores to rebound after a judgment was removed.

I really don't want to lose this commitment.  I have worked so hard over the last year and a half to improve my score and put us in the position to buy this house. 

Does anyone know if some or most of the most points I lost because of the tax lien would come back in the July update?

thanks everyone for your help and patience.

[thom02099]

---

@alsobob wrote:

Hi Everyone, 

if anyone could offer some advice, please let me know.  
I am about 2 weeks from closing on a house that we've been building.(CLARIFY THIS STATMENT; "I" or "we")  The house is about 3 months behind schedule, so naturally, we're already stressed about that.   

My 3 scores according to myFico are Exp: 638, TU: 644, EQ: 647

Credit Karma says my TU is 614 and Credit Sesame says my EXP is 621...**bleep**!

Coincidentally, my Lender Pull off of Credit Plus on 6/7/13  had the scores as: EXP 631, TU 638, EQ 642

All 3 FICO scores were pulled and paid for in June 2013.  I even stupidly bought the Experian score tonight for another $20.. what a rip off.. especially because it didn't change from 10 days ago when I first bought it. 

With those scores, obviously I went astray in my credit habit when I was younger including 2 judgments, but nothing bad (aside from the judgment) has happened in over 2 years.  Everything is paid for, satisfied, and out of collections. 

The judgment (tax lien) occurred in May 2013 and caused a nearly 70 point drop in my score from when I received my commitment in April 2013.  This month, I was able to get all 3 bureaus remove the judgment but the scores only went up about 10 points on average.  Ironically, the EQ score which was the lowest before the judgment is now the highest.  

I have 3 credit cards (2 cap one, 1 Amex)

Utilization on the cards are:
Cap One - $1 (out of $750)

Cap One  - $3 (out of $500)

and 

Amex - $118 (prev month $249)

I fear that my $1 balance may be TOO low.  I know it's not 0% util, but Credit Karma says that I am at 0% utilization overall.  I'm thinking of putting the $1 balance up to $7 when the statement closes on July 3.  

Additionally, we have an auto loan and student loans that are paid for on time and monthly.

Today, I received two credit alerts.  One saying that my Dept of Education loan had been closed.  It was sold to another lender. I hope that doesn't cause a problem. 

The other said that MCM had updated my report to show that "Consumer disputes item".  I haven't talked to them since March since I paid off everything I owed to them.

I'm doing an FHA loan and as a result, need to have a mean score of 640 or higher.  Right now, I have that 640 mean score (642 actually) but I'm really nervous. 

I wanted a 660 or higher, which was what the scores were had it not been for this stupid judgment.  

My main question is this, with the month coming to a close, am I being reasonable in hoping that there will be a bump in score as July begins?  I know that a credit score is a snapshot in time, but most of the CRA's update monthly, right? 

According to the commitment, the lender is going to pull the credit file one more time before giving the OK to close.  My CO inspection is on July 1, and we should get the CO probably by July 5th.  We have 15 days from then to close on the house according to the contract.  I'm thinking, if I give the ok to pull the reports on July 8th, the scores would go up. 

Please help me figure this out.  Credit is such a nightmare, modern day slavery really, and these stupid CRAs don't help you at all.  

Also, please forgive me for essentially posting twice, I'm just THAT nervous.  I posted last week about how long it took scores to rebound after a judgment was removed.

I really don't want to lose this commitment.  I have worked so hard over the last year and a half to improve my score and put us in the position to buy this house. 

Does anyone know if some or most of the most points I lost because of the tax lien would come back in the July update?

thanks everyone for your help and patience.

---

First....DO NOT pay any attention to Credit Sesame and Credit Karma scores.  They are completely worthless in your situation, and are for "educational" or "entertainment" purposes only.  You need be concerned ONLY with your lender pulled scores, since they are the ones that matter.  Even the consumer FICO scores you get here don't matter, since the lender will pull and use their own scores, and it's likely that the TU score they pull will be  TU04 model and not the TU98 model used here.  There's a difference, and the lender score is the only one that matters. 

Conventional wisdom when very close to closing on a mortgage is to never, ever charge anything or apply for any new credit so close to closing.  However, assuming that AMEX balance is a NPSL card, pay that off right away.  You may also want to pay those two Cap 1 balances for $4 and then charge only on 1 card a total that would equal less than 9% util on ONE of your cards.  Carry a zero balance on your credit cards, with the exception of ONE card, which should be <9% util.  As far as your CREDIT CARDS are concerned, this may help maximize your scores. 

In your opening statement you said "HOUSE WE'RE BUILDING".  That would presume that there is another person involved in this (spouse/partner/relative).  What is that person's credit situation?  Presumably that person is also not doing anything to jeopardize their scores.  OR is the house being built for a "WE" but only "YOU" are on the mortgage? 

Keep in mind too that most mortgage lenders use the middle score of the 3 and not median.  That's what my FHA lender did, and NOT the median average of scores.  So based on your lender pulls, it's likely that they will use that TU =638 score, which is likely the TU04 model.  You may want to clarify that with your lender.  But again, if there's another person involved in this entire scenario, that could certainly change everything as far as my advice or anyone else's advice here. 
 

[alsobob]

Thanks for your reply, here are some answers back.

My wife & I are building this house, her credit is in the 690s so she's fine, but I make more than double what she does so she's more or less an afterthought when it comes to the bank.  She's good for credit and overall affordability of the house, but they want my scores to be above 640 to give us the mortgage. 

As far as the credit cards go, since the closing is going to happen around the first or second week of July, the Amex card is useless now.  It will go in as a $118 balance because the month for me only closes on July 11th.  Even if I left only $1 on there, it wouldn't help in time.

I've actually heard the opposite, that having $0 balances on cards hurts your scores more than helps.  That's why I have them at $1 and $3 respectively.  The $1 balance cap one closes on July 3 so I may push that up to $5.  To make it look like I'm using some of my credit.  Whatever the case, it'll definitely be under $10. 

Finally, the median score IS the middle score.  In my case, the middle score would be 644 if the myFico scores that I stupidly wasted $43 on in June 2013 are correct.  

The point of my post was, does anyone know if the month crossing into July would help raise my score significantly.  I lost about 70 points with this tax issue, I want it back.  It's not fair that the scores haven't gone back up, but it be that we need to wait until July to see that rise. 

Anyone got any insight on that?

[guiness56]

---

@alsobob wrote:

Thanks for your reply, here are some answers back.

My wife & I are building this house, her credit is in the 690s so she's fine, but I make more than double what she does so she's more or less an afterthought when it comes to the bank.  She's good for credit and overall affordability of the house, but they want my scores to be above 640 to give us the mortgage. 

As far as the credit cards go, since the closing is going to happen around the first or second week of July, the Amex card is useless now.  It will go in as a $118 balance because the month for me only closes on July 11th.  Even if I left only $1 on there, it wouldn't help in time.  You could always pay it and ask the CCC to report off cycle and have the lender do a rapid rescore.

I've actually heard the opposite, that having $0 balances on cards hurts your scores more than helps.  That's why I have them at $1 and $3 respectively.  The $1 balance cap one closes on July 3 so I may push that up to $5.  To make it look like I'm using some of my credit.  Whatever the case, it'll definitely be under $10. Yes, reporting all 0 balances is not a good thing.  FICO likes to see you use your credit.  But, what works for one may not for the next, as far as %.  You may need to bring it up a notch.  Some get the most at around 4% others at 9%.

Finally, the median score IS the middle score.  In my case, the middle score would be 644 if the myFico scores that I stupidly wasted $43 on in June 2013 are correct.  

The point of my post was, does anyone know if the month crossing into July would help raise my score significantly.  I lost about 70 points with this tax issue, I want it back.  It's not fair that the scores haven't gone back up, but it be that we need to wait until July to see that rise.  You seldom get back everything you lost but 10 points out of 70 seems a bit low.  And I can't be certain you will get them back.  It is not fair, I agree.

Anyone got any insight on that?

---

[thom02099]

---

@alsobob wrote:

Thanks for your reply, here are some answers back.

My wife & I are building this house, her credit is in the 690s so she's fine, but I make more than double what she does so she's more or less an afterthought when it comes to the bank.  She's good for credit and overall affordability of the house, but they want my scores to be above 640 to give us the mortgage. 

As far as the credit cards go, since the closing is going to happen around the first or second week of July, the Amex card is useless now.  It will go in as a $118 balance because the month for me only closes on July 11th.  Even if I left only $1 on there, it wouldn't help in time.

I've actually heard the opposite, that having $0 balances on cards hurts your scores more than helps.  That's why I have them at $1 and $3 respectively.  The $1 balance cap one closes on July 3 so I may push that up to $5.  To make it look like I'm using some of my credit.  Whatever the case, it'll definitely be under $10. 

Finally, the median score IS the middle score.  In my case, the middle score would be 644 if the myFico scores that I stupidly wasted $43 on in June 2013 are correct.

I understand.  However since the TU = 644 that you got here is not likely to be the model that your lender will use, I was looking more to the lender scores than your consumer scores and didn't see a 640 as your median.  Again, that  lender pull TU04 model score of 638 is what will matter; they (possibly) pulled a TU08 score instead. Perhaps a clarification with your lender as to which model they pull will be in order, and printing out your TU98 model report from here with that 644 for their consideration, might help your cause.      

The point of my post was, does anyone know if the month crossing into July would help raise my score significantly.  I lost about 70 points with this tax issue, I want it back.  It's not fair that the scores haven't gone back up, but it be that we need to wait until July to see that rise. 

Anyone got any insight on that?

---

I certainly sympathise with your plight here.  No, it's not fair, we lose points for one scenario, we correct that scenario, but we don't get all the points back.  Hopefully, July will bring better news for you !

[alsobob]

I'm sorry, I said mean score in my original post.. what a dummy. 

The scores were pulled by Credit Plus using the following scoring models.

Equifax/Facta Beacon 5.0

Transunion FICO Classic (04)

Experian/Fair, Isaac (ver 2)

Lol of COURSE it doesn't say here Exp 04 or 98 or whatever.  

As far as I'm concerned, these are the only TRUE FICO scores. And hopefully, by God's grace, the scores will go up in 3 days when it becomes July. 

I need it to.. this has been so stressful already, I can't deal with anymore stress lol.

thank you everyone for your feedback and support.