How to boost my Fico score in 3 months

[Anonymous]

Loved your last post.  It looked like a haiku.  :-)

Best of luck, bud.

[805orbust]

+1. The pie chart says it all. Utilization is one of the biggest factors in that score. You'll be above 630 imho. 

[SouthJamaica]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Then certainly you should do exactly what SJ suggested.  Pay off all credit card debt.  Leave almost all your cards reporting at $0 except one card, which should have a small balance on it.  For example, $10.

Do that ASAP.  You should get a huge boost as soon as all your cards report with the much lower balances. possibly in less than 30 days from now, certainly in less than 50.

---

+1

[iv]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Great insight everyone thank you..
All credit cards show on both respective credit bureaus TU and EQFX all are R1 paid on time
Some derog with one credit card company back in July 2015 but on time ever since
I have a feeling this is hendering my score
Essentially I want to boost my EQFX score from 590 to 640 and the one only way I know how is to payoff my 16k worth of credit card debts- this should materially impact my credit utilization from 87% to 0
What's perplexing is my TU score is 635
But from what I understand both institutions use various formulas and calculation
Thank you again
I'm more inclined on the expedited method to boost my score so I can qualify for prime lending rates
Potentially for a mortgage in Canada

---

Do you know which score model(s)/version(s) would be used by your mortgage lender in Canada?

Be aware that it is almost certainly not the FICO 8 scores that are headlined here, nor the consumer scores available from equifax.ca or transunion.ca...

In the US, the set of scores used for mortgage lending is well-defined (the middle score of the set Equifax "Score 5", Transunion "Score 4", and Experian "Score 2", as required by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, etc) and in recent years, available to the public to purchase.

In Canada, I believe this is less well-defined, and lenders may not necessarily all use the same scoring model or bureau.  Most references I can find appear to talk about a 300-900 point score range, which is neither FICO 8 Classic, nor the US-style mortgage scores.

Maybe contact the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada?  They do appear to have guides online for credit reports/scores and mortgages, but they do seem to imply that the scores you can purchase may not match your lender's scores, much like the "bad old days" in the US (only a few years ago).

[Anonymous]

I'd also suggest sending out some goodwill letters for your late payments.  I think you said you late late was in the summer of 2015.  I'd start with that one (the most recent) and work your way back from there.  The most recent ones depending on their severity (30, 60, 90, etc) are likely impacting your scores the most.  Depending on how many total late payments you have, removal of single ones can bump you up 20+ points.  Some people have reported 50 points if they only have a few late payments.  If you can provide a little more information about that end of things we can offer some more insight.

[Anonymous]

Ok I've done it everyone

All 16k debts have been paid off as of today November 9th all credit cards are showing a credit balance of 10k+ cdn.
This should increase my credit utilization 0 %from 87%
Remains to be seen how long this will take to boost my score and hoping for material changes to my equifax Canada bureau by Jan 2017
My current score is 590 I need to get to 630 to qualify for prime mortgage rates in CAN.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I'm not understanding your post.  You're talking about a potential score boost from taking your utilization from 0% to 87%?  While having 0% utilization hurts your scores for sure, having near maxed out utilization (which 87% is pretty close to) is going to be just about as bad.  I feel like I'm missing something here?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Ok I've done it everyone

All 16k debts have been paid off as of today November 9th all credit cards are showing a credit balance of 10k+ cdn.
This should increase my credit utilization 0 %from 87%
Remains to be seen how long this will take to boost my score and hoping for material changes to my equifax Canada bureau by Jan 2017
My current score is 590 I need to get to 630 to qualify for prime mortgage rates in CAN.

---

Like BBS, I too am baffled by your last post.  Youe initial post said that you had a total of 16k in CC debt.  You say above, however, that you have paid off all of that 16k debt and still have 10k remaining.,Does that mean you really had 26k of debt initially?

You also say that your utilization has increased from 0% to 87%... which should not be possible from paying down debt.

My guess in all this is that you have miswritten what actually happened.  Here is what you wrote (in red) and then I will follow that with what I think you intended (changes highlighted in blue):

All 16k debts have been paid off as of today November 9th all credit cards are showing a credit balance of 10k+ cdn.
This should increase my credit utilization 0 %from 87%

What you Intended:

All 16k debts have been paid off as of today November 9th. all credit cards are showing a credit balance of $10 cdn.
This should decrease my credit utilization from 87% to 0%

Can you tell us if that is what you meant?  It's consistent with the advice of SJ to pay off everything but leave a small amount (e.g. $10) on one card.

I am still unclear what "CDN" means ("you say that your cards are showing a balance of 10k CDN).  Can you clarify?  My theory is that it means Canadian, as in Canadian dollars rather than American dollars

Finally, if I am correct in my guess as to what you meant, you say that ALL of your cards are showing a $10 balance.  This is not the advice we gave you.  Most of your cards should be showing a $0 balance with exactly one card showing the $10 balance.  Can you clarify for us exactly what your balances are now?

[Anonymous]

Typo
It is exactly how you articulated
My debt was 16k
Now reduced to 0
Previous credit utilization is 87% now is 0%
Credit cards are now at a credit balance position
Will this materially increase my score by 30 basis points

[Anonymous]

It is very likely to give you a solid 30 point boost, perhaps more.

It is crucial, however, that you have exactly one card still reporting with a small positive amount (e.g. $10).  FICO will penalize your score if all your CCs have a $0 balance.

You want most of your CCs at a $0 balance with exactly one showing the $10 balance.  Can you confirm this is the case?