NEED AN IMMEDIATE RESPONSE-IF POSSIBLE

[Anonymous]

Ok here is the situation.  I am almost emabarassed  to say this but here are my scores as of 1/29/09:

TU: 522   EQ: 603   EXP: 589.  Please believe be me when I say that these scores are sooo much better than what they use to be.  I have worked my butt off getting these scores up. I would like to get my middle score up to at least 610.  I can already get approval for the FHA Loan with a 580.  But I just want it to go up at least another 15 to 20 points so it won't have to go to manual underwriting.  This is what I did to make my scores go up.  I got my credit card balance to $500 from $1500.  I also have a loan with my credit union and I have gotten the balance down to $600 from $1949.  But for some reason EQ is the only one saying that is a revolving account.  TU says its some type of usecured-overdraft checking account (makes no sense to me) and EXP says its an installment loan.   Well I also paid off two installment loans one had a balance of $100 and the other had a balance of $150.  MY QUESTION:  BY ME DOING ALL THESE THINGS SHOULDN'T MY SCORE JUMP TREMENDOUSLY?   HELP HELP I WANT A HOUSE!!!!!

[valley_man0505]

The biggest bang for the buck with getting scores up is lowering your revolving UTL.  You said you lowered your balance from $1500 to $500, but what is your total available credit limit on your revolving accounts (for now, ignore the credit union loan that is showing as revolving on EQ)?  Ideally, you want your total balance of your revolving accounts to be between 1% and 9% of your total available credit.  Doing this will likely get EQ and EX close to where you need them.  Getting the UTL to 1-9% may be more difficult with EQ since you will have to pay down the credit union loan as well in order to get your EQ UTL down.  Typically, credit union loans show as installment loans, which would probably be best in your case since your revolving UTL would be easier to control and it would also help your credit mix (paying off the two installment loans you mentioned may actually cause a slight drop since these accounts will now be closed and your mix of open accounts will be reduced).

My advice:  get your revolving balances as low as you can, but remember, for some strange reason a 0% UTL is actually worse than a 1-9% UTL for some reason.  Also, maybe you need to talk to your credit union about how they are reporting your loan and see if they can make sure it reports as an installment loan to all 3 CRA's.

One last word of advice:  don't necessarily depend on my advice until others have chimed in as well.  There are a lot of knowledgeable people here that have seen many different things and may be able to give other advice.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your response.  My credit limit on my credit card is $1500.  This is the only revolving account I have.  I thought that getting it down to 30% was UTL was good.  So are you saying that my debt to income ratio should be between 1 and 9%?

[valley_man0505]

You do see a significant jump for getting your UTL below 30%.  However, the BIGGEST gain is when it gets below 10% (but not 0%).  The 1-9% target was for your UTL, not debt to income ratio.  Since income is not included in any way in credit reports or credit scoring, your debt to income will not matter for your credit.

IMHO you should get the CC balance down to between $20 and $100.  Also, ask the credit union to make sure your loan reports as installment.  If it remains as revolving, you would also have to pay that down to less than 10% of what is being shown as the credit limit (if no credit limit is shown, they are likely using the "highest previous balance" as your credit limit in the UTL calculation).

[Anonymous]

Thanks again!  Well I am about to pay my CC with $1500 credit limit all the way down to 9%.  Wish me luck!

How long do you think before there is a change on my report?

[valley_man0505]

I may have bad news for you there--you will not see a change on your report until your next CC statement comes out (probably).  Most CC's report to the CRA's each month after your statement comes out.  Some report on the last day of the month (I know from personal experience that US Bank does this).  When is your next statement due to come out?

[MidnightVoice]

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valley_man0505 wrote: 
  Some report on the last day of the month (I know from personal experience that US Bank does this). 

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Tell me more!  I have a new USBank CC that just hit EX today - I opened it late last month.  Is their reporting date different to their statement date?

[Anonymous]

Well I am actually looking at an old statement and it says....statement closing date October 21st.  So they must report to the CRA's after this date?

[Scamp]

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MidnightVoice wrote:

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valley_man0505 wrote: 
  Some report on the last day of the month (I know from personal experience that US Bank does this). 

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Tell me more!  I have a new USBank CC that just hit EX today - I opened it late last month.  Is their reporting date different to their statement date?

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MV, my US Bank Visa reports on the last day of each month, but my statement cuts about a week later.

[Anonymous]

Nikki - I have a question. What else is bringing down your scores? There may be more room for improvement if you can GW some negatives. Valley is right, get that utilization down and you'll see a few points, but that's not what's dragging your score down too much.

Do you have any recent lates (recent being in the last 2 years)? If so, not only is that effecting your score, but it may affect your ability to get a mortgage as well.