Trying to Increase Score- Advice needed.

[Anonymous]

Hi

I'm new here and have some questions.

I'm trying to refi my mortgage and need 720+ score.

Currently have 705 Beacon 5.0 at EFX.  822 Fico-II at XPN and 711 Fico Classic 98 at TUC.

I had 3 -30 day lates 2 from 2006 1 from 2003. I was able to get the 2 from 2006 removed and will attempt to call on the one from 2003.

Will the removal of the 2- 30 day lates improve my score much? 

Should I bother with the 2003?

Also have a charge off from Verizon from 02/08. Will my score improve after that becomes over a year old?

Any chance a GW letter would work for this charge off?

I also have a $7823 balance on a credit card that i was going to pay in full. Will that improve my score?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[llecs]

Removing the 30-days likely won't help your score at all. FICO typically won't read 30 or 60 days past the 2 yr mark, so as long as there isn't a rash of them. Three is low. I would be more afraid of the OC deleting the account than removing the lates.

Is the CO paid? If so, a GW might help. Verizon is tough to deal with. The CO damage will lessen with time. Though, with scores like yours, esp. with EX, damage appears minimal (unless it isn't on EX).

The CC paydown could help. It depends on the CL of that CC and the individual balances and CL on your other CCs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply.

The CC I was going to PIF has a CL of about 44,000.

The rest of my CC's have no balance.

Although I have a balance on my checking overdraft of about 1250 of a 2300 CL.

Which I am also going to PIF.

Do you think that will help?

Anything else I could do short term to get a little pop?

PS That CO doesn't appear on XPN.  

[Anonymous]

Forgot to mention that the Verizon Co was PIF.

[Junejer]

Hey Hamburglar, welcome to the forums. If your ODP account is reporting, you will get more mileage out of PIFing that than the $44,000 CL CC. That CC isn't being factored into your util at all. Taking that ODP account down to like $20 or something might get you those 9 or 10 points that you're lacking.

Any chance you can get Verizon to expunge that CO for you? That'll give you about 80-100 points.

[Anonymous]

Thanks.

I tried a Gw call to Verizon with no luck. I may try a letter at this point.

I'll pay the OD account and hope for some extra points. Should I leave some balance or PIF?

[Junejer]

Because the rest of your revolving accounts are at $0, I would leave about $20. My scores behave best with a small balance on one card.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice.