Trying to reach 680

Anonymous · ‎06-29-2017

Hi! So I have a score of 660. My cc utilization is reading at 61%, this is where I am now:

cc1 - 265/500

cc2 - 440/500

cc3 - 0/500

cc4 - 0/1000

cc5 - 0/1500

I have lowered my utilization to under 20%. Will this bring me up to 680? We are trying to get a home loan.

I do have school loans at around 44k (that I am paying on monthly and have never been late on). I just paid off one derogatory mark in full so it will be removed. I still have 3 I can't pay in full yet (they are all almost 7 years old). I also have 100% on time payment for everything currently.

What else can I do to get it up? Thanks!

DollyLama · ‎06-30-2017

Is this your FICO 8 score, or one mortgage score. Usually lenders use the middle score of a mortgage score (which is in a different category from the classic 8 score). Were you given this score by your lender, which bureau, TU, EX, or EQ?

Regardless, you are definitely headed in the right direction, if you could possibly pay off one of the other credit cards, and pay down the remaining one to less than 8.9% of it's total credit line, that will give you the biggest boosts in scoring that you can control. I highly suggest getting your mortgage scores which is only available on myfico, and find out your middle score. Taking out the highest score and lowest, and you go with the one in the middle score of the 3 . They can differ wildly, as you can see in my signature, that my only clean file, no derogs is TU, and the score is much higher than the other two. I have 1 derog a medical of $34 reporting on the other two, and they are much lower on the mortgage aspect.

Anonymous · ‎07-01-2017

The #1 question I have for the OP is where they are getting their score from, which would also likely answer what type of score it is.

Regardless though, paying down utilization to a single-digit aggregate amount based on where it's at now IMO would yield 20+ points under just about any model, so to answer his original question lowering that utilization is key.

Anonymous · ‎07-02-2017

Thanks for this information. I am getting my score from myfico.com. So, then I guess I should use the middle score which is 652. 660 is my TU, and 640 is my E (my lowest). I will attempt to pay off the other bills, and get my utilization down below 10%, but I paid what I could for now. I think taking my utilization from 61% down to 20% was a huge change. I will let you know where my score lies once it updates from these changes. Hopefully I can reach 680 as I know I will get a better APR on a mortgage.

Anonymous · ‎07-03-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi! So I have a score of 660. My cc utilization is reading at 61%, this is where I am now:

cc1 - 265/500
cc2 - 440/500
cc3 - 0/500
cc4 - 0/1000
cc5 - 0/1500

I have lowered my utilization to under 20%. Will this bring me up to 680? We are trying to get a home loan.

I do have school loans at around 44k (that I am paying on monthly and have never been late on). I just paid off one derogatory mark in full so it will be removed. I still have 3 I can't pay in full yet (they are all almost 7 years old). I also have 100% on time payment for everything currently.

What else can I do to get it up? Thanks!

You have 2 cards with greater than 50% utilization. Get them down below 50% utilization, below 30% for better score increase, and below 10% for best score increase. Make sure you have at least one account reporting with a balance.

Anonymous · ‎07-03-2017

If taking your utilization down from 61% to 20% didn't take your scores from 660 to 680+, they are going to be super close to the point where taking utilization down to 9% or less for sure would push you over the hump.