topic Re: Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here} in Understanding FICO® Scoring

Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here}

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 03:11:19 GMT

We are applying for a mortgage within the next two months or so-my score is 695 and my husband's is 705. We need to get to 725 for the best rates. I have some old 30 dpd and one 60dpd from 04 and 05 due to a divorce and ex husband missing payments. What can I do that is quick? I have a lot of credit available to me and I am utilizing about 34 percent which I know is high but I can pay down a bit of that . Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

Message Edited by aprilangel on 04-11-2008 08:11 PM

Re: Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here}

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:28:36 GMT

You already hit on it. Pay down your CC's. Get your util between 1 and 9% if possible for the best results.

Re: Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here}

RobertEG — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:15:55 GMT

Whatever you do now, two months is probably not enough time to do anything that will give a "quick bump" in score that will be both reported, posted by the CRAs, and cranked through their scoring algorithm. It will take a month or more to post on your CR, and days later to be sucked up by the CRAs and run through their scoring algorithm.

FICO planning requires a minimum of a month or more to show any results in score.

There are things you can do, such as paying down revolv util, or maybe gaining access as an AU on another's account, but your time is getting really short. Pray they will post and be scored.

Re: Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here}

64met — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:23:59 GMT

Hi,

I just went through something similar... had to get above 720 (I had a 715) long story short... there is what they call a rapid re-score; someone (Shane) on this site might be able to help OR talk with your lender NOW! about your options.

Good Luck!

Re: Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here}

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:15:26 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

We are applying for a mortgage within the next two months or so-my score is 695 and my husband's is 705. We need to get to 725 for the best rates. I have some old 30 dpd and one 60dpd from 04 and 05 due to a divorce and ex husband missing payments. What can I do that is quick? I have a lot of credit available to me and I am utilizing about 34 percent which I know is high but I can pay down a bit of that . Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!

As to the lates, the best you can do on them is send GW (goodwill) letters to the creditors, explaining that they occurred during a divorce, you've had great history since then, and they are hurting your chances for a mortgage, would they consider helping you out by removing them, etc etc. Check in Frequently Requested Threads at the top of this board. There are two separate threads dealing with GW.

I seriously doubt that lates this old are doing much. I have an account with a 90-day late that is from March 2006. I had to dispute the current balance recently, and during the dispute process, my scores only went up 10 points. So I doubt that removing your older, "milder" lates would do much more.

Since you do have cash available to throw at the problem, and you're this close to your mortgage, it's time to do so. Here are some goals:

- NO accounts at 85% or more of their credit limits (this is maxed out)
- overall util as low as possible
- as many accounts with $0 balances as possible
- as many accounts as low as possible

So pay any accounts with high balances down to under 50% (lower is better), which will also help overall util; pay in full any accounts with very small balances, so that they report $0, and if you have any money left, pay as many of the rest down to 9% or less as possible.

It works out roughly to highest % accounts first, then lowest $ accounts next, then work on the remaining % accounts.

Since the cycle of updating is:
- you pay the cards down or off
- each individual card must update, probably on your next statement date
- then each card company must update your balance to the CRA's (credit bureaus)
- then each of the CRA's must update your reports,
there's a LOT of built-in delay.

Start paying as quickly as possible; check each account for its next statement date, and see if the new balance shows then; and see if the new balances each report, one at a time, on each credit report. Once everything is paid, if they're still not showing yet, you might have to ask your lender to do a rapid rescore, which is like $20-30 per account per credit report, so to minimize this, start paying as soon as possible, as in today.

It would be a good idea to sign up for a 30-day trial of TrueCredit, which will show you all three of your credit reports, so that you can see if and when the new balances post. Good luck!

Re: Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here}

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:48:24 GMT

Thanks to all of you who responded-I kind of knew that is what we had to do, but I needed to hear it from the pros I have been lurking and reading and have gotten a lot of useful information on these boards. Thanks again!

Re: Help! I really need a quick bump up! {Newbie here}

haulingthescoreup — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:49:25 GMT

Hope you'll come back and update! We all love turnaround stories, especially when they result from util improvement. And good luck on the mortgage!