topic Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?! in Mortgage Loans

No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditWarrior21 — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:14:57 GMT

Hi All,

I am trying to improve my credit score to make a home purchase. Currently my score is at 589. My biggest "baddie" were my CC utilization scores. two months ago I had almost maxed out everything.. About 17K in debt. After reading the forums I learned the quickest way to impove score is to pay these down below 30% utilization and thanks to a bonus at work- I am now down to 8K..

So I am watching as the CC's report (I know which days they come in)... AND NOTHING. NOT ONE POINT GAIN. I mean, **bleep**!?!?!? So, I plan on paying these even further down this month. But I don't get it! The score calculator says I should have about a 70 point gain.

What am I missing here?

Thanks!

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:26:32 GMT

Give it a bit of time. I just recently did the same and it took a few weeks.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:32:30 GMT

Hi.. so after reading your posting and having a similar situation myself (from 527 - 699 in 3mths), I would ask if there is anything else on your report that may be causing your score to be low. How is your payment history on all of your accounts? You have made some improvement on the CC balances, congrats! But there has to be something else in your history/profile keeping your score down. Last thing I would ask is where are you getting your score from? ....Are these mortgage scores or FICO scores?

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

DallasLoanGuy — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 16:51:32 GMT

are you sure the new scores you are looking at are the result of a new credit pull? not a cached version of your report?

that is all i can think. because you should get something. and the score sims are pretty good.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditWarrior21 — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 17:10:50 GMT

Thanks for the responses.

The only other "baddies" I have on my report are two collections- one 3 years old and one 5 years old. I did have a few credit pulls which could be bringing it down. But would that be enough to see NO progress?

I also have student loan (65K) but ALL on-time payments for 6 years. and a Winnebago note (16K) but again NEVER been late in the year I've had it. So it's strange

Maybe I'm just being impatient.

I get my credit scores right from this sight, using the notifications/credit reports. I believe these are FICO's and not FAKO's correct?

thanks all!

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

dragonfly66 — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 05:59:33 GMT

I just paid mine down today. I'm anxiously awaiting a score bump as well, so I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this thread. I'm trying to maximize my scores in anticipation of a mortgage in June. Please keep us posted.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditWarrior21 — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 15:53:08 GMT

Just did my morning check. No change still. And so this has been 30 days of paid down debt with no bumps.

I will be paying my CC even more down on the 30th when I get another bonus. This will take me below the 30% utilization rate. Hopefully that bumps me. Maybe that's the magic number.

I did check my ratings yesterday at they say:

Credit mix: Exceptional

Credit Utilization: Poor (52% utilization)

Credit Length (Exceptional- over 10 years)

Derogatory Marks Fair (2- 3+ years old)

Credit Inquiries (Poor- I went on a CC spree in September so I think that's it)

So besides the CC utilization- the inquiries seem to be hitting me the hardest. But those only make up 10% of score so I would imagine wouldn't stop my score from bumping. That being said- I'm NOT applying for ANYTHING for the next while. haha

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

dragonfly66 — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 22:13:37 GMT

@Istherehope wrote:
Just did my morning check. No change still. And so this has been 30 days of paid down debt with no bumps.

I will be paying my CC even more down on the 30th when I get another bonus. This will take me below the 30% utilization rate. Hopefully that bumps me. Maybe that's the magic number.

I did check my ratings yesterday at they say:
Credit mix: Exceptional
Credit Utilization: Poor (52% utilization)
Credit Length (Exceptional- over 10 years)
Derogatory Marks Fair (2- 3+ years old)
Credit Inquiries (Poor- I went on a CC spree in September so I think that's it)

So besides the CC utilization- the inquiries seem to be hitting me the hardest. But those only make up 10% of score so I would imagine wouldn't stop my score from bumping. That being said- I'm NOT applying for ANYTHING for the next while. haha

I have all of my cc's come due on the same day of each month (22nd) and I have noticed that for the most part they report about 1 week after the due date. That is based on the fact that I start getting MyFICO alerts around that time. This past month however, they were a few days later than usual. This sounds like it could be slow reporting, although I can't imagine it being that slow. Have all your cards reported?

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

Revelate — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 14:29:56 GMT

Paying down revolving debt only gets points if you go over a breakpoint; say 70% to 57% might not have a breakpoint in there at all as a contrived example.

If you're at aggregate 57% that is definitely a penalty; I wouldn't rule out the other issues in your file but paying down revolving utilization is one of the best ways for short term improvement. If you want a better answer in terms of strategic paying of the credit card debt, would suggust posting the current balance and credit limit for all of your tradelines, and then how much money you reasonably have to throw at the balances. Unfortunately FICO has a calculation in 3 parts for revolving utilization so there's some tricks to it.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditWarrior21 — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 01:26:09 GMT

Thanks for the answers.

Yes, they are reporting- I'm seeing them as they come in. It's just not moving. I agree, I must not have hit that threshold to bump yet..

Revelate: Thank you for the offer to look more closely: As of today-

Capital One Quicksilver: $2322.20 CL: $6000

Capital One Mastercard: $2990.25 CL:$5750

Chase Marriott Rewards: $1819.00 CL: $5000

Chase Slate $54.00 CLL $500

Credit One: $738.00 CL: $1350

Credit One: $130 CL: $700

So in Total: Balance: $8053.45 CL: 19,300

Thoughts?

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 03:27:49 GMT

This kind of scares me because we plan on paying down our credit cards when we get our tax refund. We are at abnout 97% UTI. We are only able to pay down to 50%UTI We want to purchase a home. Now Im scared that we wont get the point bump we need.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditWarrior21 — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 16:44:22 GMT

I'm told... And have yet to determine if this is true- that under 30% is where you want to be.

Which- hopefully I will be in the next 30 days. My score calculator says people with the highest scores are under 10%.

which would be nice because I'd have less monthly bills!

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

Revelate — Fri, 27 Jan 2017 05:49:18 GMT

@Istherehope wrote:
Thanks for the answers.

Yes, they are reporting- I'm seeing them as they come in. It's just not moving. I agree, I must not have hit that threshold to bump yet..

Revelate: Thank you for the offer to look more closely: As of today-

Capital One Quicksilver: $2322.20        CL: $6000
Capital One Mastercard: $2990.25         CL:$5750
Chase Marriott Rewards: $1819.00         CL: $5000
Chase Slate                     $54.00             CLL $500
Credit One:                       $738.00          CL: $1350
Credit One:                       $130                CL: $700

So in Total:       Balance: $8053.45          CL: 19,300

Thoughts?

How much more money do you have to pay down?

Revolving utilization is in 3 parts:

1) Aggregate utilization (<9%, FICO rounding mishaps is optimal)

2) Individual: depends on where your, generally most consider under 30% to be optimal here though my dirty file can go up much higher before taking a penalty on mortgage models

3) Number of revolvers with balances: fewer (but not zero revolvers with a balance, which is a straight negative) is better, one is optimal for all; with only 6 cards ideally you probably want to be one, but 3/6 is better, and 2/6 is better than that.

If I were you I'd pay off the 3 smaller balances, and then see what money I had left over for further tweaks; amount of cash to play with factors heavily into FICO optimization.

To the other poster, same sort of strategy can be done, strategic use of funds is often better than outright just throwing money at the issue when we're talking FICO optimization... note this isn't quite the same as doing what's smartest from a financial perspective, but with a mortgage lasting only a few months, the higher interest rate on one vredit card vs. another isn't that big of a deal in comparison to house price.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditScoreChallenged — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 02:51:24 GMT

Are the scores you are referring to your Fico scores or mortgage scores?

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

TXempress — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 11:58:24 GMT

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

StartingOver10 — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 13:42:36 GMT

@CreditScoreChallenged wrote:
Are the scores you are referring to your Fico scores or mortgage scores?

To clarify: ^^^ mortgage scores are also FICO scores but they are a different scoring version from FICO 8. Take a look at the stickies above (in the mortgage section) for details of which scores are used for mortgage scores. Most lenders pull all three reports and use the lowest mid-score of the applicants for the mortgage. Very occasionally I will see someone post that their lender only uses one mortgage score model.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditWarrior21 — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 16:39:16 GMT

They are my FICO scores. My mortgage scores are as follows:

Experian Fico Score 2: 614

TransUnion Fico Score 4: 543

Equifax Fico Score 5: 590

Not sure why there's a wide difference between the 3. Or which they use.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

StartingOver10 — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 20:25:36 GMT

@Istherehope wrote:
They are my FICO scores. My mortgage scores are as follows:

Experian Fico Score 2: 614
TransUnion Fico Score 4: 543
Equifax Fico Score 5: 590

Not sure why there's a wide difference between the 3. Or which they use.

The differences are because there is a slightly different scoring algorithm used by each of the big 3 CRA's. The mid score is used (in your case the 590 score). If you have another borrower on the loan with you and that borrower has lower scores, then that borrowers mid-score will be used for qualifying.

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

jenrhi — Tue, 31 Jan 2017 18:18:52 GMT

Just make sure not to close them after you pay them off--that will mess with your debt to income ratio for sure!

Re: No Credit Bump after Paid down Cards?!?!

CreditWarrior21 — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 15:36:08 GMT

Hi all,

Wanted to quick update as I know there were one or two on the thread watching.

After about 60 days of paying down- from 88% utilization to about 45% utilization overall- my credit score jumped 31 points yesterday!

I am not going to pull hard credit, as I am going to be able to pay below the 30% mark at the end of this month, but I'm hoping that after that I have a big enough bump to start looking for a home! Currently sitting at exactly 620 due to the 31 point bump.

Thanks for all the support and advice. Getting that UTI down certainly seems to be key.