topic Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620? in Mortgage Loans

How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:02:53 GMT

Trying to get my score to 620 so we can do a rehab loan(203K) on our house, would prefer a 640 for more FHA options, but will at least look when at 620..

Current TU and EQ are both 565..

Had a really tough patch about 4-5 years ago, showing many 30, 60 and 90 day lates...

More recently, in Jan-March, ended up with a few 30 and 60 day lates (had the money, we switched who was paying bills, failure to communicate)

High utilization, around 74%... $28K balance/$38K limits... currently able to pay down by about $500/month so utilization is decreasing by about 1.5%/month

Only other negative is a paid collections on TU from May 2010

Without getting anything deleted, can we get there in 6 months? 12 months??

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:40:09 GMT

Two pieces of good news:

--you're in the right spot for the credit rebuild

--FHA options don't vary between 620 and 640 with most lenders

I had a really good friend, I did his loan on a standard FHA 203(b) in January. He was a 570 late last summer, maybe August? His problems sounded similar to yours---all the problems were old and the present problem was utilization.

He had less money owed, but a higher utilization. His took a few months to go from start to finish. Yours might take longer, but he didn't leverage these forums. Some of these moderators are FICO wizards.

Good luck!!!

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:18:39 GMT

paying the utilization down is going to help, but at 28K in debt and only 500 to pay towards it, it will take you a couple years to get it under a reasonable amount and see any large boosts of score (assuming 500 is the amount you are paying, not 500 plus the minimums...). Fico gives you some point increases for paying the balances down. The key % areas seam to be around 50%. 30% and 10%. To get from a 565 to 620 my guess is you are needing to get down to at least 30% utilization as well as let the lates age out a bit. Any lender is likely going to want to see those lates at least a year old (and depending upon the rest of the history, maybe a bit more). If they see a pattern of lates throughout the credit history, they may want to see longer clear history to make sure that the good payment history is more the rule than the exception now as well as some extra reserves.

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:31:06 GMT

I am paying it down by about $500-$600/month, last month my total payments were $820 and the finance charges were $197... Not sure if we can currently go any more, right now I am unemployed so we are a single income family right now (income $75K), once I get a job we can obviously increase our payments..

My goal is to be able to do this home project as soon as I get a job and our score hits 620...

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:35:13 GMT

Utilization is about 30% of your score. Payment history is about 35% of your score.

Post details of that May 2010 collection on the Rebuilding Your Credit forum and see what your options are - also search the forums for peoples' experiences with that collection agency.

It really wouldn't hurt to send GW letters.

If you purchase a report from here, you can see what kind of jumps you can expect (a range, though) given how much of your balances you pay down - I'd search for a discount code to make it a little cheaper.

Speaking for myself, I moved from 583 to about 620 with paying balances down - but that was paying down from like 30% util to less than 10% util.

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:38:08 GMT

I did the simulation... In 6 months with all payments on time, the range was 565-595.. in 6 months and paying down $500/month, the range was 565-595..

But obviously no way of seeing what the range would be if we did both..

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 17:36:35 GMT

I was able to move my scores pretty quickly in the beginning just with disputes and paying down my debt. Since then, however, it's been pretty much stagnant.

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:07:56 GMT

So in about 7 months... utlization has gone from about 74% to currently reporting 66% and should drop to 61% once my current payments report..

Scores of EQ and TU have gone from 565 on both to EQ of 621, TU of 659.. still needing 19 pts on TU so I don't have to worry what EX is.. should I expect a jump this month as my Target card with a $4500 CL went from a balance of $4563 to around $3350, statement on that account is cut 3/20..

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

MBOhio2 — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:32:06 GMT

Thanks for updating... it's great to see how people's progress are going.

I'm in a similar position of paying down my util % on a higher total revolving debt amount (about $14K) slowly over many months. In my experience (and I'm sure you've seen this too), my scores increase with every little change in my util %. While the major jumps are at 50%, 30%, etc... I've seen jumps from 100% to 85% and from 85% to 78%, etc. Therefore, I definitely think you can expect a jump in your score for continuing to pay down the balances, but it's tough to say how much it will be.

Are you shooting toward a 640 for your middle score?

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:19:05 GMT

Yes, looking to do a FHA 203K refi on our current home..

Really haven't seen gradual increases on EQ as we paid down balances, was completely stuck at 591 for about 5 months even though we paid down ultilization by about 1.7% each month.. then out of nowhere took a jump from 591 to 618, then a few days later to 621.. anxious for the recent payments to report so I can see effect, maybe within 2 months we can get there and get the application process started.

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:26:39 GMT

You won;t see jumpe paying down 1-2% at a time, but about every 10% points will usually yield a noticeable jump

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:34:00 GMT

My current cards rough balance/CL as reported 3/5/2011

#1- $9200/$11400

#2 $4300/ $8500

#3 $2400/$3500

#4 $3500/$8400

#5 $4540/$4500

I just paid #5 down to $3300 (and about $500 spread across the other 4) , should I see a jump because of that?

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:38:27 GMT

if you paid 1200 down on the one card you should see a littel jump but remember that it goes by both individual utilization and overall. so roughly 1700 of well 20K in CC balances and 35+K in credit limit is still going to be small on a % basis.

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:55:14 GMT

The way I am looking at it, only need 19 pts to get to 640, so would be happy with a few pts.. and then hopefully a few more points as my Jan-Mar 2010 lates hit 1 year, maybe get a couple of more points..

And if not, will get desperate, apply and see what EX is..

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 08:52:38 GMT

i went up 100 (555-655)pts in one year...even with 23k in student loans, a public record stemming from 2 collections (currently paying monthly)....you need to get your CC balances down under 30 percent and make sure u havent had any late payments in the last yr and you should be good

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 10:56:47 GMT

Everything has now reported clean for 12 months and my one card that was reporting over the limit is now reporting at 77%, plus overall utlization has dropped from about 66% to 61% with most reporting... hopefully get a SW alert here in the next few days.. Also recently pulled an EX FAKO, was 667, regardless of being a worthless score, still felt good.

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:06:02 GMT

Those utilization numbers are still high - you should see bumps about every 10%. I wouldn't necessarily expect one at a 6% increment.

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:12:45 GMT

But should I expect a bump because of one card going from about 102% to 77%? And how about my recent lates both hitting 12 months?

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

MBOhio2 — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:13:02 GMT

While I don't see score increases for paying down 1-2%, I typically pay chunks of $ that equal about 5% of my overall util % and I do see small increases in my credit score that correspond to decreasing my util % as little as 5%. Every little bit helps!

Re: How long will it take me to reach a 620?

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:07:16 GMT

Just an update..

I am guessing it happened because my one over the limit card was paid well below the limit, score went from 621 on Monday to 648 this morning.