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Okay...I'm currently 7 points shy of qualifying for my first mortgage! It's been a hard fought battle, but we're almost there. Anyway, I have 1 CC w/ my local CU that has a $1000 CL, $0 balance.
What option, if any, would have a positive effect on my score:
1. Getting a CLI for the CC I currently have?
or
2. Applying for...and hopefully getting approved for another card...such as Juniper?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
TU: 633 (TU98) 603 (TU04) EQ: 613 EXP: 658
tbone74 wrote:
Okay...I'm currently 7 points shy of qualifying for my first mortgage! It's been a hard fought battle, but we're almost there. Anyway, I have 1 CC w/ my local CU that has a $1000 CL, $0 balance.
What option, if any, would have a positive effect on my score:
1. Getting a CLI for the CC I currently have?
or
2. Applying for...and hopefully getting approved for another card...such as Juniper?
Any advise would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
TU: 633 (TU98) 603 (TU04) EQ: 613 EXP: 658
haulingthescoreup:
Couple of questions:
-- Where did you get your scores? If your mortgage lender has already pulled them, they're probably FICO's. If you got them yourself from somewhere else, they're probably FAKO's, since Experian is included. (Have to ask, because so many people still don't realize this.)
The scores posted were pulled by my mortgage lender. However, I pulled mine (TU: 633 EQ: 613) from here. It appears there's a 13 point difference because they're using the TU04 version.
-- What is your exact timeline for buying a house? Normally we say no apps within six months of a mortgage. But if you only have one open CC, you might well see an immediate score increase from opening a second card. This is not because of increased total CL, but because the scoring formula "wants" to see good scoring history on multiple lines, not just one. The magic number of CC's seems to be 3, btw.
My timeline is....as soon as I can get pre-approved...lol.
Have you pulled your FICO EQ and TU scores here? (Although your lender will probably pull a more current version of TU.) What are the negative factors holding your scores down, listed in order? You can find these on screen 2 of the myFICO score reports. Alternatively, you can go to myFICO.com/12, which won't give you positive factors or some other goodies, but will list your negative scoring factors by code number.
My scores from here are posted above Factors holding down my score are:
#1, You have a collection and a serious delinquency on your credit report (4 Medical Collection paid 14 months ago - attempted HIPAA removal = disputed but verified)
#2, You recently missed a payment 1yr. 2 months ago (missed student loan payment, no issues since)
#3, You have a short credit history - Your oldest account was opened 20yrs. 8 months ago, AAoA 6 years (I'm a AU on an AMEX below 3% w/ unblemished history)
Thanks again for the information and advise. I'm going to send out another GW letter for my medical collections. I'm still considering applying for Juniper...figuring the credit increase should compensate for the minor drop due to the pull? So close but yet so far....grrrrrr! lol....
Most secured cards involve credit pull.
Public Savings Bank does not pull credit. There may be others.