Credit Card Utilization Question

[littlepriest01]

Hello All,

I'm currently pulling a 612 fico. I can get financing for a home at 620. I have 10k in credit card debt, with 4k in the bank to pay on it. I'm currently at 91% utilization.

I just paid off with my tax return one card in full, it went from 94% utilization to 0 obviously. It brought my overall utilization down from 92.036% to 68.533%, with my other payments, I should bring it down to 42.739%.

The simulator has me getting bumped up to the range 632-672. Do you think that I will actually end up over the 620 hump?

Also, all of my CC accounts (Wells Fargo Visa, AMEX, Barclay, GEMoney) will update after the statement is run? They all end next week, so I'm wondering if my score will be greatly improved in two weeks time.

Thanks for any help

[dodfire]

Everyone is different..its really hard to predict how many points someone will gain. But, utilization is the fastest way to get a bump in score. 

Going from 94% down to 42% should merit you a pretty good bump.

Also if you only have a balance on ONE card you will see a better score.

[enharu]

how long is your credit history?

do you have any negatives on file (late payment, collections, etc)?

if your utilization is the only thing dragging you down, you should see quite a big jump in your scores. For my case 95% util to 0% util was almost a 100 point jump.

[littlepriest01]

17 years of credit history. I have three late payments (30 days) in 2009 when I was jobless.

Other than that, I have an older collection for medical (30$). I am trying to get all of this taken away with goodwill adjustments but I don't know how long that typically takes.

I've found a lender that would give a good rate at 620, so I'm hoping paying down my overall utilization by 50% would at least give me eight points.

[09Lexie]

How soon are you thinking about purchasing a home? I assume that you are aware of the qual for loan approval would require a much lower dti ( in most cases).

[enharu]

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@littlepriest01 wrote:
17 years of credit history. I have three late payments (30 days) in 2009 when I was jobless.

Other than that, I have an older collection for medical (30$). I am trying to get all of this taken away with goodwill adjustments but I don't know how long that typically takes.

I've found a lender that would give a good rate at 620, so I'm hoping paying down my overall utilization by 50% would at least give me eight points.

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have u talked to a loan officer yet?
like lexie said, each company has a minimum debt to income ratio you have to meet, so you might have to pay your utilization down to below 50% to qualify for your mortage.

if you can pay your utilization down to approx 30-50%, i think you should be above 620 at the very least. you can try using some of those simulators to estimate. they're not very accurate but at least you kinda know if you should pay it down more or if it's going to be okay. Can keep experimenting with it since you got 2 more months to get a loan?

[littlepriest01]

My current debt to income ratio (with the new house and without paying anything down on the cc's) is 27.9 percent. (I'm including CC minimums, mortgage (inclusive of real estate taxes and home owners insurance), and student loans and car payments).

[09Lexie]

Paying down your util should give you the score bump you need. Good luck and sd those cc's until after your mortgage closes!

[enharu]

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@09Lexie wrote:
Paying down your util should give you the score bump you need. Good luck and sd those cc's until after your mortgage closes!

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+1!

[littlepriest01]

Does SD mean slow down? I'm new to the forums and don't know all of your fico lingo