How I raised my CS 200 Points in 6 months! Now... what?

[simplynoir]

With the new cards you have I'll echo gardening and letting the AAoA mature in preparation for your mortgage.

[rmduhon]

I'd ditch the Credit One if I was you since you have better cards now.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering about Credit One but it does have a long history... I figured I would ditch it the month before the yearly renewal. They were insufferable at points. I paid them off and they didn't report for 6 months sonmy utilization suffered. But they did help the rebuild process.

[austinguy907]

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@Anonymous wrote:
BTW, I'm currently at 9% utilization of $60k possible CU. I did do 4 inquiries the last 2 months while I acquired better cards. The amount of cards/accounts I have still puts me the "poor" rating bracket.
Should I get 1-2 more to move me up? Does it make a. IG difference (this seems to vary here on the. Paris so more of a rhetorical question).

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Alot of this is marketing.  The "poor" rating isn't really an issue.  Having 3-5 accounts reporting postive history each month is all that's needed to boost your scores.  I still have services telling me I owe too much on my mortgage, don't have enough premium accounts, yada yada yada.... yet I have Fico's in the 840's across the board.  Just ignore the non-sense of what they're saying is a negative since the only true negatives are late payments, liens, public records, BK, and so on.  

Just some things to read over....

http://www.loan.com/home-loans/who-is-the-primary-borrower-for-a-joint-mortgage.html

https://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Applying-jointly-for-mortgage-who%27s-credit-score/518066/

It might be worthwhile to check your mortgage scores on here since they're typically lower than your CC provided scores and Vantage scores don't count towards mortgages either.  Anything in the 740 neighborhood for a middle score should secure a pretty decent rate in the 3-4% depending on the type of property you're looking for.  Depending on the market you're in you may want to get pre-approved by submitting some of the documentation your bankers want before looking to have an idea of what you budget is and expedite closing after making an offer.  Some sellers won't be too lenient with escrow times if you're in a hotter market but, even if you wait until you find the right place to apply if you stay on top of the doc requests you should be able to close from start to finish within 3-4 weeks.  I've done a couple of transactions in the past few years and was able to pull off the 3 week close on one of them and 4 weeks on 2 others.

Mortgages are kind of like going out in the woods and hunting.  If you prepare yourself for the process it tends to be a little easier when you're ready to pull the trigger.  

Congrats on the progress though either way... facing things head on tends to work better than burying your head in the sand.  It's like anything else though.... once you get frustrated enough to do something about it and finally get the ball moving it gets easier with momentum.

[Anonymous]

Thank you AustinGuy! This is really helpful.
Shame is a weird emotion. I just can't believe I waited so long to pull me head out. Haha. It's doable and stuff happens of course. The lesson is how you deal with it.
Gamifying it made it fun. My son learned great lessons along the way they my lessons so he's good about playing the game as well.
So here's the feedback I'm getting from ya'll.
1. I have enough cards ATM.
2. I don't have loans but that's ok too.
3. Farm these cards for 6 months.
4. PIF but leave a few dollars on the account.
5. Rotate cards so I can get CLI's periodically.
6. After 6 months get a travel card.
7. Prep for mortgage process a few months before shopping with pre approval.
8. Keep utilization below 10% per card (2 of them have 30/45% utilization right now)

What about?
1. Transferring balances and spread thru cards?
2. I've been paying down $2500 per month on cards so while I can pay them off, I thought having balances that are paid down looks better?
3. There's an app called credit card wallet that looks at all my. Adds and tells me where to use what card where to maximize points. Has anyone used this optimally?
You all have been so helpful thank you for the contributions.

[Anonymous]

Looks great!

One thing you're missing is:. Pay down ALL cards to $0 except for one card where you keep utilization under 9%. Many people just let $3 report on one card and it maximizes FICO08.

Getting rid of all balances but one is what gives you the best score as long as that one balance is $3-9% CL.

[austinguy907]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What about?
1. Transferring balances and spread thru cards? While this works well for stocks it doesn't do anything for your scores
2. I've been paying down $2500 per month on cards so while I can pay them off, I thought having balances that are paid down looks better? The less accounts with a balance will improve your max borrowing due to no min payment due on the account being factored into your DTI calculations.
3. There's an app called credit card wallet that looks at all my. Adds and tells me where to use what card where to maximize points. Has anyone used this optimally?
You all have been so helpful thank you for the contributions.  Can't speak to this one.  I don't really chase rewards as a principle.  I use my Disco and Amex primarily at this point and Disco is 1/4ly catagories and BCP is set catagories groceries/gas being primary.

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Otherwise just garden a bit until you finish the mortgage process.  Concentrate more on CLI than apps if possible avoid HP's as the lender may want you to document why you're applying for credit prior to starting the process.