hELP needed to buy a house-pay off CCs

[Chickenpotpie]

They'll (cards) report as paid  and you'll see them on your report for a long time (about 10 years or so)   SO no worries, pay them puppies off!  Anything you manage to pay OFF at this point, will be good for you. 

If you have too many tradelines showing late and not paid as agreed, thats bad.  Paid  with a zero balance showing on it is a much better situation. A closed card should never show a balance during the mortgage process.  This lessens your chances and make you look irresponsible.    So best bang for the buck:   If its low hanging fruit (under 500 dollars for now), pay it off.  if its open, leave it open, just don't USE it.  if its closed and close enough to the 1k mark, make large payments to that.  then up the chain, to larger amounts, pay the minimum.  You have finite money and little time, so unless you win the lottery, this is going to help you the most.

I hope you stick around and keep us informed on how its all going.

[Anonymous]

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@Chickenpotpiewrote:

They'll (cards) report as paid  and you'll see them on your report for a long time (about 10 years or so)   SO no worries, pay them puppies off!  Anything you manage to pay OFF at this point, will be good for you. 

If you have too many tradelines showing late and not paid as agreed, thats bad.  Paid  with a zero balance showing on it is a much better situation. A closed card should never show a balance during the mortgage process.  This lessens your chances and make you look irresponsible.    So best bang for the buck:   If its low hanging fruit (under 500 dollars for now), pay it off.  if its open, leave it open, just don't USE it.  if its closed and close enough to the 1k mark, make large payments to that.  then up the chain, to larger amounts, pay the minimum.  You have finite money and little time, so unless you win the lottery, this is going to help you the most.

I hope you stick around and keep us informed on how its all going.

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For sure. I will keep the forum updated on the progress and importantly if Lexington can remove any more lates in the coming months. 

[HeavenOhio]

I don't think it's been stated explicitly in this thread, but one should never apply for new credit until a mortgage has been CLOSED.

In your case, your high balances will almost certainly result in denials anyway. But after your mortage has closed and once your balances are in the 30% or so range, it's possible that a 0% balance transfer card might be available to you to help clean up the rest of the mess. Of course, the risk in applying for a BT card is that you never know what the limit might be, meaning that you won't know if it'll be useful until after you're approved. When your balances are low enough to consider a new card, don't apply without checking here first.

[Anonymous]

Ok. Make sense. Yes, I have not applied yet. We only had a pre approval discussion on how to go about it. The lender was not concern about the high balances as long as the middle score is between 580-620, which I'm currently working on. Its tough to find a lender who will lend if your in a credit management program. 

Hopefully my aggregate utilization will lower it to below 88.9% (currently 94%) when the payments hit on February and March. Plus I'm going to tackle the individual UTI to bring it down to lower than 88.9%.

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@HeavenOhiowrote:

I don't think it's been stated explicitly in this thread, but one should never apply for new credit until a mortgage has been CLOSED.

In your case, your high balances will almost certainly result in denials anyway. But after your mortage has closed and once your balances are in the 30% or so range, it's possible that a 0% balance transfer card might be available to you to help clean up the rest of the mess. Of course, the risk in applying for a BT card is that you never know what the limit might be, meaning that you won't know if it'll be useful until after you're approved. When your balances are low enough to consider a new card, don't apply without checking here first.

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[Anonymous]

Guys,

Next month I'm going to pay all my cards down to 88% in March except for the Ammet (158%). My plan is to bring that down to 88% in the month of April. Will this help or should I do the Ammex first for a fico boost?

[HeavenOhio]

As long your total utilization is above 88.9% and at least one card is above 88.9%, your score isn't going to change much. As mentioned, you really ought to be going for numbers below 88.9% to prevent interest from putting you back above that threshold. I don't think the path you choose to reach that goal matters a whole lot, just as long as you get there.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymouswrote:

Hello,

First of all, thank you for taking your time to read and provide any assistance.

We had a rough 2017 and fell behind on our CC payments and had to enroll in Family credit management. Most of my CC accounts were closed, but they are all reporting to bureaus. We have a mortgage on my profile which is current and paid by my inlaws. We are in the process of buying a house for ourselves and would like to improve my middle score to qualify for an FHA loan (580+) as for my lender. I do not have any collections or charge accounts. I just finished paying off my auto loan last month. it was a 60-month installment(Not reported yet). In addition, IM enrolled with LEXINGTON to get some of the lates removed. Below is where I'm currently. The next two-three months I will have some extra cash (1000 a month) to pay down some of the loans. but I want to know which ones I could pay down to get the maximum gain in fico score to qualify for a mortgage. I was just approved for a cap 1 300 limit unsecured card, it's not reported yet. 

CLOSED ACCOUNTS -  BAL - LIMIT - UTI - WORST ACCOUNT STATUS ALL CURRENT (enrolled in credit management )

SYNC/Care Credit Du 5653 - 5750 98% 120 days past due $ 122 min

American Express 3159 - 2000 158% 120+ past due $80 min

CITI CARD 1291 -1200 108%  60 days past due 33 min

JC Penny 375 - 420 89% 30 days past due 10 min

BOA 8500 - 7854 92% 60 DAYS PAST DUE 158 min 

paypal 1975 - 2110 94% no lates 70 min

macys 1612 - 1500 107%  60 days past due 50 min

OPEN ACCOUNTS 

Best buy 1250 - 1500 83%  60 days past due 

Current FICO scores  EQ 617, TU 570 EX 583

Current Mortgage Version 538, 573 and 524

Thank you guys! 

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I don't think you should get a mortgage at this time; you should wait until you can get your scores in a better position.

[Anonymous]

Ok. Thank you. Actually I have calculated the interest and I'm shooting for 88%. My interest rates are low between 0-8% for all the cards. 

[Anonymous]

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I don't think you should get a mortgage at this time; you should wait until you can get your scores in a better position.

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Yes,that's the plan. I'm aiming for a 600 score. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymouswrote:

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@Chickenpotpiewrote:

Say no to credit for now, its why you're in this predicament and getting more will not help here.  In fact it could really hurt you depending on the house situation. Ok, thank you. Only reason I opened it to have a positive tradeline and keep the utilization under 10%. 

Btw it can take some time for your scores to go up, just be aware of that.   1K a month is,  I'm sorry to say, low for this situation.  If you can get more, it would help. Of course thats the plan. 

There's no guarantee this  will bring up the scores right away, but, they will be done with and off the list.    Start at the bottom and catch the low hanging fruit.  Pay most on those, then pay the minimum on the highest ones.  Right now you just need to keep those from being any later than they already are.  But lowest ones are low hanging fruit, easy enough of a target to get done with. I think as many suggested I will try to bring the utilization across the board under 88.9% and then target to pay of the lowest balances. I'm afraid to completely pay them off, since it will not report anymore since the accounts are closed. It may have an effect on the age of my credit?

Lates don't immediately disappear, and expect to get plenty of resistance from the banks on this.  Some of them will not budge no matter who may promise you different. Yes, i know. I'm not expecting too much from lexington. At this point I do not have nothing to loose and will give it a go for a couple of months.  

I think you need at least a couple of years to get this under control@ 1K a month.  I don't want to discourage you, just want you to look at this realistically. I do appreciate your input. No pun intened. I have been with Credit management for the past 6 months and trust me I feel good. I paid off nearly $ 4000 without adding a single penny to the balances. When I started to monitor the Fico about 4 months ago My middle score was around 479. 

When I first came here, I messed up bad.  I had to humble myself and take in the information  because trust and believe, its invaluable.  You have a very serious problem that needs to be addressed before trying to buy a house.  Trust me I have changed my ways and I do not want to be in a mess like This. I really worked hard to salvage my credit profile and at that time credit management really helped me and I'm glad that none of the accounts didnt go on collections. 

What has your lender said about the rate you might expect?   It's about 5-5.50%. My plan is to refinance after a year to bring the interest down or pay for a point. I do not want to wait as the house prices are soaring in California. 

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I would say I think we are in another housing bubble. Probably better to your finances in order before rushing into buying a house.   Then when the bubble bursts you can buy a house at a lower price and not have to worry about all your credit card balances.