Credit Repair & Mortgage...what next.

[Anonymous]

I like to play the credit game, honestly. My fiancé and I have made a huge rebound recently in an effort to apply for a mortgage - for which we were just approved. Now, I am just trying to raise my scores before we close, in an effort to try and get a lower interest rate on a conventional "community" (Freddie Mac?) mortgage. We opted to not go with FHA loan due to increased interest. I believe our APR is 3%. Anyways - I recently debt consolidated via LendingClub (highly recommend) for a 15k installment loan and paid off basically all my CCs. TU score on CK ( which I use to monitor along with discover FICO) went from 645 to 725 in 15 days, once everything started to process. So, in an effort to get it even higher, I tried to get a CLI on my Discover It card. It's paid off in full, and recently had an increase ~ 6 mos. ago to 11,700.00. The key here in getting such a huge line was specifying the card was used for debt consolidation in the 0% APR period - which it was. However, even with the new high TU score, I was immediately declined, which is fine. I was just checking - however, it said they'd mail me something in next few days explaining decision. Was this a hard pull!? I never consented to that ( as it states at bottom of page...), and would not have done it had I known! I thought its a soft pull unless you consent...unless they are just sending me something in the mail regardless. Anyone - I know I've rambled - but is this just
Protocol??? Did they do a hard pull without my consent!? Anyone get this message before? I just need to be REALLY careful about no HPs during the mortgage underwriting process.

I'm new here - sorry for rambling. I read all your posts and my goal is to get to 800+ someday. We're still young - early 20s, but we take our finances VERY seriously...hence why we can build a house right out of college.

Anyways - thanks for the advice I've already received, and anything else is greatly appreciated! I hope to post here more often!

Oh - one edit: the "what next"
Part of my tag line...any advice on how to "beef" my score once the mortgage goes through? I know it will be another HP to close. We have student loans - who doesn't? And I tjjnk my next step would be refinancing my car...definitely feel like I should wait on that for now, though. Thanks!

[jamie123]

STOP RIGHT NOW!

Do not mess with your credit right now. There really isn't anything that you could do to raise your scores right now and chances are anything you do now would actually temporarily lower your scores. Your CLs have nothing to do with your scores as long as your CCs are paid off.

You need to have some patience right now. Just make sure to pay all your bills on time or early. You have to ride the horse that brought you here.

I doubt the Discover was a hard pull if you didn't authorize it. You were just declined and they are sending you the reason in writing.

How many credit cards do you have? How old are they?

[Anonymous]

My CLs don't have anything to do with my credit? I thought the larger your available, non-utilized credit, the better...

Credit cards, unfortunately, got me through college. Parents are deceased and no one left me a "nest egg" or anything like that. So it's been tough getting them all paid off, and fixing the mistakes I made during that time. I'm currently in possession of 5 installment loans, including my student loans, and 3 active credit cards, all the rest have been paid off, but remain open for larger avail. Credit. I know what I'm doing for the most part when it comes to credit cards and my payment history is, literally, 100% - never missed or defaulted on a thing in my life. Our mortgage lender wanted our scores raised as much as possible before closing. Currently, my Credit utilization is at 9%, with ~ 30k available amongst my lines of credit. I don't know how else to improve! I know inquiries are pulling me down, but all I can do there is wait for them to expire and come off the report...right? Screw ups from 2 years ago...ugh. Other than that, I have a pretty hefty auto loan that I would LOVE to refinance, but I know I have to wait. I needed a new car and it was my birthday - those car dealers have a way of making you think you're doing the right things....

The mortgage world is totally new to us, so I just want to make sure my report looks as pristine as possible with that final closing pull. Any advice on any better ( free) credit monitoring besides CK would also be helpful - it seems my scores are also much lower for the Experian score on CK vs when I pull a report off MyFICO, but I know that can just me a difference in time and reporting. I'll try to update my profile so people can have a better idea about my credit past haha - it's been crazy, so I'm honestly glad happy to just have gotten to this point.

Oh, and my oldest CCs are about 6 years 3 months (~3-4...I was taking whatever I could get, was young with strong credit and a university affiliated FCU throwing credit lines at me...ha - thanks!) & my newest is about a year. (~2) - used for consolidation on the 0% APRs, paid-off and almost paid off.

[jamie123]

You are in a good place right now, my advice has'nt changed, just pay your bills and keep your UTI as low as possible.

After you close on the house is the time to do an app spree and pick up a few more quality credit cards. You want to eventually end up with 5 to 8 quality CCs that you can keep open for life. The age of your credit cards is important to your scores. The sooner you get these cards in your lifetime the better.

HPs stay on your report for 2 years but only affect your scores for the first year.

[Anonymous]

Any advice on the car? They told me the pull on my credit for the auto loan came back in mid 640's..way lower than anticipated, but I believe it was a FICO 4? Rather than the 5 I usually see with my monthly discover statement...correct me if I'm wrong...mortgage FICO would be a FICO8? So much to learn! 

Anyways, my APR on the damn car is almost 6%. I pay $430 / mo. for a Mazda 3. Yeah she's cute - but not <i> that </i> cute. I also went into the purchase with 0% down and negative equity from an auto loan from my FCU that had ~6k remaining ... I think that's what really hurt me. Even if I wanted to trade it, I'd lose THOUSANDS of dollars. The value reduce by ~$5k literally a week after driving it off the lot. I do over-pay whenever possible, but it's still the biggest thorn in my side. I budget monthly and everything looks great! ... and then I get to my car payment and just get SO overwhelmed. I think this may be a new topic in and of itself. But thanks for your help! 

[gdale6]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Any advice on the car? They told me the pull on my credit for the auto loan came back in mid 640's..way lower than anticipated, but I believe it was a FICO 4? Rather than the 5 I usually see with my monthly discover statement...correct me if I'm wrong...mortgage FICO would be a FICO8? So much to learn! 

Anyways, my APR on the damn car is almost 6%. I pay $430 / mo. for a Mazda 3. Yeah she's cute - but not <i> that </i> cute. I also went into the purchase with 0% down and negative equity from an auto loan from my FCU that had ~6k remaining ... I think that's what really hurt me. Even if I wanted to trade it, I'd lose THOUSANDS of dollars. The value reduce by ~$5k literally a week after driving it off the lot. I do over-pay whenever possible, but it's still the biggest thorn in my side. I budget monthly and everything looks great! ... and then I get to my car payment and just get SO overwhelmed. I think this may be a new topic in and of itself. But thanks for your help! 

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Mortgage companies use Fico 04, your Discover score is Fico 08; do nothing with the car till you have closed the house loan and it has funded then I would look into DCU and your local CUs to see what kind of rate you can get on the refi. Good luck

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much! I knew I had them mixed up. That's my game plan for now!