@Anonymous wrote:okay, so I recently started back up with my credit. Have been out the credit game for a while so my EX credit score is unavailable. My other 2 are in the low 700s (714 & 719). I have nothing neg on my reports. Just old PAID and closed car (2011) / rental agreement (2012). Recently opened a cap1 secured card due to my EX being unavailable to go ahead and try to rebuild because I'm looking to buy a house. It's been about 2 months since opening and this month my 2 scores jumped only 1 point each, EX still unavailable. Cap1 is secured, only 2 months new so it only has a 200$ limit. I only let the statement produce a 1-2% balance. Should I try and open another cc to help boost points? Or should I wait 6 months to be less "risky" and EX show a number? I want to be closer to 740-760 to purchase a house. I just don't want to get another cc and the home lender see me as financially unstable. I'm just not sure the best route here. Thanks!
I'm guessing your old car loan and rental agreement did not report on EX, so your EX file is essentially empty except for this new account. FICO requires 6 months of history in order to generate a score, so that's probably why EX still has no score.
Your other scores probably only went up 2pts because the only open account is very new, with only 1 month of payment history reported. In other words, the boost you got from adding the account was diminished by it being such a new account, and by it being your only open account.
Your score will go up with time, but with such a thin credit file you'll need to be patient. Opening another CC right now will not likely boost your score much, and might even drag it down slightly. So if you're in a hurry to get a mortgage, that could be a problem. But if you can wait 6-12 months before getting a mortgage, then opening 1-2 new cards right now will help your score a lot in 6-12 months. Just know that it could make it worse in the short term.
Total Loan Balance: $43k / $65k
Total SL: $78k
Also, if you haven't already, make sure the scores you're referencing are your MTG scores, not FICO 8 scores. MTG scores are used for home financing. It's EQ5, TU4 and EX2 (not the industry 5,4,2 models for bankcard and auto). These scores could be vastly different than your FICO 8 scores.
@Trudy wrote:Also, if you haven't already, make sure the scores you're referencing are your MTG scores, not FICO 8 scores. MTG scores are used for home financing. It's EQ5, TU4 and EX2 (not the industry 5,4,2 models for bankcard and auto). These scores could be vastly different than your FICO 8 scores.
Indeed. In my case, they are quite different, and not in a good way 
There are only a few places where you can get FICO 5/4/2 scores. I think Experian offers it on their website, I personally use this site (MyFICO).
@Anonymous wrote:My car loan did not, only on TQ and EU. My rental aggreement did, however. That was ONLY on EX. I'm no way in any rush to purchase a home. Just know I want to and that I wanted my credit to be in the mid 700s before applying for one. Would you have any recommendations for a cc with my EX being unavailable? Another secured card? Would hate to have a hard inquiry just for it to be denied. That's why I went ahead with a secured card from the get go.
I would let your new card report 3 statements/payments on your credit report before applying for anything new. Then, check out the thread here called something like "Which banks pull which credit bureaus" and look for ones that don't pull EX. Since you're not in a hurry to get a mortgage, I recommend having a total of at least 3 credit cards, ideally 5. Once you have 3 cards, and they're 6 months old, getting the last 1-2 cards will be easy. Then, just garden for a while. As those 3-5 cards get a year or more of good payment history, and as long as you keep the utilization low (< 8.5%), you will have excellent credit and be in great shape for a mortgage - probably around 12-18 months from now.
FYI - An EX subscription provides several EX score models and all 3 bureau's basic 8 score once a month. The MTG score for EX is EX2. Will need to get the other 2 MTG scores (EQ 5, TU 4) from MyFICO unless you have CC's that provide MTG scores. Your lender will use the middle score. So if your MTG scores are: EX - 750, TU - 730 and EQ - 710, the score used for financing will be 730.