Help Maxing my credit score

[Anonymous]

I will be getting a new mortgage for a house I am building in the October time frame so will need to be applying for rates and getting things locked in the aug/sep time frame. 

I am trying to get as high of a credit score as possible so I can get the lowest available rates.  This will most likely be my 'final home' but is pricey and obviously the lowest rate possible is the goal. 

My Fico 8 scores (current) are: equifax: 775, transunion 817, experian 760

The experian and equifax scores should go up as I paid off one of my cards completely and it's only updated on transunion so far.  

The lenders don't appear to be using fico 8, they are using Fico 5 for equifax, fico 4 for transunion, fico 2 for experian.  I can't easily monitor those.  I did pull them may 23rd but that was prior to the above credit card being paid off (oops) and it's expensive to repull that.  Either way, these look almost 40 points lower than the fico score 8.

The things I have dinging me now are 'too many accounts with balances.  I've been told to not let my credit cards go 'inactive' so have balances on most of them.  If I use them and pay them off prior to statement will they still update???  How many credit cards should I allow to have balances?  Even on my 817 it says I have made 'heavy use of my revolving credit' and my ratio is at 6%.    I have 12 'revolving accounts' - all department store accounts have a 0 balance.  I have 1 discover, 1 master and 4 visa cards.  

I also have 2 installment loans, my car lease and a furniture account.   Both are over half paid down.  I thought keeping them would be best so I have installments for a 'mix' of credit.

Thoughts?  I've never tried to max my score before and am finding it more confusing that I imagined. 

[JagerBombs89]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I will be getting a new mortgage for a house I am building in the October time frame so will need to be applying for rates and getting things locked in the aug/sep time frame. 

I am trying to get as high of a credit score as possible so I can get the lowest available rates.  This will most likely be my 'final home' but is pricey and obviously the lowest rate possible is the goal. 

My Fico 8 scores (current) are: equifax: 775, transunion 817, experian 760

The experian and equifax scores should go up as I paid off one of my cards completely and it's only updated on transunion so far.  

The lenders don't appear to be using fico 8, they are using Fico 5 for equifax, fico 4 for transunion, fico 2 for experian.  I can't easily monitor those.  I did pull them may 23rd but that was prior to the above credit card being paid off (oops) and it's expensive to repull that.  Either way, these look almost 40 points lower than the fico score 8.

The things I have dinging me now are 'too many accounts with balances.  I've been told to not let my credit cards go 'inactive' so have balances on most of them.  If I use them and pay them off prior to statement will they still update???  How many credit cards should I allow to have balances?  Even on my 817 it says I have made 'heavy use of my revolving credit' and my ratio is at 6%.    I have 12 'revolving accounts' - all department store accounts have a 0 balance.  I have 1 discover, 1 master and 4 visa cards.  

I also have 2 installment loans, my car lease and a furniture account.   Both are over half paid down.  I thought keeping them would be best so I have installments for a 'mix' of credit.

Thoughts?  I've never tried to max my score before and am finding it more confusing that I imagined.  

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Well, it sounds like you don't have any derogatory marks on your credit report.  Thus, the easiest way is to bring all cards except for maybe 1 or 2 to a $0 balance.  That's it.  Just remember, lenders will use your middle score and anything over a 760 should get you the best rates.  Also, it doesn't matter how high your credit score is if your Debt-to-Income ration is way off.

[Anonymous]

Thanks - I will try to zero out all of my balances except 1 card and see how that affects it.  I don't have anything negative listed.

As for my debt/income ratio - I've already been pre-approved for the loan at this point using my previous credit scores and debt/income ratio which was much higher.

My personal debt/income ratio is 16% but they combined my husband and myself which brings it down to 9% since he has no student loans. 

Does that come into play beyond approvals?  I didn't think that factored into rates.

[Scupra]

Like stated, to optimize your FICO score you should have all cards reporting 0% and one card reporting between 1-9% You can use the cards all you want, just make sure they report $0 bal when the time comes. Good luck!