Thank you so much, that clarifies a great deal. To clarify on one of your questions, I would prefer to just close the accounts, but I'll keep them open if it will help build my score (you noted that it it beneficial to keep them open and just charge something once every six months or so, so that is what I will do). So basically when the people say 3 or 4 cards is best...what they really mean is a minimum of 3-4 cards, or that you don't need more than that (because the credit inquiries / new credit will hurt your score when you open them?)
The school loans were discharged, not paid off, so I think this was probably the better way to go about it (freed up 510/month in DTI). From what I've read, the TPD discharge usually moves your score down slightly (because the installment loan comes off) but can in some instances result in a large drop (depends on how it is reported, but it looks like Sallie Mae is the one that reports it in the very negative way and I'm not with Sallie Mae). So my expectation is that my score will drop, but not a huge amount....although I am prepared for a possible large drop just in case.
The scores were 695, 715 and 705 (not sure which is from which agency). This is with 52% utilization across all cards (5 total)...but I have since paid off one of the cards (6500) that brings utilization down to somewhere around 32% (but this doesn't reflect on the credit report yet or the scores I noted). According to the simulators I used this should boost my score considerably (although I don't trust the simulators to be accurate)....which should offset any decrease by the discharge enough to keep me above the 620 threshold for a VA loan. I also paid down the balances on two of the other three cards to get under 89% (the last one was already under 89%)...unfortunately I just did this a couple days ago. I initially got each under 90%...then realized it needs to be under 89%...but I missed the billing cycle, so won't reflect for 2 months (it seems this is always the way with my score...I'm always a step behind). Any way, it is unlikely we will close in less than 2 months, so this should be fine.
My plan is to work on the financial aspect of things at this point and not the FICO score because I don't really need to chase a score higher than 620 at this point...which should be no problem. I currently have $3000 a month extra to work on financial issues.
The three cards that I have are all in 0% APR time frames (these end in October, December and May 2020)...so the plan is to pay each one off a month before the APR changes to the real rate (22% average I think). This isn't the fastest way to increase my credit score, but I think will work well for my finances and eventually the FICO over the next year.
I've read about installment loans (school loans) dropping off and hurting the score and that often people get new installment loans. So I've considered getting a very small installment loan, but not sure if this will really help (with my luck it would actually hurt).
Hopefully this makes sense, and feedback is much appreciated.
