I am so bewildered and trying so hard to be patient but this whole credit scoring scheme is maddening, frustrating and exasperating.
I am working on qualifying for a mortgage but need a median score of 640 to get Automated Underwriting Approval for USDA loan.....
I have been working on credit stuff for about a year and even more so since December.
My scores last year were in the mid 500s......when the mortgage guy pulled in January 2015,,,Equifax was 590, TU was at 662 and Experian was at 606.
I paid down my c/cs to under 30%, have all on time payments (i still have some old small collection accounts) and old tax liens (March 2007) which Trans Union deleted under 7 year rule with FCRA BUT Experian and Equifax......no go....they say 10 years. Whatever....mortgage lender said no issue if i can prove i have been making payments and am on an installment agreement. And those liens expire in October 2016 via the Collection Statute expiration dates anyway.....i work in tax resolution so i am very well versed in that arena.
So now jump to February 2015......i pull my scores through My Score.com and scores were odd.....because of course different modelling used....grrr
My Score showed Equifax at 656, Experian at 602 and TU at 624 YET through my Barclays account my FICO (via Trans Union) was 655.
I pulled my Experian Score directly with Experian.....678.
I pulled Equifax directly through Equifax....636.
And then of course my mortgage broker will pull TOTALLY DIFFERENT scores.......and i was TOO afraid to have him pull...in case it didn't come out to 640 median. then i am also dinged for the inquiry.
Talk about frustrated.
I have figured out that there seems to be about a 5% variance in WHAT he pulls versus the "soft" pulls that i see. So really i need to have about a 675-680 WITH all three of them in order to account for the 5% difference that the mortgage lender pulls.....to INSURE I'm at least at a 640 median.
I just paid two of my C/Cs (that close on 3/12 and 3/14) to BELOW a 10% utilitization and AM HOPING that will BUMP me up after March 15th.....versus having to wait again for another three weeks for the updates......
On the credit report my mortgage person pulled i see the Source/Model are as follows:
Experian/Fair, Isaac (Ver. 2)
TransUnion/FICO Classic (04)
Equifax/FICO Classic V5 FACTA
SO my question to all of you.......WHAT am i doing wrong?
How can i have a better idea of what my mortgage broker will see as my scores VERSUS what i see......
He keeps telling me to be patient......gggrrrr.......
I just more frustrated since the reporting of the GOOD seems to take FOREVER...weeks....but IF i was $1 over on anything....fireworks, alarms, buzzers all going off...and that BAD is reported immeditately.
Why is there no standards of reporting good and bad equally?
Who left these THREE STOOGES (TU, EQ, EX) in charge of our lives?
Thank you for listening.....and advice is happily taken.
Get your overall utilization down under 10%, preferably only on one card. That will give you a little boost.
How can i have a better idea of what my mortgage broker will see as my scores VERSUS what i see...
MyFico now provides all the scores. You can get them by signing up for the 3B credit monitoring or by doing a one time purchase of your reports. It will look like this:
and old tax liens (March 2007) which Trans Union deleted under 7 year rule with FCRA BUT Experian and Equifax......no go....they say 10 years.
It's 10 years for an open lien, and 7 years from date paid for a paid lien. It appears that Transunion is lenient on this because they just deleted my open lien at 7 years. Still appears in my other two.
yes...you are correct in reference to the "unpaid" tax liens....there is no real provision in FCRA for unpaid liens....and seven year rule is for paid tax liens....it could be on your report for 7 years as unpaid and then its paid....and can remain for another 7. and yes agreed...transunion much more "lenient" in this regard. The other two.....no words for them. But the lien will self expire (fall off) in October 2016 when the balances tied to that lien expire with the IRS.....so thankfully they will just go away.
My overall utilization is at 19%......so for now....just so i can get qualified......will get all of them (my total credit is small...less than $10.0K) to under 10%.
Do you think that the FICO 8 should be fairly close to what the lender sees as a score?
That is really what i am trying to figure out....where i am so i can get to where i need to be without him having to run my credit.....
That 640 median is really the magic number as far as everything to qualify for mortgage etc.
Thank you for responding.
@Anonymous wrote:yes...you are correct in reference to the "unpaid" tax liens....there is no real provision in FCRA for unpaid liens....and seven year rule is for paid tax liens....it could be on your report for 7 years as unpaid and then its paid....and can remain for another 7. and yes agreed...transunion much more "lenient" in this regard. The other two.....no words for them. But the lien will self expire (fall off) in October 2016 when the balances tied to that lien expire with the IRS.....so thankfully they will just go away.
My overall utilization is at 19%......so for now....just so i can get qualified......will get all of them (my total credit is small...less than $10.0K) to under 10%.
Do you think that the FICO 8 should be fairly close to what the lender sees as a score?
That is really what i am trying to figure out....where i am so i can get to where i need to be without him having to run my credit.....
That 640 median is really the magic number as far as everything to qualify for mortgage etc.
Thank you for responding.
If you were to make an arrangement for paying those liens on a payment plan you can get the IRS to withdraw them from your reports. Your scores would go way up
unfortunately i do not qualify for a Fresh Start IA since the assessed balances are over $50.0K AND because liens are already filed....the balance would have to be under $25.0K for a streamline Direct Debit IA...with three payments made and THEN you can ask the IRS to withdraw the liens.....
Sadly just not an option for me right now. 
so i am having to work around them and do everything i can to boost credit AROUND the liens.....which is quite an undertaking.