@bspitt wrote:Back in late 2006 my first card was a Amex Delta Platinum card along with a Amex gold. I was late on two payments in early 2008 and due to the credit crunch, Amex decided to close the account. Fast forward to today and my credit situation is much stronger. Here are my stats:
myFICO: 696
CK TU: 728
Cap1 $0 balance/$1000 limit
Barclays $0 balance/$2400 limit
BofA $320 balance/$4200 limit
Total utilization 4%
AAoA 5 yrs 5 months
oldest account 8 years
1 inquiry in the past two years (initial mortgage pull)
Several student loans
Baddies: 1 30 day late payment 11 months ago, 4 60 day lates over 2 years ago (one late payment to fedloan over 4 student loans).
Income: $126k
So the situation is that having the added credit limit and another TL dating back to 2006 would be great. My mortgage broker told me that it would be a great idea and that I should go for it. I have heard a lot of information from other people saying that opening any new lines of credit during the mortgage process is a red flag and should be avoided. My main goal is to get my scores above 700 to get the next drop in mortgage rates, but I would also like to get into the Amex family again as it is a personal credit goal. So is it worth it to get my Amex back right now?
Any UW will be able to see that the Amex is a new account under manual review. I'd suggest working on those baddies to get your score up.
Not likely to help and as Lexie states an underwriter is going to look at that one curiously and perhaps not to your benefit; additionally, you already have a very solid AAoA and you're unlikely to get a bump in score by adding a 8 year tradeline, anything over 5 years is sort of a wash because of diminishing returns in the algorithm.
You have an incredibly close to optimal if not outright optimal balance reporting scenario, the lates are what hurting as what Lexie suggests. Your math if you need it to get across a 700 boundary or whatever is attempting to get those removed or to let time pass, otherwise you are solid.
