OP, I've moved your post over from Credit Cards to General Credit as this will be a discussion covering a broad range of credit topics and as far as the credit card itself goes, the simple answer is that no - closing it will in no way positively impact your scores.
I would completely agree that if you have a mortgage happening soon, avoid closing or opening new accounts. The annual fee billed monthly is certainly a nuisance and you will likely want to close the card anyway, but if we're only talking dozens of dollars over the next few months I wouldn't stir the pot with additional credit activity.
The late is very recent in credit terms, and unfortunately only time will be helpful there. That will continue to stay on your reports for years to come, although its impact will fade.
Is that the only derogatory information on your reports? (You mentioned it was the only one on your revolving accounts which to me read as a possibility there are others on different types of accounts?) If so, the utilization is something that can certainly be addressed and should result in a noticeable improvement. Your overall balances seem fairly minimal when considering the cost of home ownership and depending on how paying those off would affect your scores and potential rates (especially if not doing an FHA or VA loan where scores can be more forgiving), the savings in interest rate and resulting lower monthly payments could feasibly be recouped very quickly if you are able to pay them prior to obtaining the mortgage.
As for the difference between the mortgage scores and FICO 8, different factors are weighted differently between them. Keep in mind that the scoring ranges can also differ between different scores. For mortgage scores, a controllable factor would be that you will ideally want to have the lowest utilization possible without being 0 and the least number of revolving accounts reporting a balance again without being 0.
@Anonymous wrote:Some background:
Ive been OBSESSING over this and my entire credit profile since I found MyFICO.
we're trying for a mortgage and have a pre-approval from one lender but hoping for a few others because the rate is too high and I know we could do better. Also if I can swing conventional over FHA I'd really like to do that. I bought my first house with FHA and the hoops I had to jump through back then...yikes. Anyway-
my current Fico8 scores:Ex: 646
Tu: 644
Eq: 624
my current mortgage scores
Ex:601
TU: 602
EQ: 618
Im trying for a 620 middle score (or higher-if possible) with PenFed.
I keep hitting a wall. I'm working on getting AZEO (two cards left with a balance as of this post-but CapitalOne Business card will be $0 by Wednesday leaving a balance on just my Capital One Platinum with 67% utilization.
I have a Total Visa Card had it for three years and it has one 30 day late from Dec 2020. I've called, written, faxed, and emailed several times since 2021 and no answer about a GW delete. Ive been through the ringer over this account-I don't think GW delete will happen.
would closing this account help/harm my scores? Limit is $300. Has an annual fee broken up into 12 payments of $6.95 each month. I pay it and it never reports a balance but I'm literally not using the card for anything. I have one other small card with annual fee broken up the same way and pay that to zero before it reports a balance. I figured if I could get the 30 day late from Dec to go away, it would help my score as this is the only baddie on any of my revolving accounts. But what do I know? This credit stuff is crazy.
Is it worth it to keep this card? Would it still report the 30 day late even on a close account?
I should note cap one card with 67% utilization will be paid down to 30% by mid March. Should I just wait?
I really don't get the Fico 5, 4, 2 thing. I've even had bad info fall off (finally) and some early exclusions and my score slightly dropped. I'm so confused and anxious but don't want to mess anything up.
over all credit limit is $6650. Bringing UTi down to down to $1,995 (30%).
I understand if I close this account, that $1995 would have to be down to $1695 should I close the Total Visa card. Anything I'm missing here??
1. No question about it you should immediately get rid of that "Total Visa Card". Immediately, if not sooner.
2. Once you pay down the 67% Capital One Platinum card, you'll get points from that. Even getting it below 50% and 30% will get you points.
3. Get your overall utilization down as low as possible. Try to have all revolvers other than the Capital One Platinum reporting zero balances.
