Am I on the track to a 640 score for a mortgage?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, me and my wife would like to purchase our first home in the next 6 months or so, we are both 21 and new to the whole credit thing but we quickly realized it was needed in order to make everyday life easier.

I opened my first 2 lines in january of 2012 with a $7k car loan and a $1k credit card with my credit union, since then I have traded cars up to a '12 mustang which I owe about 20k on, my current limit on the credit union card is $2.5k and I also have 2 capital one cards one with a $500 limit and the other which had a $300 limit but was just upped to $500. I have had flawless payment history on all of my accounts and I plan to keep it that way for the next 6 months.

In December my credit union pulled my equifax which I believe she said was a 624 or so which let me purchase the new mustang and this was when all 3 of my credit cards were right at the max utilization. I now have a $900 remainder on the $2.5k limit card and both capital one cards are paid off what score can I expect in the next 6 months?

Oh and I forgot to mention my score is still showing my old trade in not being paid off yet so it appears I have $14k more in vehicle debt that isn't really there. How long does it take for that to come off?

[jadeite788]

With  your credit card utilization its 36%, you need to get it below 9%.  I saw the most jump on mine when I had 1%.  You can do that in one month tops.

[jadeite788]

should not be spending no more than $225

[MovingForward_2012]

Your old car loan should show paid off way before you apply six months from now so I wouldn't worry about that.

As far as score improvement due to utilization goes, your score is updated every month based on your balance at that time. So you could keep your cards maxed until the reporting date, one month before applying for a mortgage, and your will increase. I do not recommend this. I recommend getting into the habit of paying down your credit card balances every month.