@Anonymous wrote:I'm 1 point away from a 620 as I go for my loan -- doing a rapid rescore with my broker that should give me 11 points. My question is that I have 2 other cards with above 30% utilization. I've heard that there are instances where if you pay them off too soon it can actaully negatively effect the score. Since I'm so close to where I need to be I want to be cautious. Should I pay down to $0 balance? And if so will I see an uplift or decrease in scoring. Thanks.
The maxinum benefit from util will come when you pay down everything to 0% EXCEPT for 1 account. That 1 account should have util of <10%.
My Starting Score: EQ: 691 (11/30/11) TU98: 726 (11/30/11)
@FrugalRican wrote:Leave 1 card with 1 to 9% of your overall utilization. All the others need to be 0.
"Fast" doesn't lower your score, it helps it.
If you pay off all to 0 balance BEFORE the statement date, it's not optimal, but leaving a 0 balance is MUCH better than leaving a 30% utilization across the board.
The general guideline is 1 to 9% of that one card's utilization, not total utilization.
ETA: I'd add to this general discussion that one pitfall that could potentially mess someone up is if you paid off a closed card that had a high limit that was helping your overall utilization. Once you pay that card off completely, it wouldn't count in your utilization anymore and could raise your total utlization, thereby hurting your score. That may not apply to the OP's situation, but throwing it out there just in case.
@Anonymous wrote:My update:
We were all ready to take the next step in the loan process as my rapid rescore came back 629, income great, 20% down (my own money - 106k)... and now another issue. I've been told that there are 8 accounts that have "dispute verbiage". These are accounts that I've been disuputing to try an clean up my credit. All are disputable and valid. I was trying to do myself a favor and get my score higher.. I was able to get some deleted. But now, the UW is telling me I need to get the Dispute Verbiage off my credit. I was able to do so quickly with EX, and next week I will start the other 2. But I'm nervous that this action or activity will drop my score -- I'm already on the edge with a 629. Anyone have experience with this.. am I over reacting with stress?
If an account is actually in dispute, it is ignored for FICO scoring. In that case, if the dispute is resolved against you and the negative account remains, then yes your score could drop. If the account isn't in active dispute, but there is merely a comment in the remarks section that you once disputed the account information, that has nothing to do with your FICO score. It will neither help nor hurt your score to have that comment changed.
The bad news is that it can be a real pain to get those comments removed sometimes. There's a thread with some helpful numbers. I'll go find it and get you the link.
@Anonymous wrote:
I would like to let you know to stay away from a broker..your rate will be higher and your closing cost too..if you need the best nationwide mortgage company PM me..
I don't think you can say this categorically. Some brokers are bad, but some are good. Certainly think OP could check out whatever recommendation you have as well, but good mortgage brokers can earn their fees.
