Help! Offsetting a late payment during the mortgage process!!

[Anonymous]

Hi. I am looking for advice on the best way to boost my credit to ensure our mortgage pre approval closes without any issues. We were pre-approved on 4/26 with a Direct Endorsement lender for 300K FHA loan. I will list out our scores and balances. Our scores are low. The issue is that since obtaining our pre approval we may have a 30day late hit our Auto loan that is not yet reporting. We have cash to pay off balances in hopes to recover the late payment hit that we may be getting shortly.

The myfico simulator shows that with v8 paying off revolving should be enough to offset the blow from the late payment but I am not sure how that translates to the 5,4, &2 that our Mortgage co uses.

I have consulted with my LO and his advice is to wait until the late payment hits then pull again to see where our cash would best be used to pay off balances.

Any advice is appreciated.

Current Scores

Me

Experian v2-573

TU v4 – 637

Equifax V5- 636

Spouse

Experian v2-588

TU v4– 587

Equifax v5 - 585

Trade Lines      Type                 Date Opened              Limit/Org Bal                    C urrent Bal                        Previous late pays

Joint               Mortgage,           12/07                          138669                               115932                              0

Joint              Auto                       10/13                             25274                               11756                               1-30 (6/17) *Possible 30d (4/18)

Spouse          Revolving                  09/14                        8000                                   7037                                0

Joint              Student Loan         02/07                           5405                                   6033                               30d -7 60d-3  90- 2 – 2013 120-1-2013

                                                                                                                                                                                   *Current and on time since 2/16

Joint              Student Loan           08/07                      4972                                      5483                                 30d -7 60d-3 90- 2 – 2013 120-1-2013

                                                                                                                                                                                     *Current and on time since 2/16

Joint             Student Loan          08/08                           5000                                     5483                                90-7 120-4- 2013 

                                                                                                                                                                                      *Current and on time since 12/2013

Me               Revolving                 11/14                              9300                                5434                                    0

Joint        Installment                   01/2018                    4000                                     3930                                   0

Me             Revolving                    04/2011                       6500                                   3895                                  30-2-2013; 60-1-2013

Me             Revolving                  12/2013                         1600                                 587                                            0

Spouse        Revolving                5/2015                         500                                   300                                             0

Me               Revolving                  10/2016                         750                                 235                                              0

Me             Revolving                     03/2018                        1800                             168                                            0

[JVille]

Auto pay is the easy simple answer to this.... I wish you luck but please set everything up on auto pay in the future.

[Anonymous]

Did you pay within 29 days after the due date?  My auto loan would not report a 30 day late to the credit bureaus unless I paid more than 29 days past the due date.  If I paid after the due date but within 29 days of the due date I would get a late fee charged but no report to the bureaus.  

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Easiest way to improve scores is to pay down credit card debt, but I agree with the loan officer about waiting to see how the 30-day late impacts your scores... as if it drops the scores low enough, paying off the credit card may not make enough of a difference.  You sound unsure if it's a 30-day late payment or not though, so you should call up the creditor and confirm if that is how they will report that payment or not.  If not, then you can proceed with the plan on improving your scores right away.  So call them right now after you read this and you'll be better able to plan out the rest of the process.