New member with tons of questions…lol. I’ve been doing tons of searches throughout the forum. I’ve been working on my credit score for a few months and currently in the process purchasing our first home with a VA loan. We’re having a new house built and when they pulled our scores in December my middle score was 632 (I’ll be the primary since I’m rated 30% disable and receive a discount). Since we won’t close until May, they’re going to pull our scores again and I’m working on raising my mortgage scores. I have an account with myFico and my current scores are listed below….its risen to 668. I’ve paid down 6 cards to $0.
So my questions: Upon reviewing some post, some information is conflicting to me. Please let me know if I’m following the right train of thought: For Fico 8 scores you want to try and keep 5% balance on your credit cards to keep your score from dropping. But for the Fico 5/4/2 you want a $0 balance on all your major credit cards except one and to get that below 30%. So if that’s right, I’m on the right path.
The target account: Should I pay in full or try to settle….if I do which one will optimize an score increase
My 2 biggest balances are my Navy Federal credit card (81%) and Military Star Card (63%). I used most of spare funds on closing the other 6 cards and won’t be able to pay much more on these before my closing date….which one should I focus on. In some of the reading I saw that store cards really don’t affect the score as much as credit cards do (is this true).
Once my car loan post as closed, I know my Fico 8 score will drop some but what about my mortgage scores…will those take a hit as well.
And why is my Transunion mortgage score so low??!! I appreciate any advice, insight knowledge that you can pass my way. My credit report is listed below.
Equifax | Transunion | Experian |
Fico 8 686 | Fico 8 687 | Fico 8 681 |
Fico 5 695 | Fico 4 624 | Fico 2 668 |
Negative -Closed Paid Off
Only on Experian & Transunion
Department of Veteran Affairs – $968
Opened 12/2015 Paid 2/2018
Department of Veteran Affairs -$125
Opened 12/2015 Paid 09/2018
Charge Off
TD Bank USA/Target Credit Card – opened 11/2015 Credit Limit $300 Balance $574
Credit Cards
USAA Visa (Secured)
Opened 11/2015 Limit $5000/Balance $400 8%
Capital One
Opened 11/2012 Limit $3000/Balance $37 (Will be 0 next reporting period)
Capital One
Opened 10/2010 Limit $500/Balance $31 (Will be 0 next reporting period)
Capital One-Only showing on Experian
Opened 10/2010 Limit $300/Balance $0
Navy Federal
Opened 07/2009 Limit $9500/Balance $7727 81%
Chase
Opened 06/2011 Limit $2000/$0
Store Card
Paypal
Opened 05/2014 Limit $190/Balance $0
Kohls
Opened 08/2011 Limit $400/Balance 307 77%. (Will report in Feb with balance of $241 60%)
Victoria Secret
Opened 08/2011 Limit $1000/$0
Military Star Card
Opened 06/2011 Limit $4325/Balance 4307 100% (Will report in Feb with balance of $2705 63%)
Car Loan
Hyundai Motor Finance Opened 11/2013 Made last payment in Dec hasn’t closed yet
Closed paid off/good standing: 3 personal accounts/2 auto loans/3 credit cards
