How best 2 boost mrtg credit scores. Do UWs frown on credit boosts from authorized user accounts

[Anonymous]

Hubby and I are trying to refinance.  We have had some difficulties qualifing for a jumbo loan with his score.  We finally got preapproved with a Big Bank Lender but would like to either have them re-pull his scores before closing to see if we qualify for a better rate/terms or shop around with other lenders for a better rate/terms.  Current lender is only willing to go to 75% with his current middle score of 695 meaning that we not only have to come up with the closing costs, they are also insisting that we need to pay off our secondary mortgage balance.

My credit scores are excellent.  Credit utilization rate very low...about 12%.  Hubby...high utilization rate and fair to good scores...one of his cards was showing a utilization rate of 91%, several other accounts around 74% and 75% utilization rate. Hubby's original mortgage scores in June 2021 were as follows: Eq: 662; TU: 695; Ex: 702.  By reading up on sites like this, I discovered that I could boost his scores by adding him as an authorized user.  I added him to two cards with zero balances and high credit limits last two weeks in July just before the statements for those accounts generated.  One was about $9k and the other was about $30 k.  Pulled his mortgage scores from MyFico on August 2.  Both accounts are now showing on his credit reports and his scores also show a significant increase as follows: Eq: 712; TU: 727; Ex: 721. 

I was a little bit uncomfortable that it may appear that he improved his score by latching on to me and so, we had him pay down his high credit card debt by about $4k.  His statement should generate around Aug 15 and will hopefully improve his scores some more.  The simulation shows that his Fico 8 scores should improve as follows:  Eq: 744; TU: 756; Ex: 746.  Unsure what the mortgage scores would be as the simulation does not display mortgage scores.  How can we get his mortgage scores above 740?  Will adding him to more accounts with zero balances help?  Also, will an underwriter care that he boosted his scores by being an authorized user on my accounts.  Thanks in advance.

---

[dragontears]

In general, UW don't bat an eye lash at spousal AU accounts. The ones that can raise questions are AU accounts from people not related in any way 

[Anonymous]

Thanks so much.

[Anonymous]

The AU accounts shouldn't be an issue, it wasn't for my wife when I added her to almost all of my cards to help offset her utilization and increase her average ages. I would add him to as many zero balance cards that are older or very close in age to his average age of accounts, utilization is important but so is age and crossing an age threshold can be detrimental to scores. I will add that simulators are often not very accurate.

In order of importnace I would do the following to get the most score improvement for your buck:

1. Pay down the card with >90% utilization as anything over 90% is considered maxed out for scoring purposes.

2. Fully pay off any cards with low balances. The less accounts with a balance the better your mortgage scores will be.

3. There has been some testing lately that also indicates the number of high balance cards has a greater impact on mortgage scores, so if there are several cards over 70% paying it down to only one card over 70% should be more helpful than just throwing money at cards. This should be true for all thresholds. Known utilization thresholds are 10%, 30% 50% 70% and 90%, other thresholds are likely to exist but they have not been proven. Again, this is a new discovery and it has yet to be fully tested but several people have seen score boosts from this method. I do recommend it, but it would be my last priority.

[Anonymous]

I need 10 points on my mid mortgage score -- waiting patiently to have scores move north -- I have zero debt -- one lateness on car payment from 2019 -- any suggestions on how to get a fast jolt of 10 pts

[Anonymous]

If you are able to...adding your spouse as an authorized user on your high credit limit zero balance cards and paying down debt as much as possible does appear to work to improve mortgage scores.  Two months ago in June, hubby's mortgage scores were 657 Equi; 695 Tran and 698 Exp.  We added him to 3 of my cards with zero balances and credit limits totalling about $54k and paid down his high balance cards as much as possible, this morning his scores are as follows:  745 Equi; 733 Trans and 744 Exp.  Go figure.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I need 10 points on my mid mortgage score -- waiting patiently to have scores move north -- I have zero debt -- one lateness on car payment from 2019 -- any suggestions on how to get a fast jolt of 10 pts

---

As @Anonymous suggested being added as an AU can certainly boost your scores. Although if you are reporting minimal utilization that increase may not be as significant. 

By zero debt do you mean you are letting all cards report a zero balance? If so, you should let one credit card report a small balance $10 or so and you should see a score boost.

[Anonymous]

I said zero balance as to the 3 credit cards with high credit limits....not zero balance as to all credit cards.