Looking for score advice for a mortgage

[Anonymous]

Been researching here for awhile and appreciate all the great information here. Need some advice. Got laid off and went through a divorce just over 4 years ago. Was out of work for awhile and that led to several charge offs.  Been rebuilding and working towards getting back on track. My current mortgage scores are TU 672. EQ 647 and EX 638. The house I live in I have always planned on buying but didn't expect the owner to sell until next year but has asked me to purchase now or he will need to list it. So I need to get my scores up to maximize my approval odds as well as rate. My DTI is excellent. No lates for over 3 years.  The issue I'm having is I have 3 CC 2 with navy fed and 1 with a small credit Union that were charged off a few years ago. They will be 4 years next month and are past the statue of limitations in my state so they aren't collectible.  The problem is they still are effecting my utilization and have me right at 104 percent.  I have two cards that are in good standing. One is always paid off by statement date and the other I keep a balance of around 5 percent for the maximum points. So my question is should I call and try to negotiate a settlement to get these accounts to show closed paid and get them out of my utilization? I would expect a large score jump but don't know if paying them will also reset the clock as a new collection on my report and be counter productive.  The total balance on all 3 is about 14k and I'm sure I could settle for about half or less but need to make sure I'm making the right move before I do so.  Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!

[VALoanMaster]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Been researching here for awhile and appreciate all the great information here. Need some advice. Got laid off and went through a divorce just over 4 years ago. Was out of work for awhile and that led to several charge offs.  Been rebuilding and working towards getting back on track. My current mortgage scores are TU 672. EQ 647 and EX 638. The house I live in I have always planned on buying but didn't expect the owner to sell until next year but has asked me to purchase now or he will need to list it. So I need to get my scores up to maximize my approval odds as well as rate. My DTI is excellent. No lates for over 3 years.  The issue I'm having is I have 3 CC 2 with navy fed and 1 with a small credit Union that were charged off a few years ago. They will be 4 years next month and are past the statue of limitations in my state so they aren't collectible.  The problem is they still are effecting my utilization and have me right at 104 percent.  I have two cards that are in good standing. One is always paid off by statement date and the other I keep a balance of around 5 percent for the maximum points. So my question is should I call and try to negotiate a settlement to get these accounts to show closed paid and get them out of my utilization? I would expect a large score jump but don't know if paying them will also reset the clock as a new collection on my report and be counter productive.  The total balance on all 3 is about 14k and I'm sure I could settle for about half or less but need to make sure I'm making the right move before I do so.  Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!

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In my experience, settling the charge offs does 2 things.

1) Settles the account so you no longer have to worry about the debt being sold to a CA and getting hit with a new collection account.

2) It will increase your scores which is your primary concern right now, right?

I don't think resetting the clock really matters in this case because they aren't collection accounts. 

I have had multiple clients settle charge offs and it always improved their scores.

[Anonymous]

Ok thank you!  That's what I was thinking.  The simulator shows a 40-60 point jump on the fico 8 model so I was thinking this is a good move to make but wanted someone else's take on it.  I appreciate the response