NEED TO RAISE MY HUSBANDS MORGAGE FICO!!!

[Anonymous]

Hello,

My husband and I are finally wanting to say goodbye to renting!!!! We live in a great neighborhood in Tampa. However we pay 1600$ for our 3/2 apartment rent!! Crazy I know. So we know the areas we want to live and fell in love with a community. We decided to go ahead and give it a short for a pre approval. I knew my scores 660-high 658-mid however at this time I didn’t have MYFICO for my husband Lina story short his mid score is 575... 5 POINTS NEEDED!!! I’m hoping to have at least a 620 by the time they pull us again to close. So I’m kinda stuck because I feel like I’ve maxed out all options to raise his score. We paid all CC to 5% have our down payment and our debt to income including this rent is 22%. We make over 85k a year. He has 3 old collection items that I’m trying to understand if we need to pay or not. 2 of them I just found out r still reporting. I’m not sure what to do and every lender I talk to seem to confuse me with their “I think” “I believe” “I assume” ... they don’t seem confident in what they are advising me to do. We are trying to get a pre approval this month because our lease is up in September! Any advice on how to raise his morgage fico?

[Kree]

Paying all credit cards except one down to zero will often gain 5-10 points over all down to 0, or all down to low %.

Your mileage may vary depending upon which fico model the lender is using.

[Anonymous]

I keep hearing different answers on paying off credit cards, I have 3 and paid all of them down to <$10 paid off my personal loan that was $2,000.00 Then, a friend of mind told me I  should have not done that. Am in the process of getting things together for buying a home this summer, and my mid score is 612.

[Kree]

There are dozens of different scoring models and versions.  Every bit of advice might be better for one, while being worse for another.

There are a couple of topnotch underwriters on this board who have seen every situation. I'm sure they can clarify what will be best. But generally on these forums the AZEO method (all zero except one) is considered the best way to squeek out those last few points.

Other than that, the only things that will help is time, and you only have a few months.  But you might be lucky and have a scoring increase waiting for you in 1-2 months.

Things that might improve score based as it gets older.

Age of Oldest Account

Average Age of Accounts

Age of Youngest Account

Number of inquiries (don't count after 12 months, so if you have one thats 11 months old, you might get a few points next month)

EDIT: forgot to mention.  The personal loan thing. Do you have any other sort of installement loan like a car payment?  Because your friend is correct that without an installment loan, you can lose 20-40 points.

[Anonymous]

Hi Kree!

The scores the builder pulled are a exact match the what my fico morgage scores are. Seems like different lenders have different opinions. One said to get a cc for him to raise his score another one said not to cause he doesn’t need any new lines of credit while trying to get a house. Also I’m torn if I should pay these 2 collection items that are reporting but are a few years old.

[Anonymous]

I think your good on your cc. With your middle score you can get a fha loan, of course the goal is to be higher but you can still work on it while going through the process especially if your building new.

[Anonymous]

At a 575 middle score, you can qualify for FHA with 10 percent down. Work on protesting the collections. Do not pay them off. It could refresh them.

If protesting on your own doens't work, look at hiring a credit repair company. I send my clients to MyCreditGuy.com and they are solid. The money you will save in lender fees due to low score will more than make up for the cost of hiring them.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Hello!
I was going to do credit repair but then I was told I couldn’t have any disputes while trying to get a mortgage. Since our lease is up in September I’m trying to find another option. I have a closed credit card (big mistake to close it) that has a 2200 limit but is now over the limit at 2500 do you think if I pay that down his score will go up?

[DollyLama]

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@Anonymouswrote:
Hello!
I was going to do credit repair but then I was told I couldn’t have any disputes while trying to get a mortgage. Since our lease is up in September I’m trying to find another option. I have a closed credit card (big mistake to close it) that has a 2200 limit but is now over the limit at 2500 do you think if I pay that down his score will go up?

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Since this topic is concerning your husband's score, let's focus on the things just in his file. As above the closed credit card, yours, husbands, joint account? Regardless of whom it belongs to, with it being closed and a balance, any balance $5 or $5k will run that card alone over 100% utilization, it should raise any score by dropping down the utilization. But if it is in your name only, it will not have any effect on his mortgage score. 

It is good that you have paid down utilization, but can you be more specfic on his file, ie, he has 4 open credit cards, 1 loan, or does he only have 1 credit card, less than a year old, and exactly what derogs does he have on his and only his credit reports. 

[Anonymous]

Everything I talk about is for my husband lol so if I say I I mean him lol.. and I’m sorry yes the card is in my name and he is a authorized user. So if I pay that down below the limit (2200) his score should see an increase?? This is what he has..

Cap 1 (his name)- limit 500 balance 10$
Credit 1 (Auths user)- limit 700 balance 20$
Merrick bank (auth user)- limit 800 balance 20$
Cap 1-(auth user,closed account)- limit 2200 balance 2500.
Comcast cable-collections-4 years old-$600
Progressive-collections-300$
At&t-collections-1000
Baileys gym-collections-800$

We were just going to go ahead and settle all collection items since they are not that expensive but I was told because they are old you shouldn’t pay them. But I think they still might be reporting and dragging his score down... I just checked his morgage Fico and it only went up 3 points and he needed 5 so I’m hoping I can get another 2 points by next month. Our goal is for him to at least have a 620 by closing I just need him to get a 580 so the builder can get us in contract. Our lease is up in sept so we are already behind the ball as far as building. Any advise thank you!!!!