One month away from applying for FHA loan

magman · ‎04-01-2012

I am a month out from applying for a FHA loan, my TU score is 662 and my Equifax score is 639. I was trying to get my Equifax score to atleast 640, but all of my credit cards and revolving accounts have a $0 balance. Not sure what to do now. I am still angry about an overlooked $107 dental bill that went to collections and cost me 42 points. I have tried to get it removed, but the CA and the dental office refuse to help. If it wasn't for that I would be well on my way to the 700 club.

Anonymous · ‎04-01-2012

Put $5 on one of the credit cards. Righjt now you look credit dead and you loose a few points that way.

namvet · ‎04-01-2012

@magman wrote:
I am a month out from applying for a FHA loan, my TU score is 662 and my Equifax score is 639. I was trying to get my Equifax score to atleast 640, but all of my credit cards and revolving accounts have a $0 balance. Not sure what to do now. I am still angry about an overlooked $107 dental bill that went to collections and cost me 42 points. I have tried to get it removed, but the CA and the dental office refuse to help. If it wasn't for that I would be well on my way to the 700 club.
Be sure to get all 3 FiCO scores from a source you can trust. Once you make application for your morgage a tri-merge credit report will be pulled (EX.TU,EQ) and the middle score will be used to qualify.

magman · ‎04-01-2012

I received my Equifax and TU scores from myfico. I'm unsure about Experian since the score they provide is pretty much useless.

magman · ‎04-01-2012

I just finished paying off over $30k of credit card/revolving debt. So, I'm a little skeptical about putting anything on a credit card right now, but I see your point.

namvet · ‎04-01-2012

www.annualcreditreport.com Go here it's free for all 3 reports but no score.

boomhower · ‎04-02-2012

Don't have to put my, just a bit will due, you want less than 9% of one cards CL. Just a couple percent will do. It makes a pretty big difference in your score.

Anonymous · ‎04-03-2012

We are about 3 weeks to a month away from applying as well. Our TU FICOs are 694/698 and our EQ FICOs are 658/669. Have no idea about EX. We have maxed what we can do through experimentation and listening to the folks on this board. 3 credit cards total, 2 with $0 balance and one with less than 2%.

tammyjk · ‎04-04-2012

I have done what others have suggested and used my cards but paid them. They key to this is using them, and paying them BEFORE your billing cycle ends. I may get a tank of gas then wait a few days for it to post to my account. Then pay it down to say 5 dollars. It shows a payment larger than the min, yet with a very low balance. You need to make payments and that is the key. A wonderful lady at Equifax explained this to me and she has helped me get my score up almost 40 points in 3 mos. She also explained that the whole conversation about what percentage to keep your usage to was pretty much wrong. She explained that you really dont take a big hit unless you go over 49%. Not 49 percent plus one penny as she put it. I have found that she was correct on that also. Bringing down the percentage to just under 10% does help but in my experience, it was only a few points.

For me, knowing when the billing cycle ends and to get my payment posted before that day has helped tremondously. Good luck.