First of all, mortgage impacted scores HATE revolving balances almost as much as late pays, slow pays, charge offs, BKs, etc.
Ideally, you'll only have 1 revolving card REPORTING a balance each month and that 1 card should report 1-8% of the total credit limit.
If you're unable to achieve this, then try for these options in order of most ideal to least ideal.
1) Only 1 card reporting balance but under 30%.
2) Same as #1 but 30-49%.
3) Same as #2 but 50-69%.
4) Same as #3 but 70-89%.
5) If you must carry a balance on multiple cards, under 30% on all with reported balance.
6) Repeat the same as #1-4 but for all cards with reported balance.
As mentioned in your post, you've experienced some balance chasing so YMMV and your judgment on paying one creditor down vs another based on personal experience of balance chasing.
Best of luck and you've come to the right place for advice. I'm sure others will chime in, but ultimately remember you can't go wrong paying down ANY revolving balance, but these above described scenarios will hopefully help achieve maximum bang-for-buck score increase.
@Alex311 wrote:Exp 670, Eq 690, Tu 710. Trying to get my middle score above 700, ideally a least 720 before summer to take advantage of what seems like a downward trend in Interest rates before my closing In August.My citi cards had their balance lowered (limit chasing) but I think they’re stable now. I also have 6 other cards with no balance. My overall utilization is right at about 30% Any advice on a path forward would be greatly appreciated.
If those are your mortgage scores (FICO 5/4/2's) then you'll already be eligible for the 'lowest' FHA rates that most lenders have to offer. FHA rates aren't as sensitive to credit scores as conventional financing is, a lot of FHA programs best rates are for 680+ scores. You might get an additional .125 in lender credits (meaning .125% of your loan amount) for hitting a 700 or 720 with some lenders but I am looking at several rate sheets where 680 gets top tier pricing on FHA. If you feel like the timing is right then I wouldn't let your current scores prevent you from moving forward.
That said, if you are able to qualify for conforming (Fannie/Freddie) financing then the higher the score the better. Fannie/Freddie used to reserve the 'lowest' rates for borrowers with 740+ scores but have added additional credit score tiers all the way up to 780. See the below chart which comes from https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/9391/display. Those %'s aren't rate adjustments, but price adjustments which are much smaller incrementally. It's saying that for someone with a 740-759 credit score and 95% LTV (which is 5% down) they'd have to pay .375 more in points (.375% of the loan amount) to get the same rate as someone with a 780+ score would have to pay at 95% LTV, which roughly translates to a difference of about .125% in interest rate (meaning if the 740-759 score borrower didn't want to pay the additional points to get the same rate, they could instead accept an interest rate .125% higher than the 780+ score borrower).
