Prepping for a VA loan by May..

[Anonymous]

Question.. I need a preapproval for a VA loan by May at the latest. I have 1 mortgage score at 630 and the other two are around 580. I have some credit card balances to pay down (@ $5-6K worth). Doing so will of course help the score.
I was thinking of taking out a personal loan to consolidate them. (And of course keeping the cards at $0 except for 1 of them at around 5% utilization).
Is this a good idea? Or could it hurt the mortgage scores to take out this kind of loan 4-5 months ahead of applying for the preapproval?
Thanks for any advice you can give.

[Anonymous]

Anyone?

[homeloanexpert]

Hello my fellow Vet,

First, know you have plenty of time to bring your scores up. But know that even if you fall short, you can still get approved for a VA loan with less than a 620 middle credit score. Many companies, including mine, go down to 500. I would get hooked up with an LO asap so you start the process now. There are some tricks of the trade that can bump up your scores quickly and certainly it's better to be out front rather than behind the 8-ball.

[VALoanMaster]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Question.. I need a preapproval for a VA loan by May at the latest. I have 1 mortgage score at 630 and the other two are around 580. I have some credit card balances to pay down (@ $5-6K worth). Doing so will of course help the score.
I was thinking of taking out a personal loan to consolidate them. (And of course keeping the cards at $0 except for 1 of them at around 5% utilization).
Is this a good idea? Or could it hurt the mortgage scores to take out this kind of loan 4-5 months ahead of applying for the preapproval?
Thanks for any advice you can give.

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Hi boss7016,

The only way to see how opening a new account & paying off the credit cards will affect your scores is to run a credit simulator. I do this all of the time for clients because the higher your scores are the better your rate will be.