Raising Fico 8 score add credit cards or not?

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I'm working on raising mine and my husbands scores to obtain a mortgage.

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Ok. The scores that are relevant for a mortgage application are Equifax FICO Score 5, Transunion FICO Score 4, and Experian FICO Score 2.

You mention that you are getting your scores here on MyFICO - keep in mind that those specific scores only update when you pull a new report, either paid, or a monthly/quarterly subscription update.  They do NOT update when you get an alert, that only refreshes the FICO 8 scores, which are not what you need to be looking at for a mortgage.

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@Anonymous wrote:
I've read and realize Fico 8 can be a brutal animal and those scores are almost 50pts lower than our Primary(?) Scores. Our basic FICO scores are 671 688 (688 on TU ...well it just went to 645 due to a glitch in an installment loan.

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FICO 8 scores are what MyFICO displays most prominently on the site, on the dashboard and the top of the score summary.

I'm not sure what scores you are referring to as "Primary", but for mortgage purposes, ignore the FICO 8 scores, and look at EQ5/TU4/EX2 only.  Pull a new 3-Bureau report if you need to see updated mortgage scores.

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@Anonymous wrote:
I just paid off never late and it was wrongly reported 120+ days late and I almost passed out but have been told it would be fixed ASAP...that was a week ago....Eq and Ex both show pd in full on the same loan and my score went up a few points.

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If that's your only major negative item, fixing a mis-reported 120+ day late would definitely help... don't bother pulling a new report until that's fixed.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm trying to figure out if applying for more credit cards would improve my score enough to make much difference. Also, she already said we need to let some inquiries fall off so I'm in a catch-22.

We are trying to secure this mortgage by February and we have been actively making improvements since November.

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Were you planning to apply by February, or hoping to actually close on the loan by February?

Either way, DO NOT apply for more credit cards right now. Five cards is fine. (More than fine.).

Getting that card utilization down from 35% to under 9% would help.

Becoming an AU would be ok (unlike with FICO 8, the older mortgage scores always include AU accounts), but in the short timeframe you are looking at, the AU accounts may not get reported in time to matter anyway.

[Anonymous]

EQ5/TU4/EX2 ...thank you... got it!
Thank you for clarifying the scores and how the reports work. When I said "primary" I wasnt sure what to call the scores that pop up in my dashboard. That's where my numbers came from.

As far as issues I'm dealing with....
The mis-reported TU entry is an unexpected hiccup. They said it should be corrected in about a week or 2.
But the biggest issue we have is a paid state tax lien that wasnt updated on lexis nexis. We had to send the paid release letter to them to update. It was an 850.00 tax bill that was paid immediately in 2016. But not updated. It doesn't show up on the 3 bureaus but it does on LN. And shows not paid.
There is a charge off that we didn't know about for 250.00 but the OC is sending us a pay for delete(?) And as soon as we recieve it we are paying that as well.
Other than that we have the lates I mentioned from 2016. No other lates in 2 years .

We are hoping to purchase in February.
We already have land and are purchasing a manufactured home and putting it on our property. We have a 7000.00 discount if we are able to order by February. So the deadline is sort of urgent. If we don't make it by that time we just have to pay more when we get the loan secured.

The mortgage broker said that the lien info and the CO for 250 were the two issues we needed to correct before resubmitting.

I am sorry I have read alot on these forums but as a newbie I'm sure my format leaves alot to be desired.
I'm so thankful for this forum!!!

[iv]

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@Anonymous wrote:

The mis-reported TU entry is an unexpected hiccup. They said it should be corrected in about a week or 2.

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Once that (and perhaps also the CO and lates) are fixed, go ahead and pull a new 3-B report.  If it's been some time since you have, and you've made other improvements to your reports in the interim, your EQ5/TU4/EX2 scores may have gone up more than you realize.

Assuming that both of you will be on the loan, also remember that the score that matters is the lowest middle score.  Which sounds confusing...

What that means is you need to look at your three "mortgage" scores, and toss out the highest and the lowest.  That's your middle score.  Then do the same thing with his scores.  Then whichever of those two "middle" scores is the lowest is what will be used.

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@Anonymous wrote:

But the biggest issue we have is a paid state tax lien that wasnt updated on lexis nexis. We had to send the paid release letter to them to update. It was an 850.00 tax bill that was paid immediately in 2016. But not updated. It doesn't show up on the 3 bureaus but it does on LN. And shows not paid.

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Since that's not on your CRA reports, just LN, it isn't currently affecting your scores, at least.  (Of course, that means that while getting it removed is a good thing, the removal also won't help your scores...)

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@Anonymous wrote:

There is a charge off that we didn't know about for 250.00 but the OC is sending us a pay for delete(?) And as soon as we recieve it we are paying that as well.

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Getting that removed would be very good - but your timeline is a bit tight if you wanted to close the loan next month - even if they do agree to delete the CO, it may not be removed by the time your scores need to be pulled by the lender.  (But you might get lucky with the timing...)

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@Anonymous wrote:

Other than that we have the lates I mentioned from 2016. No other lates in 2 years .

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You had mentioned lates over the course of three months - the important question there is whether it was a string of 30-day lates, or a set of 30, 60, 90-day lates.  The 60s and 90s would be much worse than just a cluster of 30s.  Either way, definitely try the good-will letter approach on these.  (Again, though, the timeline may be a bit tight to get them removed in time, even if the lenders agree to do it.)

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@Anonymous wrote:

We are hoping to purchase in February.
We already have land and are purchasing a manufactured home and putting it on our property. We have a 7000.00 discount if we are able to order by February. So the deadline is sort of urgent. If we don't make it by that time we just have to pay more when we get the loan secured.

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Your question here on timing may come down to "does getting a lower APR later than February with improved scores save me more or less than $7,000?".  If your current scores (or the scores you can get to in time for a February close) are good enough for a reasonable rate, how close are you to the next rate tier score requirement, and how much would that save you both monthly and over the course of the loan?

Your broker should be able to help running the math on a few scenarios there.

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@Anonymous wrote:

The mortgage broker said that the lien info and the CO for 250 were the two issues we needed to correct before resubmitting.

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How quickly those can get updated may end up controlling whether February is possible.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am sorry I have read alot on these forums but as a newbie I'm sure my format leaves alot to be desired.
I'm so thankful for this forum!!!

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You're doing fine!  You came to the right place, and you're asking the right questions.

You'll end up being much more prepared than the average borrower is.

[Anonymous]

iv thank you so much for your breakdowns and answers! This is so intimidating and there is so much to learn and understand! I will keep my progress updated on this thread which I hope may help someone else one day. I will definitely be following your directions and while we hope to be ready by February I agree that being close to the next tier could save us alot more than 7000.00 in the long run and I will wait. I know we are really close to being ready but I wont do something hasty and more expensive just to get moved in sooner.... Oh and I have around 1600.00 left in credit card balances out of 7100.00 limits that I'm paying as fast as I can and that has been the biggest factor in raising my score. Maybe I'll have it down to 5%-10% by the time we pull credit again. Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

@iv wrote
You had mentioned lates over the course of three months - the important question there is whether it was a string of 30-day lates, or a set of 30, 60, 90-day lates. The 60s and 90s would be much worse than just a cluster of 30s. Either way, definitely try the good-will letter approach on these. (Again, though, the timeline may be a bit tight to get them removed in time, even if the lenders agree to do it.)

Its all 30's in the same frame of time (3mos) no 60s or 90s

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to update that the error with my installment loan was finally resolved my score went from 645 to 688. It took 3 weeks.
As far as lexis nexis....my story is above about my lein info not correctly updated. We have a paid tax lein letter I mailed to lexis nexis to update. Its been over 3 weeks and no reply. Is there another way to check on the status besides snail mail? Thank you!