Score drop just before close

[cerika]

I am supposed to be closing on my jumbo refinance next week. When I applied my scores were 680, 702, and 687. They've actually improved during the last month and were all above 700 through yesterday. I screwed up and put 15K on my care credit with a $15.7 CL for an upcoming procedure. I intended to pay it before it reported, but I missed the date.

The 98% utilization hit all of my reports today and my mortage scores dropped to 677, 676, and 685. The told me when I applied I would have no trouble as long as my scores stayed above 680. Now my middle score is below that. My LTV is 45% and my debt to income is very low. I know that at closing they pull scores again and I won't make the cut. 

Does anyone know if I can pay off Care Credit if they will immediately report the balance at 0 if I request it? Does anyone know if I explain it to the lender if they can do a rapid rescore by verifying the balance is 0? Or will the lender just say forget it? I'm afraid to bring it up to the lender because if they already pulled the final credit reports I don't want to mess that up, but I'm afraid if I don't they will just say forget it (even though their making like $25K on the refi).

Help please - I'm just sick.

[chiefone4u]

As far as how your lender will respond, I have no idea.

Synchrony has been known to update balances when requested, sometimes they do it on their own several times a month.

Unfortunately this is a who knows kind of situation. It is possible that it could take a week or longer for Synchrony to update your reports and unless you have run big payments through them several times in the past,  they might take longer while making sure your payment clears. 

I wish you luck!

My guess is your interest rate might change because of score drop, but as long as you have proof of funds used to pay off the CareCredit they shouldn't kill the loan.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Your debt balances & payments will be "refreshed" shortly before you close, but it's extremely rare for your credit scores to be re-checked unless the current credit report has expired (usually 120 days) or if a new delinquent mark has appeared since the original pull.  As long as you can still qualify with the additional monthly payment then most likely you'll be fine.

[cerika]

They have scheduled closing for day after tomorrow, so I'm hoping I'm in the clear. Definitely will not be this stupid in the future. Paid off the balance of $15k today. Ugh, I'm my own worst enemy. Thank you for your response!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

The great thing about closing is you actually have a say on when it occurs as well (especially on a refinance), so if for whatever reason they do recheck your scores and they are now lower, then you can ask them to re-check once the lower balance reports and your scores go back up.  

[cerika]

Thanks Shane - you've been super helpful. I have the final disclosure already and closing is 23 hours away so I hope we are done!

[homeloanexpert]

@cerika 

Why are you concerned about it. Has your credit report expired? That's the only reason we lenders would pull a new credit report. Other  than having  the borrower do some downs and then do rescore for the purposes of raising a clients scores. Normally the funder will do a soft pull just prior to closing to make sure you didn't go out and open up any new accounts.