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Low FICO Score, what to do?

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sarge12
Senior Contributor

Re: Low FICO Score, what to do?


@jeboles wrote:

My reason for wanting to increase my score rapidly is to qualify for a mortgage.  Will paying off collections result also in a score increase or will it take time for them to drop to increase the score.


It has been a long time since I obtained my first mortgage, and I used a mortgage broker. They pulled my 3b report and went over it line by line, giving me a list of collection accounts (my then wife had quite a few) that had to be paid before I would be approved. The advantage of using a broker was huge. The broker only gets paid if you get a mortgage approval, and it is better for a mortgage broker to see the bad credit report before the lender does. It is important to know that a lender does not use a credit score alone to make the decision to approve the mortgage. They use your middle mortgage score to set the rate. An unresolved collection account that is within the SOL will be of concern. The lender knows that it could be a future judgement if not paid. The point is, even if you have a qualifying credit score, you will likely have to pay any collection accounts that might possibly result in a judgement in order to be approved. I really do not see where a lot of people think the credit scores alone are the ticket to get a mortgage approval. It has been my experience that they read the entire 3B report, as well as employment info, W2's, tax returns, etc. When making a decision on a loan that will be stretched over 30 years it is much more complicated than just pulling your credit scores.

TU fico08=812 07/16/23
EX fico08=809 07/16/23
EQ fico09=812 07/16/23
EX fico09=821 07/16/23
EQ fico bankcard08=832 07/16/23
TU Fico Bankcard 08=840 07/16/23
EQ NG1 fico=802 04/17/21
EQ Resilience index score=58 03/09/21
Unknown score from EX=784 used by Cap1 07/10/20
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