Just a small update:
I did get my deposit account with NFCU. I'm busy getting it set up for direct deposit. I'm in no hurry to get any of their products, but I like having the availability.
And I apped for the AMEX BCP, which was one of my goal cards. I was originally going to wait until Sept, but the SUB was good, and it all worked out!
I closed my Opensky CC, which was my starter card. It was great for what it was, but it feels so weird that I've gone from "no one will approve me" to "I don't need you anymore" and closing cards!
I still have managed to keep myself from the siren song of CCT/Experian, so I haven't pulled my reports this month. I am pretty sure there have been no changes to my score as I haven't crossed any known or significant UTI threshholds or aging threshholds. AMEX will probably take a couple of months to report, and I have enough INQs on EX that I doubt one more really made much of a difference 
Since I had my EX EE snafu, I'm going to try something to get that fixed in a roundabout way. I won't go into details because I want to see what happens first 😆 Wish me luck, I'll give a full report if anything interesting happens.
@excop01 wrote:Hmmm todays update!!!!
Wow, seems like i cant win for losing. So i traded in my old car for a new one, and it just reported. i didnt realize i was actually closing an acct. and boy did i take a hit for that.Also my self lenders acct just closed, cause i finished a year on that, so thats another closed acct.
Now i thought that completing a acct for several years would look good on me, but i see thats not the case. I dont want to be 80 k in debt for any reason, but i see now i kind of have to be in some major debt for my acct to build a major score. I went from 687 tu 686 exp 668 eq
to 644tu 664exp 654 eq, all because i paid off two accts.
Ok enough typing for me today. all this typing and stressing is bumming me out. so imma need to go get a drink and get high for a few hours to help me get over this.
Thanks community for listening to all my rants. talk later.
@excop01 actually what happened was just installment utilization changes.
If you'd mostly paid off that old car and you certainly had that self-lender loan open almost paid, you might have moved one or even two breakpoints... and that second breakpoint is worth 20-30 points on FICO 8 since you opened up a new loan.
There's zero penalty for paying and closing an account under any FICO algorithm, other than revolving utilization metric changes in the margin if you're carrying balances.
I have a mortgage and an auto loan, so I'm "in debt" but revolving wise? Grand total of $536 showing as of right now and I already cut the check for it weeks ago... if I didn't have either the mortgage or auto loan, I could play installment utilization games and get those 20-30 points tacked on too for that matter and have basically $0 outstanding debt.
There's a bunch of random things when it comes to optimizing credit scores to be sure, but being in debt isn't a requirement to get a good score, just use credit occasionally and PIF and enjoy everything that comes from not only not being in debt but also maintaining a good credit score.
When it counts, and by that I mean 5 months from now where you are going to take a swing at the mortgage again, I would have a small balance reported on the Cap 1 (like 5 bucks) and everything else at 0.
Synchrony cards I would zero out a few months before that cause there are some strange reporting idiosyncrasies they have.
It doesn’t matter if everything is at zero now, what it only counts when someone is looking at your credit: so use whatever for 3 months, then start managing balances to AZEO using that Cap 1 card (least likely to be strange, mortgage is safety bear credit frankly and Cap 1 is a National bankcard lender and Synch is not) and stay in that credit report config until you have keys in hand.
Don’t open anything and don’t close anything, just sit on your hands and when it’s time to apply for the mortgage be as pretty as possible credit wise.
Synchrony cards I would zero out a few months before that cause there are some strange reporting idiosyncrasies they have.
It doesn’t matter if everything is at zero now, what it only counts when someone is looking at your credit: so use whatever for 3 months, then start managing balances to AZEO using that Cap 1 card (least likely to be strange, mortgage is safety bear credit frankly and Cap 1 is a National bankcard lender and Synch is not) and stay in that credit report config until you have keys in hand.
Don’t open anything and don’t close anything, just sit on your hands and when it’s time to apply for the mortgage be as pretty as possible credit wise.