Advice needed: trying to boost my mortgage scores for August

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys,

We are in the contract to purchase a new home under construction. We got the loan commitment and anticipating to close by end of August. Our mortgage lender whom we got commitment with pulled my scores couple weeks back. I have lot of changes to my profile since then - paid the CC debt down, refinanced auto (for DTI issue), also got a new card with DCU. The new auto loan and CC aren't reporting to any CRAs yet. My mortgage scores when the lender pulled last month were as follows

EQ 694; TU 698; EX 693

and here is a snap shot of my report during that time and NOW... my AAoA was 35 months and UTIL % was at 33.5%(revolving debt). It will go down to 32 months and 13% UTIL when the new accounts start reporting. My FICO 8 scores last were around 710-720. This week I am looking at my free Experian report and FICO 8 is at 741(new auto and CC not reporting yet). I am planning to get the 3B report here next month. But I need some advise from you guys about what I can do from here to get my mortgage scores up when it is time to apply. Will new auto loan hurt more than paying down CC debt?

                  Bal/Limit        UTIL%             NOW                    UTIL%
Cap One  7168/10250 70%                 2800/10250       27.3%
Boa           239/1000      23.9%             0/1000                 0%
Citi DC     2707/4100    66%                1100/4100           27%
Costco     2794/4000    69.8%             0/4000                 0%
Amazon   0/5000           0%                  0/5000                 0%
Ashleys   1700/4000     42.5%            1630/8000          20.5%
Macys      0/8100           0%                   0/8100                 0%
Express   0/1600           0%                   0/1600                 0%

DCU(new)                                               2100/7500          28%

Boa AU   1520/10100  15%                 0/10100               0%

Auto loan 22890/35000 65.4%          Paid

New Auto                                               22890/22890 100%

Closed CC accounts
Best buy, Cap one, Wells Fargo, JCP

Thank you!

[DollyLama]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi Guys,

We are in the contract to purchase a new home under construction. We got the loan commitment and anticipating to close by end of August. Our mortgage lender whom we got commitment with pulled my scores couple weeks back. I have lot of changes to my profile since then - paid the CC debt down, refinanced auto (for DTI issue), also got a new card with DCU. The new auto loan and CC aren't reporting to any CRAs yet. My mortgage scores when the lender pulled last month were as follows

EQ 694; TU 698; EX 693

and here is a snap shot of my report during that time and NOW... my AAoA was 35 months and UTIL % was at 33.5%(revolving debt). It will go down to 32 months and 13% UTIL when the new accounts start reporting. My FICO 8 scores last were around 710-720. This week I am looking at my free Experian report and FICO 8 is at 741(new auto and CC not reporting yet). I am planning to get the 3B report here next month. But I need some advise from you guys about what I can do from here to get my mortgage scores up when it is time to apply. Will new auto loan hurt more than paying down CC debt?

                  Bal/Limit        UTIL%             NOW                    UTIL%
Cap One  7168/10250 70%                 2800/10250       27.3%
Boa           239/1000      23.9%             0/1000                 0%
Citi DC     2707/4100    66%                1100/4100           27%
Costco     2794/4000    69.8%             0/4000                 0%
Amazon   0/5000           0%                  0/5000                 0%
Ashleys   1700/4000     42.5%            1630/8000          20.5%
Macys      0/8100           0%                   0/8100                 0%
Express   0/1600           0%                   0/1600                 0%

DCU(new)                                               2100/7500          28%

Boa AU   1520/10100  15%                 0/10100               0%

Auto loan 22890/35000 65.4%          Paid

New Auto                                               22890/22890 100%

Closed CC accounts
Best buy, Cap one, Wells Fargo, JCP

Thank you!

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Hard to say at this point, they might just offset each other. There are several mortgage scoring models, and it depends on which your lender pulled. 

More detailed information that was updated Jan. 2017 can be found here. 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Mortgage-Loans/FICO-scores-used-for-mortgage-and-where-to-obtain-them/td-p/3817869

Did Ashely's increase your credit trade line, thus reducing your utilization on their own, or did you request a credit increase resulting in a HP?

Pretty sure the auto loan and DCU will probably be a HP. 

Potential for 3 inquiries on your bureau reports between the time you initally had the lender pull, and the time they will pull again prior to closing. 

Noticed your previous auto balance and new refi balance is the same, opening and end term with interest is the same. Was the payoff drastically lower when you refinanced that the new refi, made the total balance with interest over terms of X months the same?

[Anonymous]

My lender pulled the Tri merge report. The CR says - EFX BEACON 5.0; XPN FICO-II; TUC FICO Classic 04

They all look like the FICO mortgage scores just using different names.

Did Ashely's increase your credit trade line, thus reducing your utilization on their own, or did you request a credit increase resulting in a HP?

Pretty sure the auto loan and DCU will probably be a HP. 

Yes, Ashley did increase with a soft pull. I have 0% promotion going on so just kept the balance. The DCU membership and auto loan should have resulted in a HP. But I still don't see in my EQ report. It's been over 8 days now. I started another thread for that in Auto Loan section.

Noticed your previous auto balance and new refi balance is the same, opening and end term with interest is the same. Was the payoff drastically lower when you refinanced that the new refi, made the total balance with interest over terms of X months the same?

No the previous auto loan balance at the time report was pulled was at 23,470. I just used the current balance for both loans for the sake of convenience. The reason to refinance was to lower my payment and thus decreasing my DTI. My lender said the DTI including PMI, taxes(high taxes in my area), HOA etc. is borderline and recommended refinancing the car. My car payment is went down by almost half now.

[DollyLama]

I believe it will boost you enough in a very good range. When you decide on obtaining the 3B next month, try to get it after the statements cuts on the CCs you paid off/down, and enough time to let the auto loan to hit along with DCU. I don't know if you are planning on doing the one time, or the monthly membership. Allow about 7-10 days after statement cuts, so it has enough time to report to bureaus and then reflect on your FICO scores. For me, they are varying, got an alert on EX today on a paydown, and seems TU compared to last month was reported last. One CC that I paid off in mid Feb, and new statement has already cut, has yet to report on any bureaus. Only advice I can think of is shoot for 8.9 utilization on the CCs. There is nothing you can really do about the auto loan as it is already said and done. I would tend to think a refi and DTI would be more favorable than outright buying a new/second auto. Just make sure you are clear of all previous late payments if possible through GW letters if you have any, and no collections open or paid. The UW might ask that you be removed as the AU on the BoA though. Open no new credit, keep your timely payments. The higher your score the better the interest rate. 

Most people, including myself have a higher Score 8 FICO than the mortgage scores. 

OT- This thread will most likely be moved to another part of the forums under Obtaining Mortgage Loans or something to that effect. 

[Anonymous]

Becareful some home lenders get very spooked by new cars loans and new credit during the home buying process.  It not all about ratios its also about their gut.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Becareful some home lenders get very spooked by new cars loans and new credit during the home buying process.  It not all about ratios its also about their gut.

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OP said lender advised to refinance to bring down DTI.

[Anonymous]

Just telling what happens here in Smalltown.  New car loan, new credit around application times equals no home loan. Perhaps his lender is different. But that may also mean he is married to that lender. 

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Becareful some home lenders get very spooked by new cars loans and new credit during the home buying process.  It not all about ratios its also about their gut.

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OP said lender advised to refinance to bring down DTI.

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That may bring down the monthly payment to help DTI, but the new loan is 100% utilization.

OP if you have the funds, can you pay that new auto loan down a bit? Pay it down by $1,100 to bring it below 95%?

Also, do you have SP CLI options available from Citi on either the Double Cash or Costco cards? That might result in some more utilization help on the revolvers.

[Anonymous]

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@NRB525 wrote:

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That may bring down the monthly payment to help DTI, but the new loan is 100% utilization.

OP if you have the funds, can you pay that new auto loan down a bit? Pay it down by $1,100 to bring it below 95%?

Also, do you have SP CLI options available from Citi on either the Double Cash or Costco cards? That might result in some more utilization help on the revolvers.

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Yes, I'll be making atleast 3 more payments for auto loan before going for final mortgage application. We are closing in August. I don't know if there are threshold levels and how the mortgage scores respond to different threshold levels of loan amount. Would keeping the utilization under 95% gain me some points? I have read in one of the posts here that FICO 04 (EQ & TU) doesn't count the loan utilization but FICO 98 (EX) does. Is this correct?

I have tried the SP CLI for Citi DC.. but no luck. But I'll keep trying every month until I close. For some reason the Costco card never showed SP CLI option for me. I am planning to payoff Citi DC next month and won't using it until closing. That may help with UTIL% a bit.

[Gonzozap]

I was a mortgage broker for 12 yrs.  Assuming all was well with the scores when they were first pulled, we ALWAYS advised applicants to not open or apply for any new credit, or add to their debt until after closing.  The reason for that advice is because no one can be certain exactly how the score will be affected after changes are made.  At this point, as soon as the auto loan shows on your credit, I would ask your loan officer to do a rapid rescore to check your scores.  At least this way, you will know sooner than later what's going on. "Rapid rescores" used to be cheaper than a full new pull.  Not all brokers/lenders use rapid rescore since there is a cost they must pay.

As an aside, I recently refinanced my car and my scores did not change at all.