Any help is great!!

[Anonymous]

I am currently attempting to improve my credit scores in an effort to purchase a home however, I am thoroughly confused by the ups and downs of my credit score. Especially after I have seen it drop 20+ points after paying off my car, transferring a balance, and paying off an already closed CC account. Any advice would be welcomed. 

Also, I am unfamiliar with many of the acronyms being used on the board. AZE0, AZE2, etc. And what is this "garden" that I keep seeing in people's signatures?

Thanks in advance.

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am currently attempting to improve my credit scores in an effort to purchase a home however, I am thoroughly confused by the ups and downs of my credit score. Especially after I have seen it drop 20+ points after paying off my car, transferring a balance, and paying off an already closed CC account. Any advice would be welcomed. 

Also, I am unfamiliar with many of the acronyms being used on the board. AZE0, AZE2, etc. And what is this "garden" that I keep seeing in people's signatures?

Thanks in advance.

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Hi and welcome to the forums @Anonymous 

This may help with the lingo 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/Common-Abbreviations/td-p/88458

Garden is a metaphorical state during which you do not apply for credit and no HP are incurred. Basically, it's a rest period to allow scores to grow and avoid denials (simplified version). There is a fun thread for people while they wait for time to pass. 

First post explains concept of gardening in detail and purpose of that particular thread 

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Garden-Club-October-2019/td-p/5759919

As far as your own question, you will need to provide a bit more data, such as all your cards, their opening dates and respective balances, any loan information and any negative information on your credit report 

[calyx]

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/bd-p/Welcome is a great place to look up general information.

Specifically https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/Common-Abbreviations/m-p/88458#M23 has the common acronyms we use.

The Garden is the thread where those of us trying not to app hang out to stay out of more tempting threads (particularly the approvals forum).  We do not speak about apps at all, and kind of chat about everything else (not the 5 things, of course).    It's like a cocktail party, there are numerous conversations going on and people float in and out of the party.

There's a new thread every month and the current thread is here: https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Personal-Finance/Garden-Club-October-2019/m-p/5759919#M123340

The spades/seedlings/gems you see in many siggies signify how long it has been since someone has opened a new account or gotten a hard pull for some other reason (CLIs usually).

Welcome!

[Anonymous]

Well here is as close to the nitty gritty as I can go.

CC1 - $4750 balance; $5000 limit (Opened May 2019)

CC2 - $1000 balance; $1800 limit  ( Opened June 2019)

CC3 - $363 balance; $650 limit  (Opened March 2017)

CC4 - $47 balance; $500 limit  (Opened March 2017)

CC5 - $46 balance; $1250 limit  (Opened June 2017)

Home projects card - $3832 balance; $4600 limit

I have 5 paid medical collections on my report. Several late payments from more than 2 years ago. I have 2 charge-offs from 5 years ago. I recently paid of my car and a credit card account that was closed more than 2 years ago. When I paid these down to zero, my score dropped after each item was reported. I also recently paid a loan that had a balance of $1600 but that has yet to be reported to the credit bureau. 

I am working to get the card balances down but I don't know what else to do besides pay everything off in order to get my mortgage scores high enough to get approved.

[Anonymous]

Your utilization is definitely killing you.  I didn't do the exact math, but it looks like your utilization is somewhere around 65%-70%.  In addition to that, you've got a maxed out card.  Taking your utilization down to under 8.9% overall (and taking that maxed out card down accordingly as well) would easily help your Fico scores to the tune of 50 points or more IMO.  After that I would suggest hitting the rebuilding forum and reading about possible strategies to remove negative items from your CR.