Hey everyone...I came to these forums months ago to prepare my husband and I for a mortgage (pay no attention to the scores in my signature, they are outdated!)
Well, now the time has come. Time to buy a house...so pullled our latest myfico reports. My husband's middle score....690. My middle score? 679 
ONE POINT from my goal. We have not put in an application with a lender yet, but we defintiely need to do so very soon.
There are two installment loans on my EX report that are recently paid off, but don't show a zero balance yet. They should update across all three bureaus in the next week, although my experience is that installment loans don't update as predicably as revolving accounts. *fingers crossed*
My question is...does Experian weigh paid off installment loans in a mortgage score? I know I would probably get a nice boost lowering utilization even more on one of our cards, but I'm kind of keeping that money squirrled away for the down payment.
All I need is ONE POINT!
@Anonymous wrote:Hey everyone...I came to these forums months ago to prepare my husband and I for a mortgage (pay no attention to the scores in my signature, they are outdated!)
Well, now the time has come. Time to buy a house...so pullled our latest myfico reports. My husband's middle score....690. My middle score? 679
There are two installment loans on my EX report that are recently paid off, but don't show a zero balance yet. They should update across all three bureaus in the next week, although my experience is that installment loans don't update as predicably as revolving accounts. *fingers crossed*
My question is...does Experian weigh paid off installment loans in a mortgage score? I know I would probably get a nice boost lowering utilization even more on one of our cards, but I'm kind of keeping that money squirrled away for the down payment.
All I need is ONE POINT!
Oddly, FICO 2 is more concerned with your revolving accounts. Best advice at this stage is to have all but one report zero balances.
And of course no new credit applications.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks SouthJamaica. With the two loans I recently paid off, it still leaves two open installment loans which are at 66% and 77% utilization.
The two loans I paid off, as reported, were at 21% and 44% before being paid to zero.
While FICO 8 would be paying close attention to that, in my experience EX FICO 2 would be paying no attention to it at all. Don't ask me why. That's just what I've experienced.
FICO 2, on the other hand, pays close attention to number of revolving accounts with balances.
IMHO you should stop thinking about the installment loans, and focus on your revolving accounts.
@Anonymous wrote:Ahh. I was afraid that might be my answer. I was trying to avoid doing so, because our cc reporting dates are all towards the end of the month, and patience has never been my strength. I feel like calling EX and telling them to gimmie my one point, like NAOOOO.
Anyway, thanks. I'm still glad the installment loans are paid...one less bill to think about.
As well you should be. And bear in mind that the loan officers take into account things other than your FICO scores. Paying off those loans helps your DTI significantly, and subjectively creates a positive impression.
@Anonymous wrote:Yes, absolutely!
I just paid my Capital one from 36% reporting to 20% reporting. I know overall utilization is important, but I'm hoping this move gives me one point. Although I have paid my cards down a lot, I am still carrying a balance on a few. I may take it down to zero just to be safe....
None of my other cards are close enough to the 68/28/8 thresholds or close enough to reporting dates to make it worthwhile if I am trying to get an application in sooner than later... so hopefully this will do the trick.
Well 29% is a threshold so yes it might help. The mortgage scores do love zero balances, so if it's possible to bring it down to zero it's worth a try.
Taking your advice. Paid it to zero. I just want my mortgage scores as high as they can be, so we can take advantage of the low rates right now. I have no disposable money left, 
and I am sitting on our down payment like my life depends on it ...but boy does it geel great to pay this card off! It has not been zero in 5 years.
@Anonymous wrote:Taking your advice. Paid it to zero. I just want my mortgage scores as high as they can be, so we can take advantage of the low rates right now. I have no disposable money left,
Good. Today my revolving utilization went from 10% to 11%, but because I had one less account with a balance, my FICO 2 increased a point. Just goes to show you that the mortgage scores are very oriented towards number of accounts with balances. The more zeroes, the better.