Get a new card?

[Anonymous]

My credit score was horrible from my mistakes in my youth.  Luckily through my wife adding me to her credit cards it has rebounded quite a bit and now my FICO 8 scores are 727, 627, 635.  My mortgage FICO scores are higher (680+) and I am looking to get a mortgage in about six months.  I just purchased a new car, which I know will temporarily drop my score, but should even out by then.

The credit simulator shows if I get a new credit card my score will rise about 30-40 points.  The only reason I could see this being the case is that I'm not the primary on any credit cards.  So my question is, with the mortgage looming in about 6 months should I get a card right now or will it likely have a negative impact?

I have 0 debt other than this new auto loan (~$10,000), my wife has no debt other than student loans (~$40,000) and her scores are solid. We would be applying jointly so my lower scores will impact us.  We currently have ~$25,000 in available credit on her cards (we use one card for all our expenses but pay it off every month).

[Anonymous]

Congrats. It sounds like you have been working a solid plan. If you decide on a card with your name on it, you should do it now so it has time to age over the next few months.

Placing myself in your shoes, I would search the CC portion of this forum or just ask to find a card that will hard pull my report that's in the 700s. This will give you a better card.

[Anonymous]

To how many credit cards has your wife added you as an AU?

My feeling is that getting a CC in your own name makes sense and that you should do that immediately.

The best thing you can be doing is visiting the Rebuilding forum and learning ASAP about strategies for getting as many derogs removed as quickly as possible.  You should try learning what Goodwill Letters are, for example, and once you know move onto more advanaced topics with them:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Rebuilding-Your-Credit/The-Saturation-Technique-Best-GW-adjustment-o...

You should also find some free tools to enable you to frequently pull your credit reports.  As you get your derogs removed you will want to pull the reports often to see what progress you are making.

Finally, bear in mind that your mortgage lenders will not use your FICO 8 scores.  They will use your "mortgage" scores, which are based on much older models than FICO 8.

[medicgrrl]

Why is there such a drastic difference in your FICO 8 scores?

[Anonymous]

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@medicgrrl wrote:

Why is there such a drastic difference in your FICO 8 scores?

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I was wondering the same thing.  Definitely a negative item is present on the 2 bureaus with lower scores compared to the third with the better score.  Working on getting those negatives removed would no doubt bring those two 600's scores into the 700's like the third, so my focus if I were the OP would be doing whatever it takes to try and make that happen in the next 4-5 months.

Agreed that if you want to get a credit card you should do so right away.  The closer you get it to obtaining that mortgage the worse off you'll be.

BTW OP, great user name and great movie

[Anonymous]

As far as the different FICO scores go, you might also want to check to see if all your accounts are reporting properly on each CRA. I have a TU score that's about 30-35 points lower than my EQ and EX scores, and I'm pretty positive that that's because two recently opened accounts haven't yet started reporting on TU; if those don't show up by next month I'm going to see what I can do about getting TU and/or the issuers to fix that (assuming that the issuers, Penfed and Discover, do report to TU).

[Anonymous]

She added me to both of her cards a Cap one card that has a $20,000 limit and a Citi card that has a $5,000 limit.

I only have one derogatory mark on my report, a $250 medical bill I tought I had paid 3 years ago that went to collections.  Everything else is completely clean at this point.  Perfect payment history and utilization is always under 9%.

I have used CreditKarma to watch my progress and used MyFICO to get my actual scores recently.  I will need to look into the Goodwill letters, not sure if that applies to my one item in collections.

[Anonymous]

Yes, great movie!

I only have one derogatory mark on my report, a $250 medical bill I tought I had paid 3 years ago that went to collections and it only shows up in two of the three agencies.  Everything else is completely clean at this point.  Perfect payment history and utilization is always under 9%.

[medicgrrl]

That one collection is making a huge difference on your scores.  You might find information about the collection agency in the Rebuilding forum and whether they will delete the account if you pay it.