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How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

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Anonymous
Not applicable

How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

My husband and I have nothing-- I repeat: NOTHING-uh in collections!!! What we have is a short list of accounts from (four items to be exact), literally 3 years ago (or more) that show $0s owed. I've called all of these collection agencies to ask if they'd remove their "once upon a time, these people were delinquent" presence, and they all refuse. 

 

Our general scores form all three bureaus are outstanding. Then we click on the "commonly used with mortgage lenders" scores, and we may as well have our entire life in collections. We're being penalized for having had items in delinquency before... and we have no idea what will change, or get the middle score up. 

 

We have a practically non-existent debt-to-income ratio. It's actually listed as "good/excellent" or whatever the terminology is. The lender we've been working with recommended we get new credit cards-- which we've done. Our accounts are current and continue to raise, again, our basic fico scores.... but no movement on the mortgage. 

 

What gives???? Does anyone have insight on this. We both work in entertainment... money and downpayments and bills and all of that are no issue. Our child is in private school.... We are literally sitting here paying an astronomical price in rent because our mortgage score hasn't changed in almost a year! 

 

HELP! 

 

Anyone have insight on this??? 

15 REPLIES 15
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!


@Anonymous wrote:

My husband and I have nothing-- I repeat: NOTHING-uh in collections!!! What we have is a short list of accounts from (four items to be exact), literally 3 years ago (or more) that show $0s owed. I've called all of these collection agencies to ask if they'd remove their "once upon a time, these people were delinquent" presence, and they all refuse. 

 

Our general scores form all three bureaus are outstanding. Then we click on the "commonly used with mortgage lenders" scores, and we may as well have our entire life in collections. We're being penalized for having had items in delinquency before... and we have no idea what will change, or get the middle score up. 

 

We have a practically non-existent debt-to-income ratio. It's actually listed as "good/excellent" or whatever the terminology is. The lender we've been working with recommended we get new credit cards-- which we've done. Our accounts are current and continue to raise, again, our basic fico scores.... but no movement on the mortgage. 

 

What gives???? Does anyone have insight on this. We both work in entertainment... money and downpayments and bills and all of that are no issue. Our child is in private school.... We are literally sitting here paying an astronomical price in rent because our mortgage score hasn't changed in almost a year! 

 

HELP! 

 

Anyone have insight on this??? 


1. Getting new credit cards was the last thing you should have done; mortgage scores do not like recent credit seeking activity. So you should make no new applications for anything, and no credit limit increase requests or anything else that might trigger a hard pull. Never again take advice from the person who gave you that advice, which was like advising you to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it.

 

2. The mortgage scores are very sensitive to aging factors. So new accounts are your enemy, and the passage of time without new accounts is your friend.

 

3.  The mortgage scores are very sensitive to number of accounts with balances. So you should let all of your revolving accounts, except one, report a zero balance. I.e. pay all of your revolving accounts off before the statement cut, and pay the other one off right after the statement cut.

 

4.  As to the negatives, send verification letters to the bureaus. These sometimes result in the negatives falling off sooner. If you have money, but don't have time, you can hire a service which sends out those letters for you.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 2 of 16
AllZero
Mega Contributor

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

What are your current 3 mortgage scores?

What are your reported utilization%

Do you have any derogatories or delinquencies?
Message 3 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

Fico: 614, 627, and 623

 

 

Mortgage: 538, 549, 575

 

 

We need 580 for an FHA! 

 

NO DELINQUINCIES for at LEAST a year. The one we had a year ago was one. Just one. A few days late on a car payment. We've been on Automatic pay since last year just to show that we are on time. 

 

I don't know what constitutes "serious".... we've been on time with everything, unless there are additional factors???? 

Message 4 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

...oh, and utilization on credit cards are 24% or less.... They're like, the only thing helping us right now. It's almost as if we're being penelaized for having HAD accounts delinquent in the past. Before we became "credit woke."

Message 5 of 16
AllZero
Mega Contributor

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

How many CC?

How many CC are reporting a balance?
Message 6 of 16
SouthJamaica
Mega Contributor

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!


@Anonymous wrote:

...oh, and utilization on credit cards are 24% or less.... They're like, the only thing helping us right now. It's almost as if we're being penelaized for having HAD accounts delinquent in the past. Before we became "credit woke."


You are operating under a lot of misconceptions.

 

The fact that you have been current for a year is pretty meaningless. FICO scoring is historical, and goes back a long time. So stop harping on that. Yes you are, and will continue to be, penalized for past delinquencies, for as long as they appear in your reports -- which could be 7 years.

 

24% utilization is not good at all. If you have as much money as you say you have you should let all but one of your accounts report a zero balance, and the other report a small balance which you pay off after it reports.

 

You should maintain your aggregate utilization at 6% or less, and 1-2% would be optimal.


Total revolving limits 741200 (620700 reporting) FICO 8: EQ 701 TU 704 EX 685

Message 7 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

You mentioned that your general scores from all three bureaus are outstanding, then mentioned that your FICOs are 614, 623, and 627. Were there other scores, or other sources of scores, that you were using?
Message 8 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!

Thank you for this clarity! 

 

There is so much information to understand. It's prretty misleading to follow these continued boosts in scores, but not see any changes where it matters. 

 

For instance, experian will use language like, "congratulations!" or "score increase!" which gives the impression that I'm doing something right. According to your reply above, there is a LOT more we can be doing. Everyone keeps saying to use less that 30% of the card. I pay my balances off regularly, but was under the impression that continuing to use the cards would help (so long as I showed on-time payments only using 30% or less of the credit line). 

 

Two of these cards I could literally stop using now. (rolls eyes).... 

 

Okay, that makes sense. 

 

So you're saying, even though we have nothing in collections, and all bills are current, mortgage scores still factor in more than just "keeping up with payments" for a year or two... (which has never been explained to me). 

 

 

Message 9 of 16
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: How on Earth? Mortgage Scores for Dummies!


@AllZero wrote:
How many CC?

How many CC are reporting a balance?

3 Credit Cards

2 reporting a balance of under 30% (all payments on time)

Message 10 of 16
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