How to increase mortgage score in 3 months

[Anonymous]

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@dustind wrote:

I have a 5+ year old chase cc co unpaid and I AZEO beautifully.

Even when I get 5 FICO-8 error codes from Discover cc utilization isn't listed as hurting my score. As far as I can tell every report I have ever run doesn't notice the 115% balance. I am getting lots of free and paid FICO reports and the mortgage,  FICO 8, and FICO 9 don't see co utilization. 

FWIW vantage 3 and 4 don't even care that the account exists.

My only ding on the various FICOs is major delinquency and on some versions bad payment history. 

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@dustind do not rely on Discover's representation of your credit report. they leave out authorized users and sometimes other things. Could you give us your negative reason codes from another source such as Experian or myfico?

[dustind]

Credit check total

F8 ex: serious delinquency

loan balances (one secured at about 45%)

few accounts paid on time (two bank cards, one secured loan, one store card, one phone bill experian boost)

CCT FICO2 experian

serious delinquency

Short account history (nothing open over 13 months)

Missed payments

Bad payment history

None of the many CCT reports say a thing about balances or similar except for my loan. Reported balances on cards have always been low.

My CCT FICO 3 says 'accounts with balances' but it is the fourth reason code. I have one bank card with a balance. 

[dustind]

CCT Equifax F8

Serious delinquency

Loan balances

Short account history

CCT Transunion F8

Serious delinquency 

Few accounts paid on time

Loan balances

[ewstgif]

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@dustind wrote:

Credit check total

F8 ex: serious delinquency

loan balances (one secured at about 45%)

few accounts paid on time (two bank cards, one secured loan, one store card, one phone bill experian boost)

CCT FICO2 experian

serious delinquency

Short account history (nothing open over 13 months)

Missed payments

Bad payment history

None of the many CCT reports say a thing about balances or similar except for my loan. Reported balances on cards have always been low.

My CCT FICO 3 says 'accounts with balances' but it is the fourth reason code. I have one bank card with a balance. 

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This isn't surprising given that guidance from FICO indicates that cc charge offs "may" be included in revolving utilization. It sounds like that Chase card doesn't happen to be included, which is lucky for you @dustind, but doesn't necessarily that's the case for someone else. It would be interesting to gather more DPs on this to try to figure out if there are common characteristics among C/Os that are included in utilization vs those that are not. 

[Anonymous]

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@dustind wrote:

I have a 5+ year old chase cc co unpaid and I AZEO beautifully.

Even when I get 5 FICO-8 error codes from Discover cc utilization isn't listed as hurting my score. As far as I can tell every report I have ever run doesn't notice the 115% balance. I am getting lots of free and paid FICO reports and the mortgage,  FICO 8, and FICO 9 don't see co utilization. 

FWIW vantage 3 and 4 don't even care that the account exists.

My only ding on the various FICOs is major delinquency and on some versions bad payment history. 

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@dustind before I respond to your next post and examine it in detail, I wanted to make a couple points. I don't know if you're aware, but for other readers if you are already aware.

First, utilization and balances are 2 different classes of metrics. Utilization is weighted more heavily than balances.

Then, both are subdived into revolving and installment with revolving weighted more heavily than installment.

Revolving (and maybe installment?) is subdivided into aggregate and individual with aggregate weighted more heavily than individual.

I explained that because the negative reason statements are listed in order of precedence. However and unfortunately, we usually only get 2-4 even though there are frequently more. Only when we have an empty slot (e.g., can receive 4, but only 3 appear), can we be sure no other factors are harming score. We call the process of examining these negative reasons statements and trying to understand what's going on inside the algorithm reason code resolution. I believe our esteemed Moderator Emeritus @Revelate, I believe may have coined the term. 

so with that mindset I'm gonna respond your next post shortly. 

[dustind]

I'm happy to share any data I have. Once I get back from vacation I can send you everything pertinent that I have collected over the last 13 months. 

I have other sets of reason codes from other less frequently mentioned scores if anyone sees any value in it.

[ewstgif]

@Anonymous Do you have any hypotheses on what may cause some charge offs to contribute to utilization but not others? It could be as simple as issuer by issuer, but my suspicion is that it may be a bit more complicated than that. Seems like gathering more data here could help a lot of people, especially around questions like "what should I pay first," but would be interested in your thoughts on the most useful DPs to ask for.

[Anonymous]

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@ewstgif wrote:

@Anonymous Do you have any hypotheses on what may cause some charge offs to contribute to utilization but not others? It could be as simple as issuer by issuer, but my suspicion is that it may be a bit more complicated than that. Seems like gathering more data here could help a lot of people, especially around questions like "what should I pay first," but would be interested in your thoughts on the most useful DPs to ask for.

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@ewstgif I'll pause to respond to this real quick. Yeah I believe all unpaid chargeoffs contribute to utilization, I just don't know exactly how. I mean loan chargeoffs contribute to installment utilization and revolving chargeoffs contribute to revolving utilization.

Likewise, they contribute to balances, A separate scoring factor that has to be taken into account, though it has a much lesser impact. That's actually an area I'm currently seeking data points for to hopefully try to determine

how they affect utilization and balances. but their biggest sting comes from the Payment History category, not the Amount Owed category.

One of the most important principles to keep in mind is those that are regularly updating are hurting you the worst. The reason is, as they age, particularly past two years, they lose some sting, if you do not generate any more delinquencies. If they don't get updated, they age, and postpone their sting. 

So you want them all paid and over two years ago is the first goal, if you can't make them disappear.  the higher utilization ones may be hurting more than lower utilization ones, but the ones that have reported within the last two years and those reporting regularly are the ones hurting the most, with the latter being the worst. 

So the most bang for your buck is get rid of the ones that are regularly reporting because they're hurting the worst and are not letting up, but later on when you pay the old ones and they update they're going to hurt. And you got a pay every last one of them or settle for less or you're gonna be under more penalty than you otherwise would be potentially until they age off. Saying that because there may be a temporary dip as that catchup penalty hits you.

[Anonymous]

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@dustind wrote:

Credit check total

F8 ex: serious delinquency

loan balances (one secured at about 45%)

few accounts paid on time (two bank cards, one secured loan, one store card, one phone bill experian boost)

CCT FICO2 experian

serious delinquency

Short account history (nothing open over 13 months)

Missed payments

Bad payment history

None of the many CCT reports say a thing about balances or similar except for my loan. Reported balances on cards have always been low.

My CCT FICO 3 says 'accounts with balances' but it is the fourth reason code. I have one bank card with a balance. 

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@dustind now that I've read this I'm surprised. How many codes does CCT typically show per version? Three or four? I was going thinking you were going to have all of them full and I was expecting a code to be pushed off and not viewable, but it seems like one of them you listed had four and the rest had three and if that's the case, then there's none no other codes out there. 

[dustind]

For whatever reason CCT normally only shows 3 for normal FICO 8 on all three bureaus but shows 4 for the other scores. I only have my phone with me and the mobile site seems to lack some features. 

I'm on vacation right now. I'm happy to dig through my notes and paperwork companies have sent me next week.

I'm sure I'm generating far more than three codes in F8.