Impact to my score when balance posts...

[avv7c0]

So, I made a stupid mistake. First some background history.... I have 3 credit cards (Visa - $7500 CL, Discover - $6300 CL, AMEX - $19000 CL) I let one balance report each month, but pay it off the next month as this supposedly helps my score. I never pay interest on the balance, and only carry the balance in order to improve my score. Much to my shagrin, AMEX (as it does every year), posts my annual fee the last day of the billing cycle, so I don't receive the notification until after it's too late to pay it before the statement. So guess what that means... 2 balances reported! Now, to my amazement, I actually received a 3 point score boast (per ScoreWatch) when this happened.

However, just to be safe, I had planned to pay the Visa off entirely (as it is usually the card I use to strategically carry the balance). I didn't want to pay it until just before the end of the last day of the billing cycle, as sometimes things post later in the day and I wanted to show a $0 balance when that got reported. But yesterday was my birthday (big 3-0!), and thus I went out to celebrate with friends after work, completely forgetting to pay the balance by 5 pm. As the Visa is our primary card, I now have a $4200 statement balance on that card (~56% util).

Normally not that big of a deal, except... surprise! We have a mortgage application open with Wells Fargo presently. They pulled our credit on Monday, and this happened on Wednesday, so I'm guessing we are OK for the pre-approval, but come actual mortgage time, have we royally screwed ourselves? We are doing new construction, so we can't defer the mortgage completion without risking losing the lot.

Our revolving util previously was 3% (now 13%), plus we have some installment loans (student loans, etc) with a util of 75%, bringing our total util across all debt to 55% (instead of 53% previously). I'm not as concerned with the overall, vs the revolving util.

Can someone help us know what to expect as far as a score change? My wife has a 714 EQ, I have 817 EQ, she is an authorized user on my Visa that posted the balance so will impact her also.

[MarineVietVet]

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@avv7c0 wrote:

 Our revolving util previously was 3% (now 13%), plus we have some installment loans (student loans, etc) with a util of 75%, bringing our total util across all debt to 55% (instead of 53% previously). I'm not as concerned with the overall, vs the revolving util.

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Installment loan utilization is such a small part of scoring that it can virtually be ignored. Revolving credit utilization is the key. Going from 3% to 13% might cost a few points but I would guess very few.

But that's just an opinion. We all know that predicting what will happen to scores from any particular action is really an exercise in futility.

Let us know how this works out for you.

[avv7c0]

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MarineVietVet wrote:

But that's just an opinion. We all know that predicting what will happen to scores from any particular action is really an exercise in futility.

Let us know how this works out for you.

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I hear ya. I'm hoping it won't have too much of an impact, but we've really been working hard to get her to 720, so every little setback is frustrating. We should know what happens officially in a few days, but I just wanted to solicit feedback that would either put us at ease, or prepare us for the worst.

Thanks!

[kjm79]

Worst case scenario is that you have to pay off the card and get a rapid rescore, if it comes to that.  More than likely though, you'll have paid off that card before final approval of the mortgage app and your score(s) will be rightback to where they were (or better).  Once that balance is paid off and reporting zero any damage caused will be undone. 

[avv7c0]

Well, Score Watch reports a drop from 817 to 803. Not sure yet on my wife's drop since she's an AU. Hope it recovers next month.

[Booner72]

Not sure why you are even worrying about this with scores in the 800's.  Even if you had to drop into the 700's you would still be fine (unless those payments affected DTI, in which case, as the other person said, Rapid Rescore).

[Anonymous]

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@Booner72 wrote:

Not sure why you are even worrying about this with scores in the 800's.  Even if you had to drop into the 700's you would still be fine (unless those payments affected DTI, in which case, as the other person said, Rapid Rescore).

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He's not as concerned about his own score as he is about his wife's score.  It needs to be 720 or higher for their future home.

[avv7c0]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Booner72 wrote:

Not sure why you are even worrying about this with scores in the 800's.  Even if you had to drop into the 700's you would still be fine (unless those payments affected DTI, in which case, as the other person said, Rapid Rescore).

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He's not as concerned about his own score as he is about his wife's score.  It needs to be 720 or higher for their future home.

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+1