Mortgage Score Impact - Less Than Expected

[Anonymous]

I will be purchasing a home in the next couple of months and need to get my middle mortgage score to 700.  

1/16/20 Report - Mortgage Scores

EQ: 659

TU: 686

EX: 650

Revolving Accounts

Discover: $3,507/$4,600 (76.2%)

Chase : $16,410/$20,800 (78.9%)

Cap One : $0/$300 (0.0%)

Total : $19,917/$25,700 (77.5%)

2/17/20 Report - Mortgage Scores

EQ: 659 (No change)* Discover did not update on EQ yet

TU: 688 (+2)

EX: 664 (+14)

Revolving Accounts

Discover : $3,107/$4,600 (67.5%)* TU & EX updated

Chase : $13,306/$20,800 (64.0%)

Cap One : $0/$300 (0%)

Total: $16,413/$25,700 (63.9%)* TU & EX updated

**Nothing else changed from the previous month except for positive payments on an auto loan and handful of student loan accounts.  I am an authorized user on a $0/$15,000 card that I did not figure into any of the utlization ratios. 

While EX increased 14 points, I was surprised to see that EQ did not move at all and TU only moved 2 points.  Even though Discover has not updated on EQ, the Chase utilization went from 78.9% to 65.4% (crossed individual threshold of 68%) and aggregate utlization went from 77.5% to 65.4% (crossed aggregate 68% threshold), yet there was no change in score.  On TU, the Discover CC was updated, so it had Discover go from 76.2% to 67.5%, in addition to Chase and the aggregate utlizations crossing the 68% threshold. Based on what I have read, crossing the aggregate threshold should have been a 10-15 point bump and crossing the two individual thresholds should have been around a 5 point bump each - so I was expecting a 20-25 increase and only received 2 points. 

Addtional background, I have a Capital One charge off account from 7/2015 for $1,000 and several 60 & 90 day lates from 2015 & 2016 on student loans and a closed auto loan.  No late payments on any account after 2/2016 and currently one hard inquiry from 4/2019 on EQ and EX.  Based on the level of derogatory activity from 2015/2016, I imagine that I am in a dirty bucket.

Any thoughts on this? Thank you for your help!

[donkort]

I'm not an expert.....but dropping your overall utilization below 48.9%, and within each card at 48.9%, will most likely raise your middle score to at least close to 700.

Even better if below 28.9%.

[Revelate]

The mortgage score tolerances for revolving debt especially EX FICO 2 seem to be more stringent based on what limited utilization testing I can do.

I haven't nailed it down but even with one tradeline at around 7700/25000 I dropped 14 points on EX FICO 2, but I am also seeing that now with a similar balance spread out on multiple cards so I don't quite know what's going on.  Looks like my clean EQ 5 score also moved similarly, dirty TU 4 (60D) didn't move nearly as much.

Funny though my TU became my mid score on the trimerge: I wouldn't have expected that TBH under basically any scenario with a 60D still marked as recent but TU is as TU does and other than that late it is spotless and installment utilization doesn't seem to be a thing on that scorecard at least.

Anyway if you put out what your metrics are, AAOA, AOYRA, any negatives we might be able to give you some idea as to what the max score is when your revolving utilization is pretty... paydowns unless you cross a breakpoint you won't see much if any movement and we don't know the higher revolving utilization weights at all honestly as it appears to be scorecard dependent.

[Anonymous]

You'd have an even better impact to scores if your individual utilization is below 28.9% and aggregate utilization below 8.9%

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your help.

AAOA: 8yr 11mo

AOYRA (Age of Youngest Revolving Account?): 1yr 3mo

Time Since Most Recent Late Payment: 4 years

No derogatory public records or collection accounts

Negative Accounts (10)

Capital One Charge Off: Charged Off 7/2015 and settled for less 10/16. Cap One reported charge-off/90 day+ late every month from 7/2015 until it was settled 10/16. In late 2015 I tried to make a payment over the phone and was told they could no longer accept payments due to charge off.  Do all of the subsquent monthly charge-off statuses that run until 10/16 hurt or was the maximum damage done when the charge off occurred 7/2015?

Capital One (open account): 90 day late 10/14 on EQ, TU, EX; 30 day late on EQ 09/15 & 60 day late EQ on 06/15

Ally Auto (closed account): 60 day late 5/2015;  30 day late 11/2015

Navient (7 open accounts): Worst status 120 days late 9/2015; most recent late was 90 days 2/2016

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Agreed but based on this forum's understanding of how utilization thresholds work, I should have picked up points on EQ by crossing 68.8% on an individual and aggregate basis; however, my mortgage score did not change at all.  For TU, I crossed it on two individual revolving accounts in addition to the aggregate revolving utilization, and the TU mortgage score only increased by 2 points. 

[Anonymous]

I hope so, but as mentioned, I did not see any EQ increase from crossing the 68.9% threshold (and only a 2 point increase on TU), so it may not provide the anticipated score bump when going below 48.9%. 

[Revelate]

CO's count the last in the chain rather than the first which is why they are so consumer unfriendly.

The one big question scoring wise is the settled notation from 10/16, that may throw things off but for reference I had a 5 year old tax lien and 60D late and collection when I applied for a mortgage and got to 720 mid score without as much history as you.  

I don't think the older scores did much with patterns of lates and age of derogatory doesn't seem to matter that much either while it is on there, but your big path to improvement is that revolving utilization pay down.

Beyond that no new inquiries for anything if mortgage is the priority: yeah that takes some discipline on this forum but unless you know for a fact you are 12+ months out from even applying, stay frosty.  

Every point counts when you are in the middle tiers and you will be until you get clean.

ETA: AU's count absolutely full monty on the mortgage scores.

ETA x2: this path to improvement assumes conventional; I think you could go FHA or VA/USDA right now with those scores assuming your DTI and downpayment / assets were enough.  That said that much revolving debt at possibly 18%+ APR is just bleeding cash every month and is worth cleaning up financially too.

[donkort]

I believe 68.9% is considered very high utilization.  Mine was 60% at one point--down from the 70s.  No increase in score.  

I feel like going below the 28.9% threshold would be the biggie; it was for me.

The youngest derogatories are almost 4 years old....perhaps more knowledgeable people could assess how that affects your score.  And how it offsets the attainment of the lower utilization.

My score bumped considerably when I reached below 28.9%, even though one of my cards was reported to be still maxed out.

I see at least 700 should you attain 28.9% utilization overall.  

[Trudy]

Number of accounts reporting is a factor with MTG scores.  If you could somehow reduce this to 1 card reporting a balance it should help.  If nothing else try to $0 out Discover, one less account reporting. 

When I had lates on my file my MTG score would fluctuation between 10 - 30 pts depending on the # of accounts reporting a balance.  Now I had one 30D and my UTL was between 3% - 8% and I know UTL is a big player with MTG's as well. 

If you have any accounts aging to 1yr or INQ's falling off that may garner a few points as my profile indicates.