No real estate or auto trade lines

[longclimbback]

We're trying to tweak my wife's scores to remortgage our house. Her TU score of 709 is probably being hurt by 42% credit card utilization which we plan on paying off so it reports zero for next month. She also has no open real estate or auto trade lines. Even though she is co buyer/borrower on our house and 1 car loan our small local bank only reports on me. I'm sure I can get our bank to start reporting on her but wonder if I should.

She has one open credit card with a $3500 limit that will be paid off this month.

She has one Student loan payment that is current with no late payments.

She has a couple closed credit cards all reporting no lates and $0 owed.

She has one old car loan paid with no lates.

AAofA =10 years

I'm sure I can add 1 open auto loan that is 4.5 years old with no lates

I'm sure I can add 1 open mortgage that is 5 years old with no lates.

We also had 2 other joint mortgages that are closed with no lates 1 is 6 years old, the other is 7 years old.

If I add all 4 tradelines it gives her 4 extra positive accounts and better utilization than what she has now but drops her AAofA from 10 years to 7.5 years

If I add only the 2 open ones it drops her AAofA to 8.5 years but  she gains the utilization and the 2 positive accounts. This gives her open cc, mortgage,student loan,and auto.

She already has a closed auto loan so do I forget adding an extra open auto loan, and just get the open real estate loan reported? This would only drop her AAofA to 9 years 3 months but would give her open mortgage, a open student loan ,a open credit card and a closed auto.

In this scenario where does AAofA compare to the mix of credit and what would probably tweak her score the most? 

I also risk our bank saying sorry and start reporting all of these accounts even if I only request one to be reported.I'm trying not go backwards if by adding to her utilization gets her 10 points, but the drop in AAofA takes 20 points.

Thanks for any help offered

[Anonymous]

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@longclimbback wrote:

We're trying to tweak my wife's scores to remortgage our house. Her TU score of 709 is probably being hurt by 42% credit card utilization which we plan on paying off so it reports zero for next month. She also has no open real estate or auto trade lines. Even though she is co buyer/borrower on our house and 1 car loan our small local bank only reports on me. I'm sure I can get our bank to start reporting on her but wonder if I should.

She has one open credit card with a $3500 limit that will be paid off this month.

She has one Student loan payment that is current with no late payments.

She has a couple closed credit cards all reporting no lates and $0 owed.

She has one old car loan paid with no lates.

AAofA =10 years

I'm sure I can add 1 open auto loan that is 4.5 years old with no lates

I'm sure I can add 1 open mortgage that is 5 years old with no lates.

We also had 2 other joint mortgages that are closed with no lates 1 is 6 years old, the other is 7 years old.

If I add all 4 tradelines it gives her 4 extra positive accounts and better utilization than what she has now but drops her AAofA from 10 years to 7.5 years

If I add only the 2 open ones it drops her AAofA to 8.5 years but  she gains the utilization and the 2 positive accounts. This gives her open cc, mortgage,student loan,and auto.

She already has a closed auto loan so do I forget adding an extra open auto loan, and just get the open real estate loan reported? This would only drop her AAofA to 9 years 3 months but would give her open mortgage, a open student loan ,a open credit card and a closed auto.

In this scenario where does AAofA compare to the mix of credit and what would probably tweak her score the most? 

I also risk our bank saying sorry and start reporting all of these accounts even if I only request one to be reported.I'm trying not go backwards if by adding to her utilization gets her 10 points, but the drop in AAofA takes 20 points.

Thanks for any help offered

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I think with all those positive lines added to her credit file and paying down of the CC will have more benefit than risk. This would definately lower her AAoA but on the other hand would increase the credit mix, lower utilization and long positive payment histories. So all in all she would be in a more better position than she currently is. If I would you I would go for it and get it on file ASAP.

[Anonymous]

paying down a 42% utilization will surely result in FICO score gain.

Adding a mortgage will not necessarily.  When I added a mortgage to my mix, I didn't gain points.  And when I added an auto loan, I didn't gain points.  Of course, YMMV, but even if you saw any score increase, I believe it would be small.

IMO, your most significant score impact will come from paying down utilization on revolving cards.

[longclimbback]

Thank you for the advice. It sounds like we should pay the credit card down to 1% or so and see what happens to her score. I'd like to see it up at 750+ to remortgage our house so I don't know if this will do that or not. I guess if we still don't like the number I'll try to just get the one open real estate account added. I'll post what her score goes up when we get her next report.

[crunching_numbers]

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@longclimbback wrote:

Thank you for the advice. It sounds like we should pay the credit card down to 1% or so and see what happens to her score. I'd like to see it up at 750+ to remortgage our house so I don't know if this will do that or not. I guess if we still don't like the number I'll try to just get the one open real estate account added. I'll post what her score goes up when we get her next report.

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If I understood you properly she has a paid car loan already on her CR.  If it is there, there is an installment loan in the mix.  It does not need to have an installment balance to be considered.