Plateaued at 700 - Tips to increase credit before new mortgage?

[Anonymous]

I’d like to move my family into a new house within the next 6-12 months so I’m looking for tips on how I can increase my score before applying for a mortgage.

I have a chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge from 4.5 years ago. I did some research on this forum in the weeks following that bankruptcy and slowly repaired my credit over the years since then. I’ve just been farming for the last few years and sticking to the basics.

My current experian score is 702. It’s actually been between 680 - 700 for 2+ years now. I’m either maxed out due to the bankruptcy or I’m missing something that is holding me back from going higher.

I have 3 credit cards with between 3-4 years of perfect payment history and currently a 2% usage. I’ve always kept the usage below 6%. I’m an authorized user on another card with 1% usage.

$530/$29000

0 collection accounts

0 inquiries

0 late payments

I don’t suppose there is much I can do about my credit history length:

• Average Age: 3 yrs 10 mos
• Oldest Account: 4 yrs 6 mos

Could lack of my credit mix be holding me back? I had a personal loan early on in the rebuilding process but it was paid off a long time ago. Would adding a personal loan to improve my credit mix outweigh the negative impact of a new inquiry?

Any other suggestions?

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous There is a post that explains bk to xxx score.   It is very helpful. Its in bk section as I recall. Not sure

A ssl will raise your score by 10 to 20 points.   Borrow for example $1,000 and pay down so its less than 9% util.

Lack of cards/ canord mix could hurt BUT this would lower age so I would think about it before I did it.

FHA with 3.5% down payment is a nice safe mortgage.   700 score will get you a reasonable rate.  

Good luck

[AllZero]

What scores are those?

Are they your mortgages scores, EX 2, TU 4, EQ 5?

Are you implementing AZEO All Zero Except One?

It's recommended not to apply or obtain new accounts 12 months leading up to a mortgage application.

[dragontears]

While having an open, mostly paid off loan help FICO8 I have seen no data that indicates it positively affects mortgage scores so don't do it, most likely it will cause your mortgage scores to decrease. My experience is mortgage scores are more sensitive to newly opened accounts than FICO8 is.

[HeavenOhio]

Adding a Share Secure Loan (SSL) isn't going to help the scores used for mortgages. But the addition of a new account will hurt. I'd avoid new accounts. And before getting the ball rolling on a mortgage, implement AZEO.

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I’d like to move my family into a new house within the next 6-12 months so I’m looking for tips on how I can increase my score before applying for a mortgage.

I have a chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge from 4.5 years ago. I did some research on this forum in the weeks following that bankruptcy and slowly repaired my credit over the years since then. I’ve just been farming for the last few years and sticking to the basics.

My current experian score is 702. It’s actually been between 680 - 700 for 2+ years now. I’m either maxed out due to the bankruptcy or I’m missing something that is holding me back from going higher.

I have 3 credit cards with between 3-4 years of perfect payment history and currently a 2% usage. I’ve always kept the usage below 6%. I’m an authorized user on another card with 1% usage.

$530/$29000

0 collection accounts

0 inquiries

0 late payments

I don’t suppose there is much I can do about my credit history length:

• Average Age: 3 yrs 10 mos
• Oldest Account: 4 yrs 6 mos

Could lack of my credit mix be holding me back? I had a personal loan early on in the rebuilding process but it was paid off a long time ago. Would adding a personal loan to improve my credit mix outweigh the negative impact of a new inquiry?

Any other suggestions?

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1. It's not a good idea to add any new accounts at this time.

2. It would help to maintain your revolving accounts at AZEO... all at zero except one, and that one a small balance.

3. The passage of time will improve your score.

[Anonymous]

What is the yougest account age?   Looking at the age on this profile its not that bad.  I have seen clean profiles with that age hit closer to 790 with out the bk,   This makes me wonder how many points the bk is taking off?   and what is the max in this dirty scorecard?        I  think without an instalment loan and with a bk there are not that many points left on the table until this profile ages a lot.    

[Trudy]

+1 on the above responses.  No new accounts.  But as mentioned, if you're referencing FICO 8 scores, you need to find out what all 3 of your MTG scores are as they will use the middle MTG score., not your FICO 8 scores. So if you have access to your EX MTG, that alone will not give you an idea of where you stand with all MTG scores as they could vary greatly.