Protecting MyFico score for Mortgage (A Credit Snapshot)

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone - 

Been reading the forums a ton and can't thank everyone enough for their advice and general tips. Anyways, here's my situation. 

Currently at a 643 (Fico 8), 653 (Fico Morgage 2), 710 (Fico Auto 2), and 625 (Fico Bankcard 2)...I have 8 different credit cards, my utilization has been awful for about a year but I have paid it down from being nearly completely maxed out around 98% to 54% today. I am also planning on paying off the remaining 54% within the next month. The total credit across all the cards is $11,110, and I currently have outstanding debt of $6,045.

AMEX ($1000 credit line, 1% utilization)

Bank of America ($2600 credit line, 1% utilization) - this one added the interest to the statement that generated, which is $41

Barclays Apple ($1200 credit line, 98% utilization)

Cap One Platinum ($500 credit line, 1% utilization) - this one added the interesest to statement that generated, which is $9

Cap One Quicksilver ($500 credit line, 89% utilization) 

Credit One Bank ($600 credit line, 94% utilization)

Discover ($1700 credit line, 60% utilization)

Care Credit ($3000 credit line, 88% utilization)

So again - I know a hand full of those are sky high at utilization but I have saved up enough to get these bad boys down to zero thank God, and will do so by April. Ok so other things on my credit report -

$30K in student loans (completely in good standing, never missed a payment)

$7964 car loan (good standing, never missed a payment)

Now the baddies consist of a charge off from a bank years ago, which I just made an arrangement to pay it off so it will stop reporting as a new charge off (66 in a row now) every single month by April as well. Additonally - here's where I'm slightly confused. I had a collections account with Verizon that I paid off (tried to get them to PFD, no luck), but once it was paid it disappeared from Experian. On my Equifax it is listed under a closed account, same for TransUnion. TransUnion has a higher score than the other two, while Equifax lags behind. Should I not even worry about that and just focus on what MyFico says the Fico 8 is?

So that's a snapshot of my current credit. I've also got about 20K saved to put towards a down payment on a mortgage, with an additional 11K for anything else I need house related. That's not counting the $6045 that I will be paying towards these credit cards this month. 

My question is - say I pay off all these credit cards within a month, what sort of boost should I expect my score to get to? The MyFico simulator says 703, but that same simulator also said if I pay another $2k it will go to 693 (a 50 point jump) and then a much bigger 4K payment would only take it 10 points from 693 to 703. I know to take the simulators with a grain of salt so that's why I was hoping for a fair assesment of what I should expect. 

Thank you so much in advance!!

[Anonymous]

Also - i meant 'Projecting' not 'Protecting' - lol guess I need another cup of coffee!

[donkort]

I would say striving for AZE0 (all cards at zero except one card [that card should not be a store card]) would be useful.  Lowering utilization tends to raise scores pretty rapidly.  I am under the impression that the mortgage broker would want you to pay off the charge-offs.  I'm not sure about their attitude towards payment plans. 

I would focus more on what your Mortgage scores are, and especially what your middle score within those Mortgage scores are.  If a mortgage provider uses Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac, they tend to use the older FICO models.   You can get all these scores through obtaining them at MyFICO (I believe you actually already did obtain those scores). 

You would other scores on Experian.com----but only from Experian.  

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response! I phrased that wrong, the charge off isn't a payment plan, I'm paying it completely off at once. 

[Anonymous]

When you say the middle score for mortgage scores, which do you mean? I see MyFico 8 (643), Fico 2 Mortage (656),  Fico 2 Augo (710) and Fico Bancard 2 (625). Is the morgage one just the middle? Or do you mean middle across Experian, Equifax, TransUnion in general?

[donkort]

Do you know the company which is "servicing" your charge-offs and collections?  Some of them will delete them from your credit files upon payment. One of them is a company named "Portfolio."   

With others, you can possibly make a deal whereby you pay off the charge-off/collection, in exchange for the company deleting the account from all three credit bureaus. 

If you can lower the utilization to AZE0 levels, and get rid of the charge-offs, I see 700s across the board. 

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

When you say the middle score for mortgage scores, which do you mean? I see MyFico 8 (643), Fico 2 Mortage (656),  Fico 2 Augo (710) and Fico Bancard 2 (625). Is the morgage one just the middle? Or do you mean middle across Experian, Equifax, TransUnion in general?

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Middle of:

EX FICO 2

EQ FICO 5

TU FICO 4

Pay down/off the CC's but leave a yuppie food stamp on one of them ($20 or whatever).  Air strike the CO as planned, then hold cash.  Paying down installment debt really is more about a DTI calculation than a FICO one.

[Anonymous]

So the charge off is with a local credit union, they are still the ones reporting it every month. It's a very small amount, I really am not expecting them to be willing to delete it unfotunately. 

[donkort]

You get EX FICO 2, TU FICO 4, and EQ FICO 5 here on MyFICO.  You would have to order the reports from all three credit bureaus.  No other entity has these alternative scores for all three bureaus.

[Revelate]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So the charge off is with a local credit union, they are still the ones reporting it every month. It's a very small amount, I really am not expecting them to be willing to delete it unfotunately. 

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Isn't about getting them to delete it in this case, it's about getting it to stop updating.  Get that line drawn in the sand and the only way to do that is to just pay it.

CO's are seriously consumer unfriendly but being paid is far better than updating.