Trying to build my scores!

[jhollow509]

Hello Everyone,
I was hoping to maybe get some advice on my current credit situation. I’m hoping to get a mortgage with my partner in around 20 months or so (Gonna renew our rental one more time). I think I messed up a little trying to build my scores to begin with and have went from thin file to super thick file within the past 2 years. I’m trying to learn everything I can about credit and build myself to be better than my background, but I’m a little lost. Would y’all be willing to help me figure out what the best courses of action to take with my accounts would be? (Also, couldn’t really figure out if this was the right thread to post this in. If not, let me know!)

Details:

Cards: Name/Balance/Date Opened/APR
Discover it: 2340/2700 (Opened 10/18) 0% APR till April ‘20
Discover it: 1377/6000 (Opened 09/19) 0% APR till 01/21
Cap1 QS: 113/500 (Opened 08/18) 21.49 APR
Cap1 QSO: 450/500 (Opened 02/18) 21.49 APR
CareCredit: 1140/6000 (Opened 04/19)
Amazon store card: 360/400 (Opened 02/19)
Ikea Projekt: 3090/8000 (Opened 02/19)
West elm: 1300/5600 (Opened 02/19)
Lending club: 5750/8000 (Opened 01/19) 0% APR 12 months
Express: 57/750 (Opened 02/19)
Overstock: 522/2650 (Opened 02/19)
Mission Lane: 0/600 (Opened 02/19) 29.9 APR
Gettington: 167/1000 (Opened 10/18)
Amex BCE: 0/1000 (Opened 10/19)
(Amex APR unsure. Locked out my account till I get my card.)

Accounts:
Santander: Car Loan, balance is $11,444 (upside down- 16% paid off) APR is 16.89%
Student loans: $80 a month. $15696 balance
(0% paid off, been paying for 2 years)

Payment history is Exceptional, no lates.

7 closed secured loan accounts, all paid off. Closed in 2017. (Joint accounts I got with my mom to build credit).

Experian Score: 694, 20 inquiries, 0 Collections
AAoA: 4 years, 10 months. (Reports a few accounts of my Great-Grandfathers as mine from 35 years ago for some reason. All positive though).

Equifax Score: 632, 18 inquiries, 2 Collections One PFD hasn’t updated. Other is 127$ settled in full/closed (Reported on 01/19) For some reason FirstPoint (Agency) reportes it as a 60+ day late as well.
AAoA: 2 years, 2 months.

Transunion Score: 675, 15 inquiries, 1 Collection(Waiting for update. PFD)
AAoA: 2 years, 2 months.

My Discover/LendingClub balances are high because I just had a major dental surgery done that put me out of work (no pto at my job) for over a week.
My goal is mid 700 scores within the next 18 months, and to increase my Amex/Discover/CareCredit limits. I also want to refinance my upside-down car loan, but I owe like 147% of what it’s worth.
Monthly income after taxes is around $2700. Rent is $650, bills come out near $400. The rest goes to cards, car, and savings.
Cap1 balance is high because I used it to pay off that PFD collection. Was planning to transfer that balance to my Discover Card at 0% APR.
I feel like I got trigger happy, so I need to close some cards. Also feel like I’ve moved past my bucketed Cap1 cards, and planned to close them eventually.
Any ideas? All input is appreciated!

[AllZero]

1. Don't seek any more credit. Do not apply 12 months leading up to a mortgage application.
2. Visit the mortgage forum. Read all you can.
3. Pay your bills on time, every time.
4. Find out where your middle mortgage scores are so you can get a baseline on what you need to improve.
5. Test out AZEO All Zero Except One card reporting a small balance eg $20. You want to see what are your optimized scores for mortgage will be once your PFD is updated.
6. Let your account age and the severity of the delinquency and derogatory with it.

[Girlzilla88]

Wait for your vehicle to year 1 year mark before REFI, when you do try with a local CU or your bank first to see what kind of deal they can do for you I do agree with paying down on your CC and of course getting rid of the Collections (once it drops/shows no more) it will help a LOT .....also I agree not to open ANYTHING in the next year if you can and just wait on those to age and opt for CLI at that time so it shows you aren't over doing it.

[Auricom]

Follow the advice above, but also:

Save up an emergency fund to cover a few months' expenses, then pay off those high APR cards as aggressively as you can. Right now I estimate you're losing about $750/yr to interest.

You're at about 40% utilization, if possible you want to get that to 1% before applying for a mortgage. Once you get below 28% and you trust yourself to not rack up any more debt, call up 6mo+ old cards and ask for credit line increases. Only go through with the increases if the agent says it won't be a hard pull. Higher credit limits will decrease your utilization, increase your score, and hopefully allow you to ask for lower APRs.

Keep your no-annual-fee cards open, close the rest.

[jhollow509]

Thank y’all for the advice! I’ll hold off on applying for anything and stay in the garden. The only thing that was tempting me was the Apple Card. I will pay down the high balances, and then close the annual fee cards. Is the apply for one card every 6 months a rule I should follow after mortgage?
Also, I opened car loan over a year and a half ago, but can’t find anyone to refinance cause I owe so much more than the car is worth.

[AllZero]

Are you a member of a credit union? Have you considered joining one?

Depending on vehicle age, credit unions offer used car loans.

However, you need to get your scores up by paying down your debt.

[Auricom]

The Apple Card looks cool, but I've been disappointed by the rewards -- you can't even use the metal card if you actually want the rewards, gotta use Apple Pay... Some of your other cards actually look like they probably have better rewards. Yep, the garden is where you need to be. I'm also in the getting-ready-for-mortgage game, so I need to be in the garden, too. It's tough but worth it!

[Anonymous]

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@jhollow509 wrote:
Thank y’all for the advice! I’ll hold off on applying for anything and stay in the garden. The only thing that was tempting me was the Apple Card.

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Don't be tempted.  You're very high risk already with your scores, strong credit-seeking behavior and the number of accounts/inquiries you've added recently.  You need to put an immedate stop to that if you want your profile to begin to strengthen in prep for a mortgage down the road.  If you don't apply for anything effective immediately, your AAoA will be 1 year greater 12 months from now and your AoYA 12+ months as well.  Those two factors alone should naturally raise your scores 25+ points by then.  Adding just 1 account though will ruin that by resetting the clock.  Also you've got a lot of balances and CC debt currently.  Unless you're in a position to pay off all of your CC debt today, the idea of adding an additional card is simply not a wise financial move.  Paying down your CC debt will also raise your scores significantly and dramatically lower your risk due to a much stronger profile.

[jhollow509]

I am part of a credit union, but I no longer use the account because it’s in my old state. I haven’t been able to go close the account because I’m always working. I haven’t been able to find a good CU in the Charlotte, NC area.
I was a little scared my profile seems high-risk, especially since I have high limit Comenity cards and have seen horror stories about people being shut down by them.
Gardening is definitely hard. Lol.
I pay more than the minimum every month, but I haven’t taken the score drop for my new balances yet. I’m scared it will be substantial.

[Girlzilla88]

Don't be scared but definitely don't do something new and work on lowering your card      Keep researching for a good Local CU too       I love my CU