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Will and when scores raise

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Will and when scores raise

Got a home equity loan for $35,000 so we can make a major home improvement.  Since my DTI was high, part of the loan approval was that the credit union pay off all of my revolving debt, which added to $15,000.  All my debts were paid to $0 on March 25 of this year.  Now I have an installment payment with the home equity loan.

Will my FICO scores go up after paying off all the revolving debt but taking on a new installment loan?  So far, my scores have not increased.  Thanks.

Message 1 of 27
26 REPLIES 26
medicgrrl
Valued Contributor

Re: Will and when scores raise

My scores dropped about 15 pts when I had $0 reporting for revolving credit.  As always, YMMV



EQ 778 EXP 782 TU 729
Message 2 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise

It depends on what your CC utilization was before the CC debt was paid off.  The higher your utilization was, the more likely it is that this will help you.  Do you know what your CC utilization was?

 

Regardless, as MedicGrrl observes, you will want to avoid having a balance of $0 reporting for ALL of your cards.  That's easy to fix, however.  Just start using one card -- it can be for as little as one small purchase per month.

Message 3 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise

Hi.  Here is the list of cards that were paid in late March:

1) Card #1: Limit 1600, owed 1600

2) Card #2: Limit 9500, owed 5500

3) Card #3: Limit 1400, owed 1410.

4) Card #4: Limit 500, owed 500.

5) Card #5: Limit 5000, owed 4000.

All of these now reflect a $0 balance.

Thanks.

Message 4 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise

Yeah, you will get a huge boost to your score.  Starting using one of those cards a small amount (could be as little as a burger once a month) and you should be set.

 

Do wait for all the changes to make their way onto your reports first, before you try to assess what the result will be.  Just trust that the result will be very good.

Message 5 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise

Hi.  When should I see the results in FICO?  I need to lease a new car at the end of April and need to qualify with Tier 1 credit. Over 720.  Currently at 680 across the boards.  Thanks.

Message 6 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise

OK.  Then your next step should be to research -- for each card that you have -- the date that each statement printed for the last three statements.

 

For example, let's take card #1.  When you do your research, you may discover that the last three statements were on March 20, Feb 19, and Jan 21.  In that case it means that you'll probably have a statement printing in the next few days.  The following day, the CC issuer will report that balance to the credit bureaus.  It will then take the bureaus about 6-11 calendar days for their databases to be updated.

 

Your FICO score will be based on whatever the reports say on the day that the FICO score is pulled.

 

Some valuable tools you should acquire right away are WalletHub and Credit Karma.  They will enable you to do frequent pulls of your reports (WalletHub is for daily for TU only -- Karma is weekly for TU and EQ).  Ignore their scores -- your are using them to check your CC balances on the reports.

 

Also helpful might be to start the $1 trial at Credit Check Total on April 20.  That would give you a pull of your reports on the 20th and on the 27th I think, as well as (crucially) your three FICO 8 scores.  Reach out to Brutal Body Shots for advice on how best to use CCT.

 

It's also crucial to make sure that one card has a positive balance reporting on the day that the car dealership pulls your scores.

 

Is April 30 really an absolute deadline?  For exmple, what would happen if you just rented a car for a week, while your reports updated? 

Message 7 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise

Thank you for all of the advise.  Actually, the credit union over paid some of my accounts so I had places like gardner white and home depot and credit one actually give ME a check for the overage.  I still have a balance of -10$ on my credit one card.  How does that get reported?

Thanks.

Message 8 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise

Any negative balance gets reported as $0. 

 

After you determine the dates that each of your creditors is likely to report as CGID suggested earlier, I would pick one that has a date coming up, say April 25 and just that card for a small purchase today.  You don't want to pick a card with a date that just passed, say the 15th, as it would be nearly a month before that balance reports/shows up on your credit report so you'd be waiting a lot longer to see that FICO scoring benefit that you really need.

Message 9 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Will and when scores raise


@Anonymous wrote:

Also helpful might be to start the $1 trial at Credit Check Total on April 20.  That would give you a pull of your reports on the 20th and on the 27th I think, as well as (crucially) your three FICO 8 scores.  Reach out to Brutal Body Shots for advice on how best to use CCT.

 


When you start your CCT $1 trial you get your scores immediately and then can pull them again any time 7-10 days later (your choice).  So in the example above, if they OP were to start his $1 trial tomorrow the 20th, he'd be able to pull his scores again any time between the 27th and 30th.

 

Come to think of it, I think you may be able to go past the 10 day window.  I'll have to test this out with my next trial.  I know there has been one or two times that for whatever reason I simply forgot to repull my scores after cancelling my trial membership.  I'm 99% sure, though, that a week or two later when I log in to CCT the offer is still there in the bottom right corner offering a 3 bureau refresh at no additional cost.  One of the great benefits of CCT is that even after you cancel your $1 trial you can still log into your account every day essentially forever as far as I know and you still get a daily update to your EX FICO 08 score.  You can also access all of your archived 3B reports from earlier on, even months after you cancel your $1 membership.  The automated system upon cancelling tells you that they'll "leave your account open" for 10 total days from the date you first started the trial, but from my experience the account actually stays open indefinately.

Message 10 of 27
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