mortgage score Bump

[Anonymous]

My family is building a new home with KB Home in TX. We've recently selected our upgrades and hope to start pouring the foundation in the next couple of weeks.  My mortgage lender uses CREDITCO. Does anyone know which credit score they will use? Currently, we are going the FHA route but would like to get our score where we can use a conventional loan with a 5-6% downpayment.  What can I do to get my score up while in this process? 

We have no late payments or negative items on our credit report

Wife's scores

FICO Score 2: EXP 739

FICO Score 4: TU 737

FICO Score 5: EXU 740

My scores

FICO Score 2: EXP 617

FICO Score 4: TU 619

FICO Score 5: EXU 657

I have Six credit cards:

Card 1-  this week paid $1,325.00 that will bring balance to 0 of $1,500

Card 2-this week paid $386.00 that will bring balance to 0 of $1,000

Card 3- this week paid $345 that will bring balance to 0 of $1,000

Card 4- 0 balance of $2,000

Card 5- 0 balance of 500.00

Card 6- balance of $2,700 of $3,500;  77% Utli.

Car Note (On both Reports)

24,752 in which we purchased in Dec 2019

My wife has 6 open credit card accounts

Card 1- $2,476 of $5000 (47 util)

Card 2- $1907 of $2,000

Card 3- 0 of $2000

Card 4- 0 of $1000

Card 5- 0 of $1,500

Card 6- 0 of $900

[Duke_Nukem]

Welcome to the boards!  There are some fine, very knowledgable individuals here that should be able to help you, but I'll take a stab at a few things I've picked up.

I believe you listed the most commonly used FICO scoring models for mortgages, except perhaps you meant "EQ" instead of "EXU"?

One thing to bear in mind is that if you both are applying jointly on the mortgage, then the bank will usually take the lowest middle score between the both of you.  Her middle is 739, and yours is 619... so they will use the 619.

It looks like you are doing the right steps by bringing your balances down.  I'll focus on your scores since they are the ones that will need to be brought up.

Obviously, getting your balances down is the most straight forward approach.  On your Card 6, you'll want to reduce the balance across some known scoring thresholds, such as 9%, 29% and 49% UTI.  Try to at least get that card's UTI to below that 29% for the most bang.

For deeper analysis, we will probably need to know your account ages for your cards, what type of card (revolver or a charge card like AMEX Green), and if it is a "store card" (ie: Care Credit, Victoria Secret, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Thanks for replying and your help!! 

Here are the account ages for each card and type of card:

Toyota Credit Card COMENITY CAPITAL BANK-  this week paid $1,325.00 that will bring balance to 0 of $1,500 (2 Months)

Apple Card GOLDMAN SACHS BANK- this week paid $386.00 that will bring balance to 0 of $1,000 (6 months)

BARCLAYS BANK- this week paid $345 that will bring balance to 0 of $1,000 (1yr and 3months)

Best Buy - 0 balance of $2,000 (3 years)

Home Depot- 0 balance of 500.00 (1 year 6 months)

Capital One QuickSliver- balance of $2,700 of $3,500;  77% Utli. (10 months)

[Duke_Nukem]

The CapOne QS is the correct card to leave a small balance on if you want to do the AZEO method (guessing you've seen this method mentioned).  Ideally, leave a small balance on it and report while all your other cards report a $0 balance (you can use them but just pay them down to $0 before their report date).

Your accounts are rather young, so I'm guessing if you get an AU account from an older but $0 balance card or two would help you.  I'm no expert, so hopefully someone else can confirm if that is a good next step for you.

Does your wife have an older card that can boost your Avg Age of Accounts (AAoA) and Age of Oldest Account (AoOA)?

[Anonymous]

Can getting on one of my wife's cards as a AU hurt my score(credit pull) if the balance is 0? Her oldest 0 balance account is 2 yrs 9 months old

[Duke_Nukem]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Can getting on one of my wife's cards as a AU hurt my score(credit pull) if the balance is 0? Her oldest 0 balance account is 2 yrs 9 months old

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It really depends on who the bank is.  I believe AMEX doesn't retroactively date the AU account and is treated as a new account (which would hurt your score).  And I believe there is another that HP an AU request.

Her 2 yr 9 month card probably won't help much, so no use trying it and taking the risk.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your input. It was helpful. 

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous For your scores to be in the 600's means either dirty or high utilization, typically.

Since you're clean, once you pay that cap 1 to a nominal balance and all the zeros report and the small cap 1 balance, I think you will see a nice increase.

Whats the age of your youngest account and revolver?

Any closed accounts? They contribute to age.

All good advice above.

[seattletravels]

You should see a decent bump once all your cards report.  You need to get that Quicksilver under $1k balance for optimal scoring on your utilization. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for the responses.  I made a $2000 payment on the Captial One card today. The statement doesn't post until March 25th. Should I ask my lender to do a rapid rescore?