mad dash to 700

[nchomebuyer]

not sure if this is the corrrect sub forum for this question

at present my credit score is apx. 675

in the next few weeks ( 8 ) I will be sitting down with a mortgage lender to secure a loan

in the mean time I would like to do what ever I could to boost my present score .

should I not charge anything in the next month or so ,, use the cards I have as usual ??

any ideas How to tweek my score?

,, I know to pay off any cards with a high debt ratio witch is one I do plan to work on

would I be better to close some store cards I never use , or go buy something and pay it off the next week or so. So it shows activity ?

[jmf8756]

675 is good and will get you an FHA. If you're going for conventional, rates are based on score and I'm not sure what tier that falls in, but I'm sure it's not the highest one.

I just talked to my mortgage lender about the same thing last night. Don't close old accounts or open anything new (will decrease your average age of accounts). He said the most important thing to do is to keep making payments on time and try to get as many cards as possible down to a balance of 50% or less of the credit limit.

Do you have any collections or charge offs? How you handle those will also affect your score.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I'm going through the exact same scenario as you.

[willingtocope]

Remeber, even if you are looking at true FICO scores, what you are allowed to see is the FICO Consumer Score. The mortgage underwriter will be looking at the FICO Mortgage Score. The less unsecured credit you have, the better. Pay down existing cards. Don't open new ones.

[Denita]

Remeber, even if you are looking at true FICO scores, what you are allowed to see is the FICO Consumer Score. The mortgage underwriter will be looking at the FICO Mortgage Score. The less unsecured credit you have, the better. Pay down existing cards. Don't open new ones.

Willingtocope is exactly right.

Pay down your cards to zero if you can.

If you can't pay down to zero, pay down as low as you can. If you have the ability to pay off all of your cards, do so. If you can only pay off one or two and still have a small balance on the rest, then do that.

No new credit. DON'T close any accounts as it kills your utilization and your score. Debt to income is very important. The lower the better.

Utilization pays a huge part of determining your score. We don't get to see the actual FICO mortgage score until the lender pulls it, but you get a good idea of your score by pulling from myFICO.com. Since you already know you have 675 than there is no reason to continue to pull your score.

What lenders like to see is little to no unsecured debt. Good debt to income ratios and savings. They will want to see the last 60 days of your bank statements at least. Savings is a good thing for the lender to see too. No overdrafts in your account as well.

Good luck!

[nchomebuyer]

thanks everyone for the replys, I will NOT be opening any new credit

and paying off what I can on some others

most cards I keep at a low balance except one from pep boys with a 1000 limit

and a 475 balance from a set of tires

i will work on that , the others with a balance are a hundred or less so I should be able to zero thous

[cali11]

Willingtocope is exactly right.

Pay down your cards to zero if you can.

If you can't pay down to zero, pay down as low as you can. If you have the ability to pay off all of your cards, do so. If you can only pay off one or two and still have a small balance on the rest, then do that.

No new credit. DON'T close any accounts as it kills your utilization and your score. Debt to income is very important. The lower the better.

Utilization pays a huge part of determining your score. We don't get to see the actual FICO mortgage score until the lender pulls it, but you get a good idea of your score by pulling from myFICO.com. Since you already know you have 675 than there is no reason to continue to pull your score.

What lenders like to see is little to no unsecured debt. Good debt to income ratios and savings. They will want to see the last 60 days of your bank statements at least. Savings is a good thing for the lender to see too. No overdrafts in your account as well.

Good luck!

if you got to myfico and pull your Equfax report it is in fact the same one the lenders use.. They TU report would be diff because they pull fico 04 not 98 like the EQ.