Hey everybody, been a while since I've posted. MY last update can be found here: http://consumers.creditnet.com/Disc...-mortgage-qualification-72078.html#post498332. In short, I qualified for a home about a year ago with a middle score of 650, and after checking my 3 scores with PrivacyGuard, my highest score is now a 640. I'm confused as to why my credit has not improved substantially over a year. I still do not have a legitimate credit card, just the same 2 secured cards. I've been paying on my car loan for about 9 months in addition to my mortgage and have had nothing negative other about 14 inquires over the past year. Could this be causing my score to stay stagnant. I've researched disputing these inquires but came to the conclusion this isn't really feasible. I have the ability to acquire a card with a cosigner...should I pursue this? My goals are to buy another home within the next few months and I would like to get a good rate. I would also like to refinance my car. Any thoughts?
If your scores are more or less the same now as they were when you financed your car, you may not be able to get a better rate. Do you carry balances on your revolving secured cards? It's a good idea to keep debt to credit ratios low, like 10% and under. How old are the accounts? Age plays a factor in your score. Are you piggybacking onto someone else's card or are you opening a new CC with them? The former would better boost your score, if you have such an ability. For one, it gives you an instant 'aged' account, and secondly, you avoid the inquiry. 14 is a lot but I am guessing a number of them are grouped in the same time frame for the mortgage?
As Mindcrime mentions above, adding yourself as an authorized user to a friend or family member's aged and good-standing account is a way to expedite an improving score. Automatically ups the average age of your accounts, which can give your score a boost, especially if many of your existing accounts are very young. (Sounds like the auto loan and the mortgage are both relatively new). Here's an old article explaining the authorized user strategy: http://www.creditnet.com/Library/Cr...t_history_as_an_authorized_user.ccfaq_001.php
Thanks for both of your replies. Both of my secured accounts are at 10% or less, with both accounts being more than two years old. My dad added me as an authorized user on two or three of his accounts during my time trying to get financed for a mortgage, and it DID significantly boost my score. However, during the underwriting process, they asked that these accounts be removed because they artificially inflate the score so to speak. Since I will be attempting to buy another home very soon, I'm worried they'll ask to have them removed again. It's not a simple task to take them off and my Dad more than likely won't want to do it. As far as the inquires go, 3-4 are regarding my mortgage, 6-7 for my car, a couple drom DirecTv etc. To be honest I don't remember authorizing probably half of these but once again, I've heard its very difficult to get these removed from your account. Is this true? This seems to be my only option other than getting added as an AU. I think I'll also try to get a no-fee card with a cosigner....can't really hurt at this point.
This is the first time I'm hearing about a mortgage company doing this. I hope it doesn't become a routine request, otherwise a major benefit of becoming an AU may become obsolete. So a middle score of 650 was your FICO without the AU accounts then? What was it with the AU's? Verizon FIOS wanted to run my credit too (this must be something new as Comcast never did this to me years ago when we first signed on). And yes, these days it's more difficult in getting an inquiry removed as the CRA's will use the "an inquiry is a record of fact and whether the consumer authorized it or not, the company in question still inquired/viewed your report, therefore the 'inquiry' is valid", nonsense. Years back we could delete them in batches with a simple online dispute. Auto-inquiries are easy to rack up when car shopping. Once you fill out an app with the dealership, the finance guy is back there running your credit. So it's just as easy to rate/bank shop as it is to car shop. If they're all grouped around the same timeframe it's *supposed* to not affect your score as negatively as those spread out over a greater period of time. Becoming a cosigner on another account (non-secured) is a good idea, especially if you're planning to get a separate mortgage with the same lender who required you to unroll the AU lines of credit you had reporting, but definitely won't give you nearly the instant score boost you saw this way.
Lender says I have to remove authorized user accou... - myFICO® Forums Underwriter is Tough on Authorized User - The Mortgage Professor Has anyone been denied mortgage by the underwriter (credit score, loan) - City-Data Forum A google search will reveal several more stories exactly like this. Most seem to be very recent, so it's possible this is just a recent trend due to tightening of lending standards. Pretty shitty. Yes my middle score was 650 without the AU's, can't remember what it was with them. I think I recall that initially it boosted my score 20-30pts, could be wrong though. Ya, I have really racked them up recently. I mean 14 seems outrageously high. (I think the rule of thumb is 5pts/inquiry off yoour credit) My score could easily have been severely affected by this. I will attempt to get a card with a cosigner here in the next few days. I'm monitoring my score now through PrivacyGuard which although not true FICO scores, seems to be one of the better credit monitoring sites.
FYI, these inquiries only affect your score (literally, in terms of your your score number) for 12 months, even though they remain on your report for 2 years. That said, all the inquiries could show the actual human eyes at the bank that you've had too many inquiries in too short a time. But every bank is different, so unfortunately it's tough to say...
Good call Jason, I forgot about the 12-month timeframe. Matymo is probably rounding that corner soon, at least with the auto loan.
Hey guys, thanks again for the replies. It looks like 7 of the 15 most recent inquiries should stop affecting my score within the next 2 months if the 1-year rule holds true. It will be interesting to see what my score improves to after those drop off. I'll be looking to purchase another home within that time frame. I'll keep this thread updated.
Not sure if anyone has used CreditKarma, but my score is showing as a 622 through them. I've read that their score closely correlates with a true Fico score. Pretty discouraging really...
Based on the old "rule" (I hardly think it's a rule, since there seem to be very few when it comes to CRA's), that would be 7 (inquiries) x 5 (points per inquiry) for a ballpark estimate of 35 points.
According to this thread on their forum, they use parts of TU but also calculate their own scores: https://www.creditkarma.com/question/how-does-ck-calculate-your-score You could always sign up for the myfico monitoring service to see where you're at. They have a 10 day free trial offer on their website: Free FICO Credit Score + Check Your Credit Report Online | myFICO Guest
I almost signed up for this once; however I could not find an answer on how to cancel within the trial period, and don't necessarily want to call in just to hear an offer-to-stay-speech. Anyone who has used this service (and subsequently cancelled), were you required to call in to cancel or is there a link once you sign up?
I have actually use the MyFico credit monitoring and cancelled it because they don't allow you to refresh your score as many times as you want. If I recall it's only a periodic update, maybe every month or so. And yes it was the typical call in and get the whole retention schpeal in order to cancel.
Right - I've read multiple variations on how much it actually affects your score. I think ultimately it's just good to keep the number of inquiries to a minimum so as not to appear like you're constantly looking for credit. Even if your score doesn't take too much of a hit you might look like a bigger risk in the eyes of lenders w/ all those inquiries on your report.
So I'm in the process of getting approved for another mortgage. The lender that pulled my credit sent me my scores, as is required, and the Experian score they pulled was a 655. So it looks like I've stayed pretty consistent over this year, and I'm guessing the inquiries are what are hampering my credit from improving further. Should I pursue a legitimate credit card on my own, or cosign to ensure I get the best possible card? Does owning the card solely look better than if it were cosigned?
Good question. I wonder if Heather has any thoughts on that since she's an advocate for being added as an AU. I would guess that being a co-signer would not look any worse as there's no artificial inflation (as you were previously told) and you're just as responsible for the credit as the other person vs an AU where you have the ability to walk away untouched if the account goes bad. Is this the same mortgage co as before where AU's are not allowed? You could verify with them that co-signer accounts are "OKAY". A higher CL would help lower your overall debt to credit ratios. You're only 10 months into your car loan (which I'm guessing is either a 48 or 60 month loan?) and paying that down if you have the ability would help your score as well since your D2C on that is probably over 80%.
Didn't realize that debt to credit on installment loans had a tremendous impact on a credit score, thought that the primary impact on the credit score is the debt to limit (or credit) ratio on revolving accounts. If this is the case, then that would defintely lower credit scores significantly for most people, especially those of us with a mortgatge or car loan of any type, since much of the early monthly payment on these debts go towards interest ?
