Need All Tricks Possible!!!

Tricks?

 

Attempting to give you any "tricks" in just general conversation will not be very likely to get you much of anywhere.

In order to help you to any great degree one would have to actually look at your credit reports and from a first hand knowledge of your situation be able to tailor a plan for you.

But even without that personal look there may be some general helps that might be given if we at least have some general idea of what types of things are on your credit reports.

I would need to know if you have such things in the derogatories as unpaid student loans, judgments, tax liens (either property or income), chargeoffs from original creditors, collection agencies reporting against you or whatever the case may be.

If you have no derogatories then the problem would almost have to be due to outstanding balances being too high in relation to your income, or something like that.

There always has to be a reason and in most cases there are multiple reasons why your scores are low.

And there are some strategies that can do you a lot of good in building credit rapidly that do not
cost an arm and a leg. But in order for you to use them you need to have everything else pretty well fixed up and in good shape otherwise they will do you little or no good at all.

So let's at least get some solid ideas as to what your reports look like generally speaking.

 

pay off your revolving credit in full (credit cards) and don't use them at all (or pay them before your cycle closes). try to go into the application process with 0 revolving debt showing.

revolving ratios are key drivers in the score and are the easiest way to get a quick score boost in 30 days. Also, if you have any derogs put them in dispute (some evidence it takes them out of the scoring process that way)

they'll still be seen by the underwriting process, but likely the score will bounce.

 

If all you're doing is refinacing, and you have good equity and a verifiable income, you only need a mid FICO score of 620 to get the best FANNIE MAE 30 year rates available.

 

All of your suggestions are great, Marie but I do tend to think that one should not pay one's cards off in full even for a little bit. Credit card companies don't take too kindly to that because it means that they will make no money at all yet have to bear the expense of having the account on their books.

I tend to believe that the best way to do it is to pay it down to within five or ten percent of the credit limit on the card and keep it there for the most part. Spend a buck or so on each card so that it at least dangles the hope of their making some money on it sooner or later.

Doing so will not hurt your score any either.

 

Bill,
I agree with you, if you're trying to get more credit cards. Howver, a quick score bump for a mortgage is what they're talking about here.
Paying your cards off will give you that bump. Who cares what the CC companies want or need right now? It's the mortgage that is the hardest. Can always get another card, if your score is up there.

 

question.

So are you saying that those small balances might or would mean that a lender might not want to appove because you owe someone out there?

 

Correct. Or that you wouldn't get as much as a FICO bump. it may be only a point or two, but if you're at 639 and need 640, every bit helps!

Any balance is going to detract from your overall score. Most say that under 30% usage is good, but 0% usage is better.

 

I work with several mortgage brokers helping people get rid of problems but actually don't know a whole lot about the business myself.

 

I've been working with a few brokers, cleaning credit for their potential clients.

After about 5 or 6 of these, I saw a few things. Those that could pay off all their cards saw the highest bump for the mortgage underwriting process.

So, I came to the conclusion if 30% utilization is good, 0 is better. We've even closed unused revolving credit accounts to drop the over possible debt and improved the FICO mortgage scores!

Now, credit card approval is a different process.

I guess you almost need two or three separate scores for mortgages, credit cards and auto loans!

 

BE VERY CAREFUL ABOUT CLOSING TOO MANY CREDIT CARDS!!!

DEBT TO CREDIT LIMIT IS IMPORTANT FOR F.I.C.O.

If you owe $20,000 with credit limits of $100,000 your 20%
If you close some accounts and owe the same $20,000 BUT your credit limits are now $40,000...YOUR AT 50%...BAD MOVE!!!

 

Agreed. However when a client has ten revolving accounts and they only use 3, closing 5 and leaving two in reserve eliminates one of the issues a mortgage broker may have: The ability to run up 150K in additional debt that the client may not be able to pay for. They look at the overall picture when factoring debt to income ratios for a mortgage.

As I stated, this is for mortgage approval.

Different usages require different score analysis.

 

What has been your most effective method to obtain new broker accounts in your area?

So far mine has just been word of mouth, one broker telling another how good I am at getting his clients approved. But that is a pretty slow way to get the job done.

I could use more.

 

Honestly,
Mine are all word of mouth. Mostly from other states. I went through the mortgage process last year and again this year as a refi.
I discussed my case with the mortgage brokers. Then said watch this, and made the negs go away. Each time, I had 5 separate brokers watching my score. I was my own guinea pig!

So, mine are all referral or word of mouth. I do no solicitation. Heck, I'll even tell people how to do it themselves and walk them through each step of the way. I really don't want the business, which seems to get me more business than I can handle!

 

I've got a nice tri-fold that I hand carry or mail but I guess that the media has done so much hollering about credit repair rip-offs that most of the brokers just figure anything like that has got to be some kind of a scam.

And yet the media also lets the CCS outfits blast their ads all over the place like water coming out of a hose snaring people into their rip-offs and nobody says a word about it.

 

Well, I just be personable, professional and knowledgable.

I also let the facts speak for themselves.

As I said, I don't really need the business, so I don't advertise. I have a job. This is just a hobby that pays my mortgage.

 

I guess you almost need two or three separate scores for mortgages, credit cards and auto loans!
grendel
================
No you don't;
The rip off they have is bad enough.
Consumers don't need it multiplied by three.
The END ************************* LB 59

Almost need two or three separate scores for mortgages, credit cards and auto loans!
grendel
================
Great idea:
Then the 3 would always be in conflict with each other.
That way the consumer would have 3 times the chances of getting screwed than he has now.
Or get screwed 3 times as often which ever way you want to look at it.
The END ************************* LB 59

Different usage's require different score analysis.
grendel
==============
Yep-so you can find the best excuse to put the blocks to the consumer no matter what the purpose.
The END ************************* LB 59

 

I never said I agree with their tactics, just noting that they exist and often conflict. There is no magic mix. One must plan out one's attack.
If going for credit cards use a different mix than going for a mortgage. When going for auto loans, use mixture of the two.

Most places say that 2 good revolving accounts like visa and mastercard with less than 30% usage, 2 good retail accounts like Macy's and Target, 1 car loan, 1 mortgage and stay under 40% debt to income ratio will pretty much guarantee you approval. I guess that's a good generic mix.

One other thing: Often times, a credit card is competition for your mortgage. If you have x amount of dollars, you can only use a % of x to pay cards, mortgages and the like. So of course the mortgage companies want to see less competition for your money. Credit card companies like to see mortgages. It proves you're stable, and gives them a solid asset they can go after if you fail the contract, your house! Most people are unaware of the homestead act or how to protect the equity they have in their home.

You also state that I put the blocks to the customers. If anything, I do the reverse , remove the blocks and educate the average consumer that has no clue. Often, they decide to not do it themselves and will hire someone to do it. I save people money and educate them at the same time. As I said, I do not solicit at all. Ever!