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Hi CB'ers. For a brief back story, my credit journey started 4 months ago when I joined this site and I've enjoyed about 40 point increases on average for all three FICO scores since then. I'm shopping for a house in the spring (fha loan) and I need some advice to maximize my credit scores and clean up CRs in preperation. My 3 ficos were inthe 590-605s when I joined here now they're in the 640-650 range. I removed approx 9 lates/derogs, paid off 3 cc's to reduce my util to about 45% of 12.5k (still plugging away and plan to be below 20% by home loan app time), paid off 13k car loan, and got a big 15k private student loan CO settled in full to avoid being served. I have a goal to be between 660-680 (due to my ongoing credit repair laboring) by mid october and I'm fairly confident I can get there. What I have remaining is 2 small collections ($75 and $300) I'm in the processes of PFD'ing, have about 2-3 more lates I have evidence to dispute, and here's the kicker......3 more private loan COs all around +/- 2.25k/ea totalling 7k. Based on a settlement I already did with the same OC on the other CO, and letter correspondence with them over the last 6 months, I'm fairly confident I can settle on these last 3 loans for 55-70%. Any FHA borrowing homeowner knows getting an FHA loan with COs over $2k is going to be next to impossible. That said, I'm hoping to take out a personal loan to settle these COs and clean up my reports. I intend to pay off the installment loan over the next 3-4 years (it was a student loan I intended to pay anyway, so I don't mind and it's well within my budget) I have poked around the boards and read some threads on personal loan lenders. Places like Lending Club and Prosper seem appealing, but I would also be open to debt consolidation or settlement lenders If need be. Would anyone recommend Prosper or LC for my situation?

Hello everyone, im new here and requesting help on improving my credit, while saving up for a down payment on a house, before i go talking to lenders. I took out a small loan ($1,205.40) from a company called tower loans a little over a month ago because i was inbetween jobs and i really needed it. right as i was completely broke i got this thing in the mail that really was pre-approved. i called them and no credit check, no income verification, (i said i was self-employed) and got the exact loan terms as they mailed out on the ad $1,205.40, to be paid back in 10 monthy installments. anyway, i thought it would help my credit to have an installment loan (so long as i pay on time) along with my credit cards, maybe it will when its all said and done but currently it doesnt seem to be helping. two of my credit cards give me credit scores (which are always quite different from each other) one is a fico 8 bankcard score, and the other is based off of experian. they both give some of the top reasons your score isnt as high as it could be and the one based off of experian, for my august update says: 2. Total amount of credit lines and loans on recently reported open accounts is too low Your report shows the total credit line/loan amounts across your open, recently reported accounts is too low. Having low credit line/loan amounts can have a negative impact on your credit score. would i be better off, when i go to talk to a mortgage lender, to still be paying on this loan, or would i be better to have it completely paid off (way ahead of time) when i go to talk about mortgages also for what its worth, i have federal student loans which i have to start paying on in mid November. these should have payments of around $100/month if i go with the regular 10 year repayment option.

I have $14,000 of credit card debt. Most of the credit cards are high revolving, meaning that they are almost at their limits, but off by about $750 or so from the limit on each card. I have an opportunity to get a personal loan to pay this off at around a 10% interest rate (and a 5 year payback) Question: Would getting the personal loan and paying off the credit card debt in full (and not using the cards again) increase my credit score? I know that it is really robbing peter to pay paul, but there is a big difference in the way the scores are calculated when it comes to revolving credit v. installment loans. I wanted to get everyone's take on this question. Thanks everyone!

I'm currently sitting on about 20K of credit card debt and trying to purchase a home. My current scores are sitting around the 675/680 marker and my mortgage officer indicated lowering my exposure on some cards would likely put me in a better position for a conventional loan (vs. FHA with higher PMI). I was curious if others here have achieved this via taking a personal loan to reduce/payoff balances on revolving and shift to installment loan. I have already burned the IQ and was approved for a consolidation loan with NFCU. Now, I am debating whether this will help/hurt me. My hubby had a period of unemployment so we ended up in a position where we were "living" off of some cards, this situation has improved and now I'm looking for the best way to freeze it all without hurting my ability to get a mortgage. Exposure on these cards range from 94% - 15% so would like your thoughts on what the target exposure amounts would be as well to get the highest score benefits. Thank you for your time and consideration, I always find this board to be most helpful with these type of questions!