Pull all three reports free at annualcreditreport.com, dispute the errors in writing, pay revolving balances down under 30 percent of each limit and under 10 percent if there is time, leave old accounts open, and stop opening anything new; most of the gain arrives within one to three billing cycles, and late payments improve only by aging.
Mortgage credit is not the score in a banking app. Lenders pull all three bureaus using older FICO models built for mortgages, take the middle of the three scores, and on a joint file use the lower borrower's middle score. That is the number that prices the loan.
The work splits cleanly into what moves in weeks, what moves in months, and what only moves with time. Doing them in that order is the whole method.
What moves in weeks
Revolving utilization is the fastest lever there is, because it is recalculated every time a card reports a balance. The ratio is measured per card and across all cards together, so a single card at 95 percent hurts even when the total is low. Get each one under 30 percent, and under 10 percent if the cash is available, then let a statement cycle so the lower balance reports.
Errors are the second fast lever. Accounts that are not yours, a paid collection still showing a balance, a closed account reported open, a wrong late payment, a duplicate of the same debt sold between agencies. Dispute in writing with the bureau and with the furnisher, and keep the paperwork; the bureau normally has 30 days to investigate.
A lender can also run a rapid rescore once a balance is paid or an error is corrected, which updates the file in days rather than at the next cycle. It goes through the loan officer, not the borrower, and it needs documentation of whatever changed.
What moves in months
Collections and charge-offs. A collection reported inside the last couple of years weighs more than an old one, and the newer mortgage scoring models ignore paid collections entirely while the older models used for mortgages may not. Ask the lender which model the file will be scored on before paying anything, because on some files paying a collection helps the loan approval more than it helps the score.
Credit mix and age, which are slower. Do not close old cards to tidy up: the account's age and its limit are both helping, and closing it raises utilization on everything that is left. Becoming an authorized user on an old, low-balance account belonging to someone with a long history can add file age.
New credit, which is the one to simply stop. Every application is an inquiry, a new account lowers the average age of the file, and any new monthly payment counts against the debt-to-income ratio at underwriting. From pre-approval through closing, open nothing: no car, no furniture financing, no store card at the register.
What only ages out
Late payments stay on the report commonly seven years and their weight fades over that time; the first one is the expensive one, and a 30-day late from four years ago is nearly harmless. A foreclosure and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy commonly report seven years, a Chapter 7 commonly ten. Nothing legitimate removes these early, which is what every credit repair pitch is selling.
What does work while they age is a clean payment record on top of them. Twelve to twenty-four consecutive on-time payments in front of an old delinquency changes both the score and the way an underwriter reads the file, and on a manually underwritten loan the explanation letter and the recent history can matter as much as the number.
How high the score has to get
Program minimums are commonly 620 for a conventional loan, 580 for an FHA loan with 3.5 percent down (500 to 579 with 10 percent down), and no set minimum for VA or USDA, though most lenders add their own overlay near 620. Verify current minimums with the lender, since both the agencies and individual lenders change them.
Above the minimum the score buys price rather than access. Conventional pricing steps at roughly every 20 points to 780, and mortgage insurance is priced off the score too, so the same loan can cost noticeably more at 680 than at 740. Working from 660 to 700 before applying is often worth more than any amount of rate shopping.
This is general information, not credit or lending advice, and nobody needs to pay for it. The disputes, the reports and the balance paydowns are all things a borrower can do directly.
Questions people ask
How long does it take to fix credit before buying a house?
Utilization and disputed errors commonly move the score within one to three billing cycles. Rebuilding after collections or late payments is a six to twenty-four month project, because the improvement comes from a clean record accumulating in front of the old one.
Should I pay off collections before applying for a mortgage?
Ask the lender first. Some loan programs require collections above a threshold to be paid or in a payment plan regardless of the score effect, and on the older scoring models used for mortgages a paid collection may not help the number much even when it helps the approval.
Do credit repair companies help?
They do the same disputes a borrower can file free, and nothing legitimate removes accurate negative information early. A loan officer reading your actual tri-merge report will usually tell you which two or three items matter, which is the part worth having.