Recently the Monkey started working with Bob and Becky (not their real names) in preparation to purchase their first home.

The couple needed to move because Becky was pregnant and their current apartment had no room for a nursery. When the Monkey first consulted with the couple, Bob’s high credit score was 505 while Becky’s was even worse.

Regardless of the couple’s immediate credit score, I encouraged them to remain hopeful because Bob had a good job and Becky recently inherited enough money for a down payment and closing costs. Even after setting aside the settlement money, they even had some cash left to work on their credit problems.

We put together a credit repair plain. Bob and Becky worked hard and executed the plan. We negotiated with some creditors. With others we demanded debt validation. In sixty (60) days both Bob and Becky had scores of approximately 610. We were close. Unfortunately,  we ran out of options using traditional credit repair techniques. There was nothing left to do except pay down debt. If we paid down the couple’s credit card debt to get the final credit score bump they needed there would not be enough money left for the new home down payment.

Now was the time to rely on a non-conventional HACK to improve Credit Utilization. Simply put, credit utilization is the percentage of credit used compared to how much credit is available. To learn more about credit utilization, read my post about it at the following link: https://creditmonkey.pro/the-five-categories-of-credit-scoring/

Traditionally, the only way to improve credit utilization is to pay down debt. For most people, that takes time, time that Bob and Becky did not have. They needed to move in a few months. Babies don’t wait.

CREDIT MONKEY HACK TIME

Using unconventional credit rehab tactics, the Monkey instructed Bob and Becky to contact all their credit card company and ask for a credit line increase. Three credit card companies granted an increase and instantly Bob and Becky’s credit utilization improved, and accordingly, so did their credit scores.

How did that happen? Credit Utilization is expressed as percentage not as a dollar amount. All that matters is that the ratio of debt to available credit is reduced. The credit algorithm does not care if the percentage goes down by paying the debt or by increasing the credit limit. In this case, increasing credit limits was a faster way of improving Bob and Becky’s credit score than was paying down their debt.

Last week, according to creditKarma.com, Bob and Becky have mortgage-able credit scores. Bob and Becky, welcome to your new home with a nursery.

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