What helps and hurts your credit while your loan is in process
Your credit gets re-checked days before closing. Here is the short list of things that have cost real buyers their houses.
Your credit is pulled at application and refreshed again shortly before closing. Buyers routinely assume the first pull is the one that counts. It is not, and the second one has ended purchases in the final week.
Do not do these while under contract
- Finance a car. This is the number one deal-killer — a $600 payment can push your debt-to-income ratio past the program limit overnight.
- Open a store card for the furniture. The new inquiry and new balance both count against you.
- Close an old credit card. Shrinking your available credit can raise your utilization and drop your score.
- Move large sums between accounts, or accept a big untraceable deposit.
- Change jobs or switch from salary to commission without telling me first.
- Miss a payment on anything, including a store account you forgot existed.
Things that genuinely help
- Paying down revolving balances below 30% of each limit — this can move a score in a single cycle.
- Leaving every account open and untouched at its current balance.
- Disputing a genuine reporting error early, with documentation, rather than the week of closing.
Written by
Travis Nicolaysen
Loan Officer, Fairway Home Mortgage · NMLS #1782820
Questions about how this applies to your file? Call or text 704-728-4548.
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