N/A credit score.

[coposrv]

My wife and I have been looking for houses. We worked with our mortgage company to go through the pre approval process. We brought all of our different account information and tax records. He ran our credit reports and hers came back with a 720-750 score and mine came back NA. We have no debt other than her car lease at 350/month. She has a few cards with no balance. I have no cards/ car loans or anything. We have a decent bit of money saved and we add about 5k a month to it. We take home between 10-15k a month. I've been debt free for years. Anything I purchase I buy through my business. I need to build credit. What's the best way to go about it? I'm getting kind of stressed about this.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ON D BIT]

No you don't need to build credit! Find a mortgage company that can do manual underwriting. You'll be fine and get a mortgage if they can do their job!

If you can't find a manual underwriter mortgage broker I'll give you a name. You're the one that can actually afford a home loan!

 

[coposrv]

Can you send me a PM? I'm definitely interested. Seems stupid to me to open credit cards and carry debt if I don't have to.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ON D BIT]

I will later tonight.

All credit score is, I'm too greedy and impatient so I buy things I can't afford. What's crazy is banks think these people are the people to loan money to. Those that don't have money to begin with.

If you don't have debt you don't have a credit score. Where I want to be one day.

 

[Kcobra99]

Get a credit card, set your cellphone bill or some other other monthly bills to be automatically paid to the card, pay the balance off once a month before any interest is charged. Banks see revolving credit, you don't have to change your lifestyle or habits much and the credit score takes care of itself.

 

[ssj4sadie]

Ummm, the last thing you want to do is open a line of credit while in the process of buying a house.

 

[Torch10th]

While I don't completely agree with On D Bit on his credit stance, if you literally have no credit, there's not much you can do about it right now if you needed to have it. His suggestion to find a mortgage company that will manually underwrite you is necessary at this juncture.

Starting now, you can build credit, but it takes years. It's not like you can go out, get a credit card and all the sudden you have a 750 credit score. Your score is a combination of utilization habits, debt ratios, length of credit history, number of accounts etc. It doesn't happen over night.

This same issue happened with one of my father's employees about 10 years ago. Him and his wife did well and had zero debt. Paid cash for everything. When they got tired of renting and wanted to purchase a house, they didn't have enough cash for that so they went the mortgage route. In the end they ended up having to build credit for a couple years before they were able to qualify.

 

[oldmodman]

Since I have no need to buy anything anymore I decided to bump up my credit scores as high as possible. So I researched it and found out that having several credit cards with low usage is a very good thing. So I accepted credit card offers from three of my brokerages. All with 25K limits. Then I had all my monthly bills charged to them. Then had all the cards set up with Autopay from a checking account. My FICO score went from 782 up to a current 817 They consider many unused cards to be a sign of a responsible credit user, and one card with a mid to high unpaid balance to be the sign of a bad credit risk.
Maybe someday I'll want to use credit for something.

 

[CV355]

I can tell you this from experience:

I only had installment debt up until a few years ago when I bought my first house. My credit score was in the high 600's yet I had a perfect payment history on everything (car loans, personal loans, insurance, college, etc).

I bought my first house and furnished it by opening 6 or 7 individual cards at various retailers (furniture, appliances, etc). Hammered the hell out of the payments and had it all paid off in 6 months, then cancelled the accounts one by one. Now I only keep a single card, which I use 2 or 3 times a year for large purchases (instant 2% discount). My credit score jumped 180 points in one year despite closing so many accounts. Worth it for when I sold that house and got a nicer one at a lower interest rate.

As other posters said- do NOT do anything that will reflect on your credit report while applying for a mortgage- even if it's just an inquiry.

But as ON D BIT said, you're in a position where you don't even need a credit score anymore. The best credit score to have is N/A or 0 for that reason.

 

[Mach828]

I don't understand how people go through life without applying for any credit cards or installment loans before their first major purchase. Then expect they will have a great credit history and are shocked when they don't.
It doesn't matter how much money you make or have in the bank. A cash purchase doesn't get reported.
I've bought motorcycles I could have paid cash for, but instead I finance them and pay them off in a few months. Eat a $100 in interest and reap the benefits.

 

[ON D BIT]

Why in the world do you need credit when you have money to buy things?

All a credit score tells you is that you have debt or had debt recently. I would much rather have 3 million in the bank with no debt than have 800 credit score.

 

[ON D BIT]

Hell he is saving 5k a month with no debt and the way you people act one would think he has no clue about money. He is the one that will be very wealthy sooner than later!

 

[ViperRed91GT]

Why in the world do you need credit when you have money to buy things?

All a credit score tells you is that you have debt or had debt recently. I would much rather have 3 million in the bank with no debt than have 800 credit score.

Or that you can make your payments on time, consistently, over a long period of time. Obviously he doesn't have the money to buy a house, otherwise he wouldn't need a mortgage. As others have said, I SAVE money by using credit on simple stuff. I get cash back rewards on money I was already going to spend, as well as % discounts based upon what it is.

Why pay $200 when you can pay $180 just by using a different card, then using cash to pay the card before it costs you anything?!

 

[ON D BIT]

You don't save money by having debt.

Bank of America did not make 4.5 billion in net profit in 3 months(3rd quarter 15) by saving people money.

Save your breath the other big bank are profiting a billion plus a month as well.

 

[Buckwheat 1]

Why not ask your trade or business references to report your payments to
the credit bureau. 800 sounds like a great score but I think the algorithm
still thinks you might have a 20% chance of defaulting. I use one card
for my business and pay it off in full every month. I have 40 to 50 point swings even though I pay it off. You would figure one would get extra points.

 

[ViperRed91GT]

You don't save money by having debt.

Bank of America did not make 4.5 billion in net profit in 3 months(3rd quarter 15) by saving people money.

Save your breath the other big bank are profiting a billion plus a month as well.

You do save money by getting a lower interest rate, and it's not debt when you pay it off. Pretty simple concept.

 

[nxhappy]

you can't just build credit overnight. it takes years. go ahead and get yourself a few credit cards. keep a small balance and pay them on time.

 

[ON D BIT]

Lower interest rate is paying more for something than you would if you paid cash. It's not hard to understand.

Which is why the banks make so much money.

 

[nxhappy]

also, not sure if they can write you for a home, if you literally have no credit. if that's the case you may have to get the loan under your wifes name. which really isn't a problem (if your state splits ownership 50/50 due to marriage)

 

[ViperRed91GT]

Lower interest rate is paying more for something than you would if you paid cash. It's not hard to understand.

Which is why the banks make so much money.

No kidding, and you do realize the OP is borrowing money, correct? The banks make money off of the people who carry debt, which is what you keep reverting back to. When you use the card for its benefits and pay it off, it's the same as cash, with a discount.

You also have a high credit score, resulting in a lower interest rate when it comes to buying things that you actually need to finance.