     Denise Chini (Cheerz36) | Monday, July 17, 2000 - 03:38 pm 
My husband I are going through a divorce. He has agreed to let me buy his part of the home from him. The house will appraise for $90,000. We owe 56,000. I am going to have to purchase the home for 76,000. My credit should be excellent. I have no late payments for seven years. I have one small dergotory going off in September about a $100.00 video that was obtained through a judgement. Only one crdit bureau is reporting this. I will not purchase the house until January. My questions is the FIDCO scores are scaring me to death. I would like to work with someone now to help me get this house financed in January. Do you have any ideas of someone who will be willing to work with someone for the next six months to increase these scores? I just closed some huge accounts because I did not feel I needed them. Is this going to hurt? Sears had me up to $8,000 credit line. Lowe's gave me $6,000, I owed nothing on either card so I closed them out. I do have plenty of other credit. I just want to make sure that I do not have to sell my home and then try to buy another. If I can just do the right things now I can be assured success in January. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks |
| John Shimmer (Jshimmer) | Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 05:37 am
You didn't mention your income or total amount of (current) debt. Provided that both are in line, and provided that your only derogatory item is the almost 7 year old judgement, you should not have much to worry about. Did you PAY the $100 judgement, or is it still outstanding? If it is, the mortgage company will probably require you to pay this (if it's still on your reports when you apply for the mortgage).
Again, if everything is in line except for the one derog, you shouldn't have to bother trying to "improve" your FICO scores - they should be pretty good right now.
Don't close all your open/$0 balance accounts. Leave a few open with some halfway decent credit lines, especially if you have balances on any of them. The amount you owe in open accounts versus the amount of credit you have available is used when calculating scores. If you have $1000 in balances, but close down all your accounts except for a couple with $1500 credit lines, you'll look over-extended. Leave yourself with a decent amount of open credit (say, $5000 if you carry a total of $1000 in balances, for example). You said that you have 'plenty of other credit', so we'll assume that there's no issue here. |
| Denise Chini (Cheerz36) | Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 12:48 pm
Thanks, John for your response. I feel a little better. My yearly income is about $40,000, I owe $5000 in various (6) credit card accounts, I have a car payment that will be paid for in two more years, still due $9000.00. Another car loan which I am the co-signer for, I am going to ask my daughter to re-finance that into her name if she can. She has never missed a payment. I did not pay the judgement, I thought it was stupid. Someone stole my video car. But that's when I was younger, I would pay it, principle doesn't matter much now. My oldest account was in 1979 a JC Penney account along witht the Sears account I just closed. Then in the eighties I did not open any finance accounts, was going to school, could barely afford to pay the rent.LOL. In the nineties my income went up and I was started opening charge accounts. So I have a total of 7 major credit cards, about 3 dept. stores (no balance)and 2 installment accounts. 5 of the 7 have split between them the $5000.00 balances and 2 have no balance at all.
My mortgage today is at a 6.8% rate, re-financed two years ago when rates were great. But, it is my understanding that to take my husbands name off and to give him his money I have to re-finance?
Hope this answers what you were looking for. Once again thanks for the advice. |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 01:02 pm
I agree with John. Just want to add that Denise DEFINITELY should obtain her reports and MAKE SURE that there's nothing wrong.
She can either pay for and order the reports directly from the bureaus, or order the free reports here (check the affiliate page) to avoid any inquiries.
If Denise has any questions at all, she should pay the $30 or so to have these reports reviewed by someone in the credit biz.
Of course she can also post here again with questions, but in my experience most consumers don't recognize most problems other than late payments and past due balances. |
| Christine Baker (Admin) | Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 03:20 pm
Hadn't seen Denises posting prior to mine. She should contact the CURRENT lender to see if they are interested in a refi to get the husband's name off. They might give her a deal. The worst thing that can happen is that they say no.
And yes, try to get the daughter's loan out of your name. |
| John Shimmer (Jshimmer) | Friday, July 21, 2000 - 06:49 am
Yes, the only way you'll get the mortgage holder to release your other half is to refinance in your own name only, even if it's with the SAME company.
Definately have someone look at your reports if you aren't familiar enough with reading them.
Also make sure that you're in line with your debt to income ratio. You said that you make about $40k a year. Generally speaking, your mortgage (PITI - pricipal, interest, taxes, insurance) can't be more than 28% of your gross take home per month. And that PITI *plus* any other monthly payments (credit cards, your car loan, your DAUGHTER's car loan if you're still on as a co-signer, any additional installment accounts, etc.) can't be more than 36% of your total gross monthly income. Programs vary (read: allow higher ratios), but that's a general look at it. If you consolidate any more credit cards, leave the paid off ones OPEN - you don't want to be at a point where you owe $5k with only $5500 total credit lines on the open cards. I forget the figure, but try to keep your total balances at around 25-35% of your total AVAILABLE credit lines (or even less, if possible). |
| Don Semler (Dsemler) | Thursday, July 27, 2000 - 07:50 pm
I would suggest having someone run your reports now as christine mentioned. In six months the inqure today will be of no consequence. Don't order the reports from the CRA's as I don't believe that they will provide you with a score. To get a copy with all three score should cost about $15. That's what it cost for us to run them.
Worst case apply for the mortgage now and see if you qualify. If you do, you shouldn't have anything to worry about in 6 months. If you don't qaulify, it only show up as an inquiry and you get to find out what you need to do in order to qualify in 6 months. |
| John Shimmer (Jshimmer) | Friday, July 28, 2000 - 06:02 am
Where would Denise go to purchase a triple-merged credit report with the FICO, Beacon and Empirica generated scores for only 15 bucks? No where I know of.
If she's going to take the inquiry hits, she might as well contact a mortgage lender that is willing to run her credit without paying the application fee and is willing to give her a copy. Then it won't cost her squat. |
| Don Semler (Dsemler) | Friday, July 28, 2000 - 11:23 am
The inquiry hit is not a big deal. One inquiry is not going to kill her.
My cost is $15 for these reports, if your paying more you need to find a new vendor.
I agree she could go to a lender, but to be fair to the lender she should pay their cost for the report. If she doesn't pay for it they have no obligation to give it to her. If your idea is for her to go to a lender an not be upfront about her intention, then you are the type of borrower they we in the business do not care for. Trying to trick the lender into a FREE report ends up hurting everyone as the cost of business goes up and thus does the price to the consumer as the lender has to make this cost up somewhere in order to stay in business.
I think she should offer to pay for the cost and let them know that she just wants to know if she can get approved for a loan and that she will be needing it in a few months. If the person she is working with in honest and has integrity, they will understand her situation and respect her wishes. Hopefully when she needs the loan she would come back to that person or company. |
| John Shimmer (Jshimmer) | Friday, August 04, 2000 - 06:05 am
You never answered the original question: WHERE would DENISE go to purchase a triple-merged credit report with the FICO, Beacon and Empirica generated scores for only 15 bucks?
Whether or not YOUR cost is $15 or not, it doesn't help DENISE. You gave advice to someone without providing enough detail for her to accomplish the task.
Please - where can we all go to get a triple merged credit report (including scores) for $15?
I never said she should go to a lender under false pretenses. I was merely trying to echo your suggestion of "Worst case apply for the mortgage now and see if you qualify". If you go to a reputable lender (that's not pinching pennies) and tell them you're interesting in finding out if they can work with you, the first thing they usually do is run your history to see where you stand -- and they don't CHARGE you for doing it - that's part of the cost of doing business.
I spoke with four potential brokers/lenders before deciding upon one, and all of them said they would run a report up front(I only told the one I picked to actually run it) to see where we stood. Nobody griped about the $ out of their pocket required to screen me as a potential borrower. Again, it's your part of the cost of doing business -- you ARE the "we in the business", correct?
And if she has the lender obtain the reports "a few months" before she actually wants to apply for the loan, it will only hurt her. Most every lender will only use a RMCR for 90 days, and then will want to order a new one (to see if things changed). That's an extra inquiry (three months previous) that Denise doesn't need. But of course you already knew that. |
