Cap One Combination and paid off other credit lines.

[Anonymous]

Hey Forum,

    So my tradelines include a $3400 Jared CL with a $0 balance, a $2000 care credit CL with a $0 balance a $650 Credit one CL with a $100 balance, a Cap One QS 1 card with a $0 balance and a $2250 CL and a QS with a $2100 balance and a $2250 CL. I just paid off all $4000 on my other tradelines and will put another $1000 to pay my QS down to a $1000 balance. My question is should I combine the QS1 into the QS and combine their CL. Does the QS have a better APR/Annual Fee etc?    My QS1 started out at $500 CL and over a year I have got it up to $2250 same thing with my now QS CL $2250 that started out as a $500 platinum card before I PC'd it. I discharged from Ch 7 bankruptcy Oct 2014 and have with much effort raised my score to 635 and now with paying my tradelines down should raise me to about 670.Is there a ceiling to how much my two cap one cards can get increased to and if so what are those ceilings. If I combine my two cap one cards, would I then be apply to apply for an additional cap one card once the 3 bureaus update and show i paid off almost 80 percent of my credit card and credit line debt. I want to get prepared over the next year to get a mortgage with my soon to be fiance in 18months. What should my next plans be over the next year with regards to my credit in preparing for my first FHA mortgage with my girlfriend. Also, do most lenders go by the middle score of the lower party's credit score or the person who has the higher income's middle score?

Thanks,

Steve

[Dalmus]

 If you do a joint application, the lender will generally look at your combined debt and income (obviously) and use that for underwriting purposes.

 Where it gets to be a little unfair from the borrowers' perspective is what credit score they look at...  They will obtain both your and your spouse's middle score and base their underwriting on the lower of the two.

 If you apply for the mortgage as an individual because you have better credit, you cannot use your spouse's income to qualify.

 There are accounting and financial things you can implement to make yourself more attractive as an individual applicant if you start 6-12 months BEFORE you plan on applying.

[Anonymous]

---

@Dalmus wrote:

 If you do a joint application, the lender will generally look at your combined debt and income (obviously) and use that for underwriting purposes.

 Where it gets to be a little unfair from the borrowers' perspective is what credit score they look at...  They will obtain both your and your spouse's middle score and base their underwriting on the lower of the two.

 If you apply for the mortgage as an individual because you have better credit, you cannot use your spouse's income to qualify.

 There are accounting and financial things you can implement to make yourself more attractive as an individual applicant if you start 6-12 months BEFORE you plan on applying.

---

You also need to find out if you're in a community property state. It gets really murky and complicated. My wife wasn't on my loan, but her income was considered because it's "household" income. 

I'd spend some time in the Mortgage subforum here. SO much helpful information in there. It helped me a lot when I was going through the mortgage process