Hello all,
New to the forum. Question for you...
My fiancee is in a bit of a credit nightmare. She divorced several years ago, her ex stopped paying the mortgage on their home, she was still listed on said mortgage. Prior to this she had impeccable credit.
Now, not so much.
AMEX recently closed her Blue card,
Discover recently slashed her limit.
The home in question is in the process of foreclosure (I believe he, and technically they, are about 44K behind in payments).
We are getting married in a little over a year, and plan on living in my townhouse for the time being. I figure we will be there through 2017, and start looking at homes early 2018.
Now, I know that a foreclosure puts a blackeye on her credit report for 7-10 years.
My credit is fair to good, FICO scores ranging from 684 Experian/703 Trans Union/712 Equifax according to a 2/16/15 myFico report.
I have 34 open accounts in good standing (some of which have not been used in quite some time).
24% Utilization, with total CL of 133K.
The 24% is NOT spread out over all cards - my Chase Hyatt (16K limit) is at 87.5%, my Jared (13.8K limit, engagement ring, 0 intrest through MAR 2016) is at 64%, 2 other cards are at approximately 50% (limits of 4K & 3.75K).
All other cards are typically paid off monthly going forward or kept at less than 30%.
I've had to go back and forth with both Chase and Discover recently due to high spending in 2014 (engagement ring, 2 vacations, and a sunroom). All accounts in both had limits slashed, but after speaking to customer service with both had limits restored (and in 1 case, limit increased).
I am never late (ever) on any payment, never pay minimums, total utilization never got worse than 48%, and have paid off over 50K in CC debt since September 2014.
I also have a Mortgage sitting at about 233K (never late, bought in 2009, refinaced in 2012).
I am considering adding my finacee (with lousy credit) as an authorized user on a handful of cards.
Keeping in mind we will be mortgage hunting in about 3 years, will adding her as an authorized user on a handful of cards hurt my score?
Goal is to be at less than 5% utilization across the board by mid 2017 and walk that fine line between using cards regularly while not over extending (wedding expenses and what not), and to raise my score to the high 700's on all 3 reports by 2018.
Sorry for the lengthy post, and I look forward to your responses.
