Can I buy house in 2013?

[lmorel]

I am trying to build my credit in order to buy a larger house in the spring/summer of 2013. My current score here is 615 and EQ is 594. The only debt my husband and I have are student loans, car, and a small home improvement loan which will be paid off in December 2012. How else can I improve my credit score besides paying these all on time for the next year? Should I use our credit card and pay it off every month? By the time we are ready to purchase a different house we should have about $42,000 saved not including about $20K equity from our current house when we sell. Will I be able to raise my score to at least 640 from 615 in a year?

Any advice? Thanks!

[namvet]

You should be able to raise your score to meet or exceed your goal with a year to work with.  Will need more info on what is showing on your credit reports (all 3 bureaus).  With that posted i am sure you will get some expert recommendations.

[Anonymous]

I'm new here and I just purchased the myfico scorewatch, we have almost similar score, mine was 583 last January 2011. I paid all my debt except for 3 credit cards with less that 10% utilization per card , and I just juggled it around and until now I still have 2% utilization per card because the credit card company keep on increasing my limit even though my credit balance didn't move that much. Now, my score is 763 based on myfico equifax. I cannot believe my score went up that much, without myfico forum help, I will not get this score. FYI, I was planning to buy a house at the end of the year, now I'm tempted apply for a mortgage loan.