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Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

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Anonymous
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Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

We are wanting to buy our first, hopefully only, home. We're trying to build his credit enough to apply for a USDA direct loan. We need it to be an average of 640, one is 634 and one is 638. I just saw my credit score for the first time today, due to being denied access to online credit information for a long time. My score with Experian is 713, after recently going down 8 points due to not using my credit card. So, now were wondering; Could we apply together without me having an income? And if so; Would it help us? Thank you in advance, for any help!
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Anonymous
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Re: Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

Welcome!

When pulling credit the bank will take the middle score not the average of the three. When applying jointly the bank will use the lowest middle score between applicants. So in your situation unfortunately the score used would be your fiancés middle score. Also make sure you are comparing mortgage scores and not fico8 scores, they really don't compare well and sometimes be a several point difference. Lots of good info on the forum regarding building and rebuilding credit so hopefully you can raise scores by the time comes to purchase. Good Luck!
Message 2 of 8
Anonymous
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Re: Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

Thank you for your response! If you would mind explaining; We get his two scores from credit karma. Credit karma won't validate my ID, but Experian let my log-in to see my one score. My fiance can't get validated to see his experian score. So, what is the mortgage score you're referring to? Where would I be able to see this? We've been rebuilding hos credit for about 2 years now. It has went from a 530 to what is is. Lots of reading on this forum has helped with that! We're just getting a little impatient, ready to get our family into a better home.
Message 3 of 8
Anonymous
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Re: Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

Gah, typos..Holding a baby lol
Message 4 of 8
Anonymous
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Re: Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.


@Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for your response! If you would mind explaining; We get his two scores from credit karma. Credit karma won't validate my ID, but Experian let my log-in to see my one score. My fiance can't get validated to see his experian score. So, what is the mortgage score you're referring to? Where would I be able to see this? We've been rebuilding hos credit for about 2 years now. It has went from a 530 to what is is. Lots of reading on this forum has helped with that! We're just getting a little impatient, ready to get our family into a better home.

The scores you see on CreditKarma are Vantage Scores, which no one uses and those scores are unreliable. Credit Karma is a good tool ONLY for keeping up with changes that may be happening on your credit. 

 

The mortgage scoring models can only be seen if you sign up for a membership here on myFICO. When viewing your scores, it will say "Score most commonly used in mortgage lending". I can tell you that these are to the T and you can even provide your lender with your score from viewing your information on myFICO. With the myFICO membership, you will be able to view your mortgage scores every 3mo. If you need to see them between that time, you will have to pay for a new report. 

Message 5 of 8
Anonymous
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Re: Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

Here's a quick overview of the kinds of scores that are out there.

 

A credit score is just a big computer program that takes all the information in your report and turns it into a number (typically a number between 300 and 850).

 

Two big companies make credit scores: FICO and Vantage.  There are also some other small credit scores out there.  Vantage scores are widely available to consumers (Karma uses Vantage for example) but almost no lenders or CC issuers use them.  So you should regard all Vantage scores as useless.  The company you want to focus on is FICO and its scores.

 

FICO makes many different kinds of scores.  A ton of them.  The ones you should care about are their "mortgage scores."  FICO 8 scores are also very helpful but not for mortgages -- FICO 8 would be useful for guessing how you might do on a credit card, auto loan, personal loan, or student loan app.

 

The only simple way to get your mortgage scores is to purchase them here at myFICO.  If you go to the PRODUCTS button at the top of this web page you will see how to do that.

 

Personally I would first get my credit reports in as perfect a shape as I can before buying the scores.  That's because the scores cost money.  I think myFICO charges $60 each time.  So I would first get all of your credit cards reporting a $0 balance except one, which should be reporting a small positive balance, like $15 say.  Is that doable for you?

 

Then after all three reports show the new balances, buy your scores.

Message 6 of 8
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

I'll be honest I don't really have any experience with Credit Karma. I believe Credit Karma provides a Vantage score and not a true fico...It's likely your actual fico scores will be different.
If you get the full report off this site it will give a bunch of the more commonly used scores including mortgage for all three reporting agencies. Mine were identical to the ones the bank pulled.

The following tread does a good job explaining the different credit scoring models. It's a lot of info but very helpful.
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Mortgage-Loans/FICO-scores-used-for-mortgage-and-where-to-obtain-the...

Hoping you and yours continued success in your rebuild!

P.S. I was always amazed at some of the things that Could be accomplished while holding a kid. Now that mine are old enough to get into stuff I think it was easier to get things done one handed.
Message 7 of 8
StartingOver10
Moderator Emerita

Re: Fiance has the income, poor credit. I have no income, good credit.

As others have pointed out, the Credit Karma score is a Vantage score.  It measures entirely different attributes.  It is very possible that your Fiance has a much higher FICO score than a Vantage score (my Vantage score is about 100 points lower).  He may actually qualify already. But you don't know without pulling your scores. One thing I can say is that the mortgage scores here are what the lenders use (the mid score) and it is a soft pull so an inq doesn't end up on your report. This allows you the space and time to do your improvements without showing a bunch of inqs. 

 

There is no formula you can use to estimate the mortgage score from a vantage score. 

 

Take some time to review the stickies so you get a handle on what you need to do. You don't need perfection for a mortgage. Having said that, you don't want to get in over your head either. Just ask here and we will point you in the right direction.

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