Getting married next June, will be applying for a mortgage in march/april..need to improve credit

[Anonymous]

In March me and my soon to be wife will be applying for a mortage.. we are getting married next June. We already have funds set aside for about 80% of the wedding cost on top of a little over 60k in funds for a down payment for a house. We save no less than 2k a month but the remander of our savings from now untill we buy a house will go towards building an emergency fund when we do make our house purchase. We would like to have around 10-15k left for an emergency fund. A little backfound info:

   I was reckless with my finances in my early 20s and had to claim bankruptcy 4 years ago.. march will be 4 years. I also defaulted on my student loans and just finish rehabing them. I'm expecting my student loan payments to be about $500 A month.. wife's student loans are about $150 monthly at the most. My credit score hovers around the high 680s low 690s mark.. how can I push it above 700? I do have plenty of credit available.. A credit card we use for vacations.. a Jared jewelry card..and a personal capitol one card. When we go for a motlrtgage in march 2018 we will make sure all debt is paid in full months in advance (minus student loans). The only issue we may run into is if we should put our honey moon on a credit card.. mind you we will have the funds on hand to pay for it in full but it will lower our emergency fund when we apply for a mortgage. Our income is 120k a year. Would it be best to put the honeymoon on cc.. try and wait until after applying for a mortgage ( A big no no I heard).. or just have a lower emergency fund. I'm sure we will receive more than enough money In wedding gifts to pay off the cc after the wedding.

[Anonymous]

All very good questions. Your Loan Officer will appreciate you thinking ahead. The answers depend on the timing of things. To maximize your credit score, you need to have low revolving balances. One option would be to apply for the mortgage when your balances are low and before you put the Honeymoon on them. If you can close in 120 days, you can use the original credit report and score. As long as you do not open any new debt or have anything derogatory report during that 120 days you can use the original report. Good Luck!

[kjade1030]

Hi there!  This is, unfortunately, inaccurate. . Lenders pull what is called a refresh report before closing that doesn't pull your scores or give you hard inquiry but it does make sure you didn't run up all your cards or go buy a Lamborghini.  If you did, they will have to take the new payment into account before you'll be cleared to close.  Sometimes it's fine, but if your ratios are already tight, don't let anyone pull your credit and don't buy anything substantial until after closing.  I once had a loan almost fall apart because a lady bought a 60" tv right before closing.....not fun!

Also, generally while you are house hunting, they can use the same credit report when you go to underwriting if it is less than 60 days old and has to be under 90 days old when you close.  Older than that they'll want to repull so they have the most accurate info.