At one point my credit score was 720. My bank approved me for a 100,000 mortgage even though I only made 29,000 a year at that time. But then I lost my job and went through some hard financial times. My score dropped to 580. I did find another job making 25,000. A year ago I finally found a better paying job and began to turn my credit slowly around. Not as fast as I would like due to my son having special needs and we are paying out of pocket for therapy. However in a year I have gone back up to 630 Experian and 636 equifax and am continuing to work on improving it. My current income is 39,000
We are getting a big chunk of bonus money and we were thinking about putting that towards a down payment for a house. We've been looking at 150,000 or less for home prices. We have between 5k-6k to put down
My income is 39,000. His is 33,000 so a combined 72,000. We have a car payment at 336.00 a month, I have 1 visa card with a 6800 balance that has been my primary focus of paying off and the minimum payments are 110 a month although I do pay more whenever possible and I have 20k in student loan debt with a 100.00 minimum payment. I do have one store credit card that I owe 60.00 on for a purchase last month that I will be paying off in full this week. Otherwise we do not have any other debt payments but I do have two old things showing in collections. We've been looking at rental houses and feel comfortably paying 1200.00 a month.
I filled out three applications online for pre approval today. I am worried I made a mistake filling out three since I don't know how this will impact my score. I talked to one on the phone who said there may be programs to help but he will have to run our application to see. This lender works with a state agency that assists first time buyers and said there are other options besides FHA but I think that is the only one my credit would qualify for. The second one we have not heard on yet. The third one had an online chat person talk to me who denied us in 5 minutes. He said because my husband has absolutely nothing on his credit report that unless we have a big downpayment they can't use his income to qualify for FHA or any other lower down payment loans and my income alone puts our DTI ratio too high. I'm not paying those debts on my income alone so it is confusing to me but I understand that I live in a community property state and there are a lot of procedures in place to prevent people from getting a loan they will default on. He said that my husband have a low credit score would be easier to work with then none and we would most likely be approved if he did have something.
He referred us to some random website he said would help improve my credit score. But told me that even with a higher score we would still probably be denied due to my husband having nothing. I already know how to improve my credit score: continue paying down debt which has been improving it so far. It's my husband. He actually thought when he was younger it was more responsible to never have any credit cars or debt and just pay cash. We've tried to get him credit but he is always denied. I am the sole one on the car loan and credit card. The student loans are solely in my name as I went to college before I met him.
So I have a few questions.
1. Do we have any way at all to be approved for a home loan without my husband having any credit?
2. If not, how can we actually get credit for him established so that we could be eventually? Are security deposit credit cards the best option?
3. The last late payment I had on my credit report was August 2011 but I know it's a negative impact on there right now. Is there anything I can do other than keep paying on time?
4. I had a department store card go to collections in September 2009. The card was stolen after I'd forgotten to lock my car door. I called and had it cancelled along with my visa and my debit card but the department store expected me to pay the debt and would not let me dispute the charges without a police report. I hadn't filed one so I was stuck. Would paying this do any good at this point? If so how would I even find out where this debt is now. I've never recieved any mail from this debt collector. It feels unfair to pay it because it was stolen but if it will help my score I'll do it.
5. I had a medical bill from 2011 that doesn't show on Equifax but is on Experian. This is the last negative thing I had occur. I was ill and we were really struggling at the time to even buy groceries. Same with that. How do I find out where it is so I can take care of it now that I do have the income? I've lived at the same address since 2011 so do not understand why they are not mailing anything.
I should also add that we live in a community property state.
