topic Re: Ready for a really dumb question....? in General Credit Topics

Ready for a really dumb question....?

JLL2104 — Thu, 30 May 2019 19:36:40 GMT

Is there something or somewhere that tells my DTI on myFICO, Experian, etc?
I think I’m being turned down because of it but would to know for sure

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Anonymous — Thu, 30 May 2019 19:38:07 GMT

Turbo by intuit does, but you input your income yourself.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

simplegirl — Thu, 30 May 2019 20:26:31 GMT

@JLL2104 wrote:
Is there something or somewhere that tells my DTI on myFICO, Experian, etc?
I think I’m being turned down because of it but would to know for sure

Experian does under summary for your credit report.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Trudy — Thu, 30 May 2019 23:44:40 GMT

As stated you can find it on Experian under Summary. But its easy to determine: monthly payments divided by monthly income.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Anonymous — Fri, 31 May 2019 00:37:17 GMT

@JLL2104 wrote:
Is there something or somewhere that tells my DTI on myFICO, Experian, etc?
I think I’m being turned down because of it but would to know for sure

Frankly, your question is a really good one. Just went to check my DTI after you brought it up and posters responded! Keep asking? That's what the posters and others are here for. If they can respond, they will.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

JLL2104 — Fri, 31 May 2019 01:06:35 GMT

Thank you everyone! It seems like I have 1000 very knowledgeable credit consultants at my disposal
I still don’t have a great idea where to get my accurate DTI. Where does everyone check?

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Anonymous — Fri, 31 May 2019 01:10:26 GMT

Yeah ... got mine from Experian and Trudy (another poster in this thread used Experian). Before doing anything give other posters time to read your question. There are many options so you will have choices.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Trudy — Fri, 31 May 2019 04:19:55 GMT

DTI can change. Its probably one of the easiest things to figure out in factors that may affect applications (not scores). If your debt goes down (specifically CC debt or paid off or modified installment loans), then those monthly payments or the amounts considered to be minimal payment for CC's when you reduce CC debt may change the % for payments divided by income if it is consistent.

It's really about how much you make monthly and how much you are required to pay monthly = DTI. You can probably figure this out without finding a site that tells you. Some creditors may take into account other debt/payments but mostly it's those items that show up or should show up on your credit report in additional to rent (if it doesn't show up) that's factored into monthly payments. But if they find your income can support the additional debt and monthly payment per whatever their terms are then you may have a better chance with approvals if DTI is the considering factor.

Experian and others suggest a DTI 35% or less is best. But the lender may have their own requirement, particularly when considering ones specific profile.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

CreditInspired — Fri, 31 May 2019 11:30:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@JLL2104 wrote:
Is there something or somewhere that tells my DTI on myFICO, Experian, etc?
I think I’m being turned down because of it but would to know for sure
Frankly, your question is a really good one. Just went to check my DTI after you brought it up and posters responded! Keep asking? That's what the posters and others are here for. If they can respond, they will.

Ditto.

My motto: No question is a dumb question. How else would you know if you don't ask. And yes, OP, this was a really good question!

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

dynamicvb — Fri, 31 May 2019 12:24:30 GMT

There are a lot of calculators on the web that will do this. Some even will break it out by front end and back end for you. Which may be useful if you are looking for a mortgage.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

CreditInspired — Fri, 31 May 2019 12:55:10 GMT

@JLL2104 wrote:
Thank you everyone! It seems like I have 1000 very knowledgeable credit consultants at my disposal
I still don’t have a great idea where to get my accurate DTI. Where does everyone check?

Here's an easy example of how it's done for mortgage purposes. In this case, I'm only using W2 earnings.

Divide annual income by 12 to get gross monthly amount. Example. Let's say you earn $65K annually. That's $5416.66 gross per month.
Then add your monthly expenses (don't include utilities, rent, cell phone, extraneous expenses). Only add "minimum monthly payments" due on credit cards and loans, and auto payments (easily found on your CRs). Example: car ($400/month, CCs $250, student loan $100, personal loan $65) total $815/month.
Now divide $815 by $5,417, which gives you DTI of 15%. This is your back-end DTI.

Hope this helps.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Fated4Credit — Fri, 31 May 2019 21:39:11 GMT

@ CreditInspired: I also wondered what my DTI ratio is & by using ur method I'm @ 23% 🙁 which is still little bit too high for my liking. I only have 2 cards, ($60/month in min payments) no other loans & make little over 30k, so I guess my data points is working against me in some way as I know some banks put more value on DTI ratio

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

CreditInspired — Fri, 31 May 2019 21:45:16 GMT

@Fated4Credit wrote:
@ CreditInspired: I also wondered what my DTI ratio is & by using ur method I'm @ 23% 🙁 which is still little bit too high for my liking. I only have 2 cards, ($60/month in min payments) no other loans & make little over 30k, so I guess my data points is working against me in some way as I know some banks put more value on DTI ratio

I understand if you feel it’s a little too high for your liking, but it’s a LO’s dream!

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

coreysw12 — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 02:44:47 GMT

I calculate mine by hand, because I've noticed that a lot of my monthly payment amounts listed in my credit reports aren't really accurate, some aren't listed at all, and some are listed accurately but aren't relevant.

For example:

I have some accounts where my monthly payment may have been hundreds of dollars last month, but this month they're $0 or $30.

My apartment rental is also reported in my credit report - which is largely irrelevant because most or all credit applications exclude housing costs listed in the report, and use the "monthly housing cost" field from the application instead (they might compare the two amounts to make sure they match, but they certainly don't add them together in my experience, otherwise my DTI would be 78% and I'd never get approved for anything). In the case of a mortgage app, apartment rent isn't even a factor whatsoever since the mortgage monthly payment would replace it.

My DTI is 28% excluding rent, or 52% including rent. Those numbers aren't great, but it's caused by my 2 car payments and a LOC payment that are $1,800/mo altogether. One car loan and the LOC will both be paid off in less than 18 months, after which my DTI will only be 11% excluding rent, or 35% including rent.

This means that, for me, if I had to stay under 43% DTI to qualify for an FHA mortgage (after my LOC and 1st car loan are finished next year), my mortgage payment would have to be $2,300 or less, which incedently put me right on par with my target home shopping price of $350k

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Trudy — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 02:22:11 GMT

Interesting about rent. I assume it would be considered as a mtg loan pymt would be. But I've not paid rent in decades so not sure. But what you state makes sense when it comes to MTG apps. Wonder if it applies if DTI is a factor for non MTG apps...

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

coreysw12 — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 02:29:55 GMT

@Trudy wrote:
Interesting about rent. I assume it would be considered as a mtg loan pymt would be. But I've not paid rent in decades so not sure. But what you state makes since when it comes to MTG apps. Wonder if it applies if DTI is a factor for non MTG apps...

rent always factors into DTI, the same as a monthly mortgage payment does... the only question is where does the creditor get the rent/mortgage payment amount from? They either get it from the credit report, or they get it from the application where you declared it (or in the case of a mortgage app, they get it from a calculator), my only point was that they won't add the two together if it was both listed on the app and shown in your credit report. So if you rent, it might mess with the DTI calculations that a lot of credit websites use, because it could basically be including your rent payments once, twice, or not at all, depending on whether your rent is reported on your credit reports and whether or not you input it manually. I think a lot of people who don't realize this could be seeing a DTI that is either much higher or much lower than the reality.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

Revelate — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 03:56:57 GMT

Can't speak for any other underwriting, but for a mortgage it will go off what is listed on the credit report.

Rent is typically excluded from the calculation given the expectation once buying a house for most people (non-investment mortgage at least) is that you're going to kick that rent payment to the curb.

Re: Ready for a really dumb question....?

CAS2019 — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 16:44:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Turbo by intuit does, but you input your income yourself.

I have this app as well, however, it has doubled my mortgage payment (obviously a glitch) and try as I might to change it, it won’t correct. It has exponentially screwed up my dti, so, it’s rather useless for me. I’ve had to do the math myself to get a more accurate account.