topic Re: Credit card use -underwriting in Mortgage Loans

Credit card use -underwriting

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 18:58:03 GMT

I hope that this isn't a dumb question . We normally pay our cc down pretty low. Right now they are paid down ready for the due date of June 19. Our loan closes July 14. Are we free to use them (after the statement closes on June 23) without the lender knowing they are run up, since the next due date won't be until after the closing date? They are doing a soft pull close to closing and want to make sure they can't "see" the balances until the statement comes out.

Re: Credit card use -underwriting

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 19:17:58 GMT

I would recommend not to do anything with your credit card until your loan closes. Buying house is a huge deal and one has to exercise some level of caution, patience and tolerance. I recently closed on my loan.. i didn't use my credit cards for 6 straight months.. was very strict on my budget plan and only used debit card. Not only my scores later increased.. I was able to do a big CLI after my loan closed due to limited to no activity on my card.

As I said, this is just my personal opinion. You make the right decision. My best wishes to you!

Re: Credit card use -underwriting

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 19:23:06 GMT

I guess run them up was not the right term, but we want to have more than the usual really low balances because we want to have cash that we would use for bills go on to credit cards so we can have more cash for closing, etc. But, my question is, can they see what's on the cards during a soft pull if the statement hadn't posted yet?

Re: Credit card use -underwriting

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 20:38:08 GMT

I'm sure others will chime in, but a soft pull won't show anything that hasn't been updated. Generally, what you charge after 6/23 won't be reported to the bureaus until your next statement cut date, which is well after closing. Some creditors have things that spur automatic updates, like paying a balance down to zero. I don't know if any do the same based on usage during the month, especially if the usage mirrors what your normally do.

I'm in the same boat. We typically charge lots of our expenses up on a Capital One and PIF before the statement cuts. We close on July 31st. I'm toying with using Plastiq and paying our July rent on one that cuts on the 7th. I'm interested to see what other opinions are on this topic.

Re: Credit card use -underwriting

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Jun 2017 21:32:02 GMT

Thanks for the reply. Good luck with the move!