So, my partner of 15 years (54yo) has managed to go his ENTIRE life off-grid where credit is concerend. Never a bill in his own name, never a credit card, I don't think he's even ever leased an apartment. For most of his life, his brother was his roommate, and was always the lease holder. We have managed to get him a passport finally, and he's always at least had a checking account and a decent middle income job (roughly 65K).
I finally got him to get a secured Capital One credit card about 6 months ago. So, we'd like to start building more credit for him.
As of today, he obviously has a VERY thin credit file, and I'm wondering what we should do next for him to build up his credit. (his current scores are in the 670 range now). Should we wait another 6 months before applying for something unsecured? Or should we just start applying for him now? Would his best bet be to go to his bank, where he's had a checking account for longer than 30 years and see if we can get a credit card for him there (his bank is a small regional community bank)? Or sould be be trying other applications?
We want his next steps to be good ones. I just don't know what those steps should be. Eventually, we'll want to purchase some real estate, and we'd like for him to be able to be a full co-borrower on that loan. We are not married, and I don't really want to add him as a AU on any of my accounts, even if we were married we wouldn't want to do that. Keeping our finances separate keeps us sane. LOL.
Any suggestions for his next steps?
@Xerisca wrote:So, my partner of 15 years (54yo) has managed to go his ENTIRE life off-grid where credit is concerend. Never a bill in his own name, never a credit card, I don't think he's even ever leased an apartment. For most of his life, his brother was his roommate, and was always the lease holder. We have managed to get him a passport finally, and he's always at least had a checking account and a decent middle income job (roughly 65K).
I finally got him to get a secured Capital One credit card about 6 months ago. So, we'd like to start building more credit for him.
As of today, he obviously has a VERY thin credit file, and I'm wondering what we should do next for him to build up his credit. (his current scores are in the 670 range now). Should we wait another 6 months before applying for something unsecured? Or should we just start applying for him now? Would his best bet be to go to his bank, where he's had a checking account for longer than 30 years and see if we can get a credit card for him there (his bank is a small regional community bank)? Or sould be be trying other applications?
We want his next steps to be good ones. I just don't know what those steps should be. Eventually, we'll want to purchase some real estate, and we'd like for him to be able to be a full co-borrower on that loan. We are not married, and I don't really want to add him as a AU on any of my accounts, even if we were married we wouldn't want to do that. Keeping our finances separate keeps us sane. LOL.Any suggestions for his next steps?
After your significant other crossed the 6-month threshold with CapOne, there is a very high liklihood he'd be approved for a CapOne Quicksilver card with a credit limit of roughly $3,000. I went this route last year and love my Quicksilver card!
@Xerisca wrote:So, my partner of 15 years (54yo) has managed to go his ENTIRE life off-grid where credit is concerend. Never a bill in his own name, never a credit card, I don't think he's even ever leased an apartment. For most of his life, his brother was his roommate, and was always the lease holder. We have managed to get him a passport finally, and he's always at least had a checking account and a decent middle income job (roughly 65K).
I finally got him to get a secured Capital One credit card about 6 months ago. So, we'd like to start building more credit for him.
As of today, he obviously has a VERY thin credit file, and I'm wondering what we should do next for him to build up his credit. (his current scores are in the 670 range now). Should we wait another 6 months before applying for something unsecured? Or should we just start applying for him now? Would his best bet be to go to his bank, where he's had a checking account for longer than 30 years and see if we can get a credit card for him there (his bank is a small regional community bank)? Or sould be be trying other applications?
We want his next steps to be good ones. I just don't know what those steps should be. Eventually, we'll want to purchase some real estate, and we'd like for him to be able to be a full co-borrower on that loan. We are not married, and I don't really want to add him as a AU on any of my accounts, even if we were married we wouldn't want to do that. Keeping our finances separate keeps us sane. LOL.Any suggestions for his next steps?
If his bank has a decent offering, not necessarily rewards or cashback but a solid low-interest card I would definitely talk to them first. We went that route with our credit union and at first, just got a regular Visa with a pretty low-interest rate even though we never left a balance anyway. After our credit hit roughly 735 to 740 we asked if we can apply for their cashback card and in our case, it didn't require another application they just converted it. Having a history with someone for the first unsecured card is always the better way to go unless they just offer lousy products.
@GatorGuy wrote:First suggestion would have been for you to add him as an AU. Remember he doesn't have to have a card or use it to benefit from it. It also can be temporary, add him let him get the boost and a few months after him getting some better cards, remove him or remove him after you buy your house. Which is a far bigger financial entanglement.
As far as the mortgage goes, from what I've seen you only need one person to have great credit and the additional borrower only being additional income.
If you don't want to go the AU route, you can find the thread which lists all the pre-approvals and try his luck and see which cards would be most beneficial for him.
Good luck!
I was under the impression that they will base the interest rate on the lowest middle score between the two borrowers. So if his mortgage score is only 670 and OP's is 780, they will go with 670.
I think this is a good time to apply for a second card, and I would recommend a plan for a third card at some point too. He'll see a nice little score boost with three cards. As for whether he should apply with his local bank, I would say that depends on their offerings and how they treat their customers. A 30 year banking relationship doesn't always mean squat to the bank when it comes to lending. Although, credit unions and small community banks are likely the exception to that rule. Still, it's a good idea to explore that option, especially if he might want to use that same bank for a mortgage or other loan / credit products.
Try checking out banks with prequalifications to see what he is offered and where he stands credit-wise. If he is only getting offers for secured cards, make sure it is one that will graduate and has the potential to grow. If he doesn't want to go the secured route again but isn't getting any offers for unsecured credit, waiting a bit longer might help with that.
@KLEXH25 wrote:
@GatorGuy wrote:First suggestion would have been for you to add him as an AU. Remember he doesn't have to have a card or use it to benefit from it. It also can be temporary, add him let him get the boost and a few months after him getting some better cards, remove him or remove him after you buy your house. Which is a far bigger financial entanglement.
As far as the mortgage goes, from what I've seen you only need one person to have great credit and the additional borrower only being additional income.
If you don't want to go the AU route, you can find the thread which lists all the pre-approvals and try his luck and see which cards would be most beneficial for him.
Good luck!
I was under the impression that they will base the interest rate on the lowest middle score between the two borrowers. So if his mortgage score is only 670 and OP's is 780, they will go with 670.
They definitely go by scores. I tried to buy a house with my ex a few years ago. We needed both of our incomes to qualify for this mortgage. I had decent credit and she did not. We were not approved. The lender said my scores were sufficient, but she couldn't be on the loan, but I alone didn't qualify for the mortgage based my income.
NFCU GoRewards Sig ($40,000), NFCU Cash Rewards ($40,000), PenFed Power Cash ($25,000), FNBO Evergreen Visa ($20,000), Bread Financial Rewards Amex ($21,150), PNC Cash Rewards ($18,400), PNC Cashbuilder ($18,700) , One Key Mastercard ($14,000), Citi Double Cash ($11,600), US Bank Cash Plus($10,000), Discover It Cash ($9000), Capital One Quicksilver MC ($9000), TD Cash ($8000), Bank of America. Unlimited Cash Rewards ($7500), Fifth Third Unlimited Cash Back Mastercard ($7500), Wells Fargo Active Cash Sig($7000), Apple Card ($6000), Amex BCE($6000), Amex ED($6600), X1 Card ($5000), PNC Points ($8000), Amex Cash Magnet($2000), Fifth Third Truly Simple ($4000), Truist Spectrum Cash Rewards($4500), Truist Bright Card($4500), CapOne Quicksilver(Bucketed @$1500 manually lowered to $500), US Bank Cash+ ($1,000), WF mortgage 195K Fico 8: EQ 778, TU 765, EX 758 FICO 9:EQ 829, TU 812, EX 791, AAoA-97 months, AoOA-28 years
I realize you're probably looking for best suggestions for CC's, but given that he is starting out I thought I would add an alternative approach.....one that I personally took to raise my credit after I opened my first secured card.
Borrowing against a Certificate of Deposit: (Of course you want to talk with your bank manager or financial adviser there first to make them aware of what you're wanting to do. I have a super cool bank manager who completely understood what I wanted)
I went to my bank and bought a $1,000 CD for a 6-month term. (You can also do CD's as low as $500 at some banks) Then the next day, I went back to the bank and took out a 6-month personal loan for $1,000 against that CD. (basically borrowing my own money back) The CD still sits in place, you're just using it as collateral for the loan, ie secured loan. (If it helps you to keep it separated, as I did, I put my re-loaned money into a secondary savings account apart from my checking)
Over those 6 months, I simply took $170 from that separated savings to make my loan payment each month. (Using the very same money to pay itself back) At the end of the 6 months, I made my final payment, which included some interest. (Interest for mine was 5% I think for an accumulated total of $70) The CD was now paid back, matured, and I got my $1,000 back again.
So the overall venture gives you a 6-month completed and satisfied "fixed line of credit" on your credit history to go with your revolving credit. (you know, that credit mix your credit score is based on) And, you can rinse-and-repeat. After my first one, I waited 2 months (just because, for no other reason) and did it again. For the low, low cost of $70 in loan interest....I was able to "buy" myself a line of credit, which was far more valuable to me than that $70 it cost me. (Well, $140 after the 2nd one...)
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