New credit for the old man

[Anonymous]

Please help me for I am in dire need of assistance. I have no credit score because I've always paid cash for what was needed. I recently married about a year ago and we want to buy a home. I was just given a secured Bank of America Secured credit card with a limit of 300 dollars. My wife if new to this country and I want to establish her credit also but with the recent changes regarding the reporting of authorized users and my new credit history how do I establish my wife her own credit, as well build on my own credit rating to strengthen our chances of buying a home with low interest rates? She doesn't work now because we're waiting for her to get her green card but she does have a social security number.

I want to apply for 3 cards within a short time. The secured card, a gas card, and maybe a second secured card without trying anything else. My question is two fold. Within a year assuming we keep our debt load at 10% and we pay our bills on time what will our beacon score be, and will this be enough credit history to help us get a prime interest rate from lenders? Please help because we would love to be able to buy a home next December. If anyone has a better plan please respond. thank you.....Despirate

[Anonymous]

It's going to be tough. You should be able to get a mortgage, yet. But not sure how prime. The best thing you can do is get as many cards as you can and use each one monthly at least 1 charge. Pay them off a month before you apply for the mortgage. You could also take out a small installment loan from a local bank. If she doesn't have a temp social she might have a problem. I dated a non us citizen once and she had a school visa with a social. That was enough for her to get a secured card. Good luck. I think you will be ok after 12 months. If you can put money down on the home, ie more than 20% you will be more than ok.

[Anonymous]

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ilovepizza wrote:
The best thing you can do is get as many cards as you can and use each one monthly at least 1 charge.

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Not "as many" as you can. Carrying balances on too many accounts will hurt you.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
The best thing you can do is get as many cards as you can and use each one monthly at least 1 charge.

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Not "as many" as you can. Carrying balances on too many accounts will hurt you.

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Just to build up their history faster in the beginning. It will hurt their score a little while all cc's have balances possibly yes, but they can stop doing this after the first year and before they plan to apply. But doing this now will give them the max history for next year.

I would imagine a score drop for new apps, inqs, and balances would drop their score quite a bit. But after 12 months from the last account being opened their score will be thrusted way up. Maybe their lucky they can't see their score for the first 6 months when no history exists. Their is a good score drop by doing this in the first 6 months. lol. It does work for brand new or empty credit files. Not recommended for older credit files that already has credit cards.

Message Edited by ilovepizza on 08-31-2007 08:14 AM