Bought a house- and 2 questions

[Anonymous]

Hello All,

Just signed up on the forum, although I have been lurking a while. You guys are great and have provided an excellent source for information on all things related to credit..excellent job. I had two questions that I wanted to ask

As a background, all my current credit scores are above 760. My wife's are above 800.

My questions

1) We just bought a house and I was wondering if this would negativly affect our credit scores?

2) We need to buy a car, but I wanted to know if it would be advisable to wait may be 3-4 months before buying so as not to add too much stuff to my credit file?

What do you guys think?

Any input would be hugely appreciated!

Thank you in advance.

Dr.J

[chasmith]

It's hard to predict because there are many factors.  Adding a mortrgage to your credit mix generally is a significant boost.  The new debt could decrease your AAOA which is a negative.  In the long run the mortgage is a plus for scoring.

[Anonymous]

its my understanding that a good credit score isnt always your trump card. you can have 800 credit and make 30k a year with utilization above 50% and you will get turned down...

give us some other factors...will you be buying the car under your own name?  will your wife co-sign or vice versa?  whats the price of the car?  what else do you have on your profile?  what is your utilization?  what is your income?  what is the mortgage payment now?  

[Anonymous]

330XI ..you are right..those are good questions, so here goes

1) will you be buying the car under your own name- we will have both my wife's and my name on the car title- so jointly- that is co-signing

2) whats the price of the car?- it is 39000. However, I will be making a downpayment of about 14 + about 3000 on tradein. The rest will be financed.

3) I only have 2 more debts on my file a) an $8000 student loan and b) About $2500 debt on a credit card

4) Other than the debts listed above, my wife and I try to not add anything to our debt. I put all monthly expenses on my card but pay it off at the end of the month.

5) Our joint income is about 200000

6) the mortgage payment is 1774/ month

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Hi chetj,

Have you considered paying off your CC balances with a portion of the dough you have earmarked for the 14+ downpayment?

[Anonymous]

at 760 and 800, adding new installment loans won't damage you too badly.  if they do, it will be a small amount and for a short time (couple months?).

your scores will not change significantly til the mortgage reports, so the best thing to do fico-wise is to apply for the auto loan and get that done before your mortgage reports.  that way you get the best auto loan rates, and there's no guessing.

is your CC debt accruing interest?  if it is, i would PIF the 2500, and make 11500 down payment on the car.

[Anonymous]

MDFive - thats a great idea. Although I have a 0 % apr on the CC it always makes sense to pay of CC debt. I think I will take your advice and make a slightly smaller downpayment on the car and pay the balance off

[Anonymous]

since your auto loan will be accruing interest (and your student loans already are), and the CC is not, the mathematically correct thing to do is pay more cash toward the auto loan and/or your student loan.  which of those is accruing more interest?  put your money toward the debt with the highest interest rate.

[Red1Blue]

If it is a necessary and must to have a car then get it. Scores go up and down. You have to take care of the basic necessities as needed.

[Anonymous]

Thats good advice too Concorduser. Alright, so here is what happened with my credit scores. I just checked my credit file for the first time after the new trade line for my mortgage was reported on the credit file..and...all of my credit scores went up...by about on an average 12-13 points! This was a huge surprise! Anyway, just wanted to give you all an update on the situation.