Hi everyone! This is my first time posting. After ruining my credit while I was in college I have finally recovered and hope to purchase my first home this year but I have some questions. My current credit scores are listed below and I plan on going through Wells Fargo since I do all my banking and reitrement stuff through them. My scores are not where I would like them to be but I should qualify for an FHA loan. A little about me: I'm 29, single, no kids and I am in Minnesota and I'm an engineer. My salary is in the low 6 figures so I don't think I will have trouble qualifying financially. I plan to move my grandparents to my home to live with me once I buy it to help them but I am not using their income or credit as a part of my mortgage application or anything but I think I need some advice.
Should I use any of my credit credit cards at all in the next few months before I apply for the mortgage? I have 2 cards both with $0 balances. I usually use them for misc things. Gas, starbucks, etc. and then pay them off in full at the end of each month and never spend more than 25% of the available credit. Should I keep doing that or leave them at 0?
Are the scores listed in the 3 in 1 credit monitoring package as the "other versions" really the scores used by mortgage lenders? They say that V5 for EQ, V4 for EX and v2 for TU are the mortgage scores but I have been seeing some posts that say these arent the real mortgage scores or 2 of them are but one isnt. Should I be looking at these scores as the right scores?
I have a paid judgement on my credit report that was finally paid off a year ago from a car I had in college. I also have 4 student loans that were charged off but I later paid off (2 years ago)after I discovered them (I consonlidated my student loans and didnt relaize that I had some loans outside of the consolidation that were not being paid until it was too late.) The charged off student loan items are all less than $1500 each and total about $4000 but again they are all paid off. All of them show on my credit report as paid/closed and the judgement says paid. I have other items in good standing. One paid in full car loan and one i currently have. 2 credit cards and my big student loan of $40,000 which I pay on time religiously.How much will this affect my ability to get a mortgage? Will the judgement and the charged off student loans prevent me from getting the mortgage until they roll off my CR? The student loans will roll off next year but the judgement wont be gone until 2018.
How soon should I go for pre-approval? My lease is up at my current place August 31, 2015 so I would like to have the keys to a house no later than August 20th, 2015.
General question: Am I penalized for a short credit history even if I am too young to have a longer credit history than I have? My credit history is 11 years which myFico says is low but Ive only been old enough to have credit for 11 years. Do I just have to wait it out?
