So many questions..

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

Ok so we are trying to clean up our early mess from our early 20's and set ourselves up to buy a house..

Working more diligently on his credit becuase I'm not working and will be home with our youngest for at least the next 4 years so since home buying will be based solely on his credit and income we figure that's the best way to do it.

he has a

$300.00 Bank of America secured card that will be PIF next week

$200.00 Capital One secured card that will be PIF next week

$300.00 Kohls card with a zero balance

$250.00 Victoria's Secret with a zero balance

(We use Bank of America/Capital one and PIF several times a month) is it best to leave some less then 10% use on ONE card when it reports? How do I determine when it reports?

Should it be a different card each month that shows the 10% use and swap out which ones report a zero balance?

Should we add funds to the secure cards to build the available credit?

Also our credit union offers a super low interest secured loan that reports to all 3.. Should we add a loan like that to his credit profile? He has no car loan or anything so just 2 credit cards and 2 store cards..

Sorry for the novel! Thanks for the help!

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

I am by far not an expert here.... but from all I've read, if you plan to app for a mortgage you do not want to apply for anything else for quite a while before hand. I wouldn't get another loan.

My cards usually close about three days after the due date, and then report about five days after that. I figured this by watching my fico alerts for a couple months now.

I'm not sure about the secured cards, but I know CLI's are a good way to raise your available credit. I'm not sure if you could get these switched to regular accounts without a HP on your credit. Someone else would have to advise you on that.

Every time I have a question about CLI's on a certain card, I just enter it into the search bar here, and almost always there are multiple answers! This is the absolute best place I've found for advice and guidence. It's up to date, and to the point.

If your credit is good, I would add yourself to the papers also. Just because you aren't working, doesn't mean your scores won't help. If you haven't checked yours you might want to.

Good Luck!!

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so we are trying to clean up our early mess from our early 20's and set ourselves up to buy a house..

Working more diligently on his credit becuase I'm not working and will be home with our youngest for at least the next 4 years so since home buying will be based solely on his credit and income we figure that's the best way to do it.

he has a

$300.00 Bank of America secured card that will be PIF next week

$200.00 Capital One secured card that will be PIF next week

$300.00 Kohls card with a zero balance

$250.00 Victoria's Secret with a zero balance

(We use Bank of America/Capital one and PIF several times a month) is it best to leave some less then 10% use on ONE card when it reports? Keep all cards but one at 0% and let that last card report 9% or less. How do I determine when it reports? U can call and ask. I have Cap1 and my due date is the 6th and statement date is the 9th

Should it be a different card each month that shows the 10% use and swap out which ones report a zero balance? Yes. FICO tracks card usage as well

Should we add funds to the secure cards to build the available credit? Only do so if you absolutely need it. Credit limit is not factored into scoring

Also our credit union offers a super low interest secured loan that reports to all 3.. Should we add a loan like that to his credit profile? He has no car loan or anything so just 2 credit cards and 2 store cards.. Adding an installment loan will help, but will also count as an inquiry and your score may drop a few points after it is paid off since it will be your only installment loan and your credit profile will go back to 0 installment loans. It may be best not to add any inquiries if you plan on applying soon.

Sorry for the novel! Thanks for the help!

When do you plan to purchase a home? What state do you live in? Some states count the credit of both spouses even if only one spouse is on the loan.

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

We are about a year out from buying...mine aren't the best but that's why we are working on his first since it seems like his will matter more and most of my bad stuff falls off in the next year or so right now I'm just working on paying what I have on time and lowering balances

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
We are about a year out from buying...mine aren't the best but that's why we are working on his first since it seems like his will matter more and most of my bad stuff falls off in the next year or so right now I'm just working on paying what I have on time and lowering balances

Sounds like you're in good shape, but you can always work on both just to be safe. I have been working like a dog to fix my own and my wife's credit and hers was a hot mess. Like fire in hell hot hahaha. It's a slow process, but it sounds like you're committed and by what you have posted, you are headed in the right direction. Is there a target credit score you are working towards?

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

We just ordered his fico scores and 640 is the short term goal..

One of his dingers is a $2500 judgement that we are going to PIF in a few months, it's only reporting on one credit report so hopefully we can get it removed once it's PIF

im planning on making a thread to keep track of our "journey" too so hopefully that will keep us on track 😁

The kohls and Victoria's Secret are new cards and haven't been reported to his credit yet so I'm not sure what that's going to do for him 😁😁

I wish all the credit reports would list date it's expected to be removed so I know how the clock is ticking..

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

Also we live in GA 😁

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
We just ordered his fico scores and 640 is the short term goal..

One of his dingers is a $2500 judgement that we are going to PIF in a few months, it's only reporting on one credit report so hopefully we can get it removed once it's PIF-Definitely worth a shot to see if it can be removed. May have to go through a judge though. Not 100% certain

im planning on making a thread to keep track of our "journey" too so hopefully that will keep us on track 😁 Great idea!

The kohls and Victoria's Secret are new cards and haven't been reported to his credit yet so I'm not sure what that's going to do for him 😁😁 Once they report, you should see a little boost due to having at least 3 CC lines open as long as the util is kept low

I wish all the credit reports would list date it's expected to be removed so I know how the clock is ticking..It never hurts to call each bureau and ask. I know there's a way to get this information in writing by requesting all information a bureau has in your credit file but I believe there's a fee for this. Cant remember what provision under the FCRA allows this. I think it's in section 612. Anyhoo, you can definitely call and ask and that should be sufficient.

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Also we live in GA 😁

GA isn't a community property state so you have nothing to worry about. Your credit will not be a factor if your name isn't on the mortgage application. You should still try and clean things up now if you can. Always best to start sooner than later.

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so we are trying to clean up our early mess from our early 20's and set ourselves up to buy a house..

Working more diligently on his credit becuase I'm not working and will be home with our youngest for at least the next 4 years so since home buying will be based solely on his credit and income we figure that's the best way to do it.

he has a

$300.00 Bank of America secured card that will be PIF next week

$200.00 Capital One secured card that will be PIF next week

$300.00 Kohls card with a zero balance

$250.00 Victoria's Secret with a zero balance

(We use Bank of America/Capital one and PIF several times a month) is it best to leave some less then 10% use on ONE card when it reports? Keep all cards but one at 0% and let that last card report 9% or less. How do I determine when it reports? U can call and ask. I have Cap1 and my due date is the 6th and statement date is the 9th

Should it be a different card each month that shows the 10% use and swap out which ones report a zero balance? Yes. FICO tracks card usage as well - No, this is incorrect. FICO does not care which cards show use - only that "some" credit is being used. Trying to swap cards each month will result in multiple cards showing balances, and no cards showing balances during parts of the month because cards do not report all at the same time and there will be overlap. That will have your scores bouncing up and down throughout the month. Switching cards is a needless complication.

Should we add funds to the secure cards to build the available credit? Only do so if you absolutely need it. Credit limit is not factored into scoring

Also our credit union offers a super low interest secured loan that reports to all 3.. Should we add a loan like that to his credit profile? He has no car loan or anything so just 2 credit cards and 2 store cards.. Adding an installment loan will help, but will also count as an inquiry and your score may drop a few points after it is paid off since it will be your only installment loan and your credit profile will go back to 0 installment loans. It may be best not to add any inquiries if you plan on applying soon.

Sorry for the novel! Thanks for the help!
When do you plan to purchase a home? What state do you live in? Some states count the credit of both spouses even if only one spouse is on the loan.

OP, if you have had the secured cards for more than a couple of months, I would suggest applying for an unsecured Cap One card. As SouthEast80 pointed out, if you are in a community property state, the lender may require you to be included as well, so check with a mortgage broker and find out.