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Husband & Wife - 1 Good Credit Score / 1 Bad Credit Score

Posted on: 21st Jul, 2008 01:09 pm
I have a decent credit score (between 700-740), but my husband has a poor credit score of approx. 540. He has one current charge off that he will be paying off ASAP and an old judgment for tuition that was paid off last year. He doesn't have much of an actual credit history though because he pays mainly with cash. There are no other debts (no car payments, no credit card debts, etc). What are the chances of securing a mortgage? And if possible, how will they factor the interest rate based on our 2 credit scores? Any advice help would be appreciated! Thanks!
Who is the primary wage earner?
Posted on: 21st Jul, 2008 01:44 pm
My husband is.
Posted on: 21st Jul, 2008 02:34 pm
Welcome ilovebacon.

Do you want to get the .loan on your name or both of you be on the mortgage. Your score is good so you may get lower interest rate but your husband's score is not good enough. So he may not get approved for better rates and terms. By the way you can seek No-obligation free consultation to know what kind of program is better for you.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further queries.
Posted on: 22nd Jul, 2008 02:15 am
As Niicess stated, since your score is in the 700's then you will be the only one who can secure a mortgage. Now if you need to include your husband income to secure this mortgage then you will have to get his credit repaired. Here is a link to how to repair credit. http://www.mortgagefit.com/calculators/credit-repair.html . If your husband does not have much credit he can get some credit by opening up a secured credit card of about 500- 1000 as collateral. This process takes about 30 days to 45 days to actually see the change on your credit report. That is only if you are actively working to repair your credit report.

Good Luck,

Jeanete Smith
Mortgage Planner
Union Mortgage Group
Posted on: 22nd Jul, 2008 04:58 am
Thank you both for the advice! We have already obtained a secured credit card this year and are trying to use that to build a positive credit history. I didn't realize that this could change his credit score so quickly (30-45 days?). What would be the general score increase for something like this if we continue to make ontime payments?
Posted on: 22nd Jul, 2008 06:29 am
The primary wage earner (this is how SUBPRIME lenders did it, not FHA) is NOT how FHA ScoreCard judges the credit, it uses BOTH scores and looks at the entire picture. Debt ratio, reserves, etc.

There ARE lenders still doing manual Underwrites down to a 530 FICO, so if you get the right broker/lender who knows these lenders and knows how to submit the loan you may have a chance at approval NOW. Your score is a big compensating factor, in fact I have seen some files with your scenario get approved through FHA Scorecard (this is FHA's automated underwriting engine) as long as the rest of the factors are in your favor.

This part is MY opinon, but I think that a good credit score borrower helps more than a bad credit borrower hurts for FHA scorecard. We have seen it plenty of times..we even have cases where we have a bad credit borrower that has a good credit parent and we put the parent on the loan as a non-occupying co-borrower.

Please use standard forum signatures[
Posted on: 22nd Jul, 2008 08:46 am
The only thing that sticks out based on what you have said is the judgement that will have to be paid off to qualify for FHA. Collections do not but judgements usually do.
The last 12 months of credit will be looked at closely and if he has any lates or issues he will need a very good explanation for them. The only way to know is to have someone take a look at it and run it through an automated system.
Good Luck
Brian
Posted on: 22nd Jul, 2008 11:01 am
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