Later this year, there is the possibility that we will be buying a house. I've never been a home-owner, so this whole process looks very daunting to me.
We haven't even applied for a loan before, so that is where we are starting. This is the first time in my life I have ever been seriously concerned with my credit rating before. We will be requesting a copy of our credit rating soon, to figure out if we can even get a loan. I have no idea what to expect, or whether my credit rating will be a problem.
Heimlich was reading some books about the homebuying process, and they suggested some ways of improving a credit score. I know that improving a credit score takes time, but one of the things they suggested was overpaying credit card payments by $20 each month. In other words, if I had charged $600 last month, when I get the bill, I should write them a check for $620.
The book this tip was located in is called "How to Buy Your First Home" by Diana Brodman Summers, Attorney at Law (ISBN 1-57248-328-8). It says it on Page 11 (Chapter 2), although it doesn't explain how this might improve your credit rating.
I have never heard of this before. It kind of bothers me, because if this turns out to be true, I could have been overpaying my credit card bills all of these years. And as a result, my credit rating might have ended up being better than it is now.
The thing is, that I can't figure out whether this is a myth or not. I have done a bunch of google searches, and have come up with nothing that corroborates that tip. And actually, I've read a lot of things that indicate the amount of balance carried between months on a credit card isn't reported to credit bureaus.
The reason I'm inclined to believe this tip is because Heimlich claims that she does this every month, and they keep steadily increasing her credit limit (and indeed, despite that my salary is higher, she has the higher credit limit).
So now, I'm on a quest to get to the bottom of this mystery.
<< Home