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Today Money financial expert Sharon Epperson joined us for a live Web chat Wednesday to answer your questions.
Here’s one of her answers to questions from the live chat. (See below for the full Q&A and video of Sharon’s TV appearance this morning.)
Bridget asked:
“Hi Sharon, my husband and I are both in our mid 20s and we are looking to buy a house in the next year or two years. Our credit scores are both in the 650-670 range. What do you recommend we do to bring those scores up? And what is a good score to have when that time comes to buy a home?”
Sharon replied:
“If you want to buy a home, having good credit is essential to ensuring you get the best rate on your mortgage. A score in the mid-to-upper 700s is ideal. To raise your score, make sure you pay your bills on time and don't use too much of your available credit. Using 10% or less of your available credit across all cards may help raise your score. Also check your credit reports to make sure there are not errors and monitor them regularly. You can get a free report once a year from each of the 3 credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com.”
Here’s the full chat archive and Sharon’s TV appearance:
If you have a question for our TODAY Money experts, submit it here.
To sign up for an e-mail reminder for our next chat, click here.
Leave a Comment:
And a good job does help a lot too!
Save money, buy cash down so that you don't have to pay for the life style of a fat cat banker for 30 years. It will cost you much less too. You will also help keep prices down. Banks create money when we borrow. Google for "How do banks create money" to understand how. Availability of mortgage pushes prices higher and forces more people to borrow. Then more people end up working in financial services instead of building homes. It is misallocation of resources.
Thank you. A 30 year mortgage is just a way for the banks to rent us all houses.
Don't take out a loan for anything but a capital investment. And a house is not a capital investment.
That's if you can now get a good job, subject to a good credit score of course. No wonder I had to resort to sorting my own credit rating out, and believe me I am no expert. I am currently looking into something like this Grim future in store at this rate