Buying a house question? Bad credit.

Question

I work full time but I have bad credit. When I say bad, I mean like 530. I'm doing small things to try and raise that the best I can but my medical bills have ruined it. Lol. 
I have been paying 600 a month for the past 10 years, steadily, renting apartments and houses. I can pay a mortgage no problem. But banks could care less about rental payment history.  I don't have cash to put down really..i guess i could always start saving for it. 
What are my options? Also, my fiance has full time employment and his credit is like 570.

Answer

Start by getting a secure credit card be sure to keep usage below 30%
Try to pay off some old collections of any 
Make all payments on time 
You can hire someone to clear up and fix credit but they typically charge about $1800 for each of you

Answer

Following, credit is a little higher but super curious on how it works with not being able to to put $20,000 down on a house

Answer

Look into first time home buyer grants.

Answer

It’s going to take a while for that credit to rebound, so I’d say there’s not too much you can do to purchase in the immediate future, unless you have a co-signer with great credit. You both need to work on the dings to your credit and start building it up before you apply. Ensure you maintain a very low balance on all of your cards, but don’t close them. The amount of time your accounts remain open is important, and closing them will give you a negative hit. Don’t open anything new unless you don’t have accounts open to build credit on. Pay on time every single month. Once you do this, you’ll want to try to get your credit limit (your maximums on your cards) increased. Depending on how your debt balance looks (from school loans), that can also negatively impact you. If you leased or purchased a car, payments will also benefit you. Check your credit report to see what you can start calling around to fix.

Answer

I'd start with the medical bills. Call the provider and see if they will take a percentage off if you pay a lump sum. A lot of the time they will offer a discount. Medical bills can really put a damper on credit, as you are obviously aware. Good luck!!

Answer

What credit can you work on? It's good to have a variety of open accounts in good standing. Pay your credit cards off in full every month and every 6 months apply for a credit line increase. On my discover I do this at least twice a year I actually did it today and got an increase, it helps because it lowers your overall credit utilization and you're available credit is higher too which means you're a good candidate. By doing just these things I got myself to the mid 700s but it did take probably 2 years, before this I had no credit. 
Pay off anything you can, negotiate that stuff if you have medical debt. Try it, they would rather have $50 over having $0. If you have anything in collections never ever pay the full price. They buy that debt for pennies on the dollar you can offer them a little bit and see what they say.

Buying a house question? Bad credit.

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