(no subject)
Fair Isaac Corporation offers ScoreWatch, which is normally an annual subscription service. They also offer a month-long free trial, and appear to be pretty well on the up-and-up as far as actually canceling when the customer says so, etc. I wasn't sure what my credit score was: I figured it would be decent but not fantastically high, probably around 680 (on a scale of 300-850). The last time I applied for credit (a little over a year ago) I was denied, but did not get an opportunity to request financial information on that basis because, by the time the decision came through, I was in England. At any rate I looked at my score and it is 716, which is firmly in the "very low credit risk" category, and which qualifies for the second- to third-lowest tier for interest rates on most sorts of loans.
I may have mentioned this before but I am looking to finance my family home - I want to buy it, remodel it, own it, etc. All the good homeowner-y things. I wasn't sure how far out this would be but I spent some time projecting some budgets, mostly based on working full-time minimum wage after I graduate: either increasing hours at my current job, or picking up a second job somewhere that wouldn't require me to get a car, or working with my parents. (Cars are expensive, and would require that I earn a lot more just to make up that cost.) On those projections, I figured I could probably manage a 20% downpayment in 2-4 years. With this credit score, though, especially if I maintain/improve it, I may be able to finance the house on a 10% or even 5% downpayment, which would mean that I might be able to swing it in just 1-2 years.
The house is also in a neighborhood that faces blight, which means that in looking to purchase it I would qualify for at least one community program aimed at increasing homeownership, which might help me qualify for lower-interest loans or even downpayment assistance.
If you'll excuse me, now is the time for me to do a happy dance.
(It's times like these that make me glad I spent so much time in my childhood reading books about finances and such, even if it was the dorkiest thing ever.)
I may have mentioned this before but I am looking to finance my family home - I want to buy it, remodel it, own it, etc. All the good homeowner-y things. I wasn't sure how far out this would be but I spent some time projecting some budgets, mostly based on working full-time minimum wage after I graduate: either increasing hours at my current job, or picking up a second job somewhere that wouldn't require me to get a car, or working with my parents. (Cars are expensive, and would require that I earn a lot more just to make up that cost.) On those projections, I figured I could probably manage a 20% downpayment in 2-4 years. With this credit score, though, especially if I maintain/improve it, I may be able to finance the house on a 10% or even 5% downpayment, which would mean that I might be able to swing it in just 1-2 years.
The house is also in a neighborhood that faces blight, which means that in looking to purchase it I would qualify for at least one community program aimed at increasing homeownership, which might help me qualify for lower-interest loans or even downpayment assistance.
If you'll excuse me, now is the time for me to do a happy dance.
(It's times like these that make me glad I spent so much time in my childhood reading books about finances and such, even if it was the dorkiest thing ever.)