
Sara asked: Another house-buying question from me, here…
I was researching this, because I intend to buy a mortgage with a long term and fixed interest rate. My credit score is currently a 620, and my husband’s is a 650 (considered “fair”, by what I’ve read). The ballpark I got for mortgage interest rates, at that level, was 7.0-7.5%. Does that seem realistic?
My credit is by no means bad, I have no late payments at all, nothing over limit (or even close to over-limit), and am using about 47% of my total credit limit. I haven’t purchased anything on a credit card in a long time, instead I’ve just been paying them off (more than the minimum payments, by far).
The only bad marks on my report are some hospital bills that were sent to collection agencies, which have been paid, but of course they still show up.
Does anyone with any experience care to comment on the credit score/interest rate arena?
To answer a question - yes, the collections do show up as “paid”. But I believe they still remain on the report as a matter of record.
Lillie