My husband and I have always rented our apartments. We both grew up in rented homes too so we never even thought about purchasing a home until we had our daughter. Now that she is two we are really seriously thinking about it and taking the beginning steps to make that a reality. The first and most important things are your credit score and Credit Karma™ is helping us along the way.
Did you know that there are 220 million credit profiles and 33% of those people have never checked their credit scores? I was one of those that didn't know my current score because I just didn't think I had to know that number. I wasn't applying to any credit or thinking about buying homes so why did I need to know that number? I also didn't want to pay to get my number when I wasn't using it. This was my mentality over a year ago before my husband and I checked out Credit Karma™.
Since Credit Karma™ is 100% free (Yes free! They don't even ask you for a credit card!) we both decided to check out our scores to get the ball rolling with the early stages of buying a home. We were both happy to see that we had good numbers but saw some ways that it could be improved.
The Credit Card section shows you your credit card utilization, your payment history, deragotory marks, age of credit history, total accounts and credit inquiries. We learned that a good percentage is 20-30% for the credit card utilization. Credit inquiries stay on your report for two years so it's not a good idea to apply for lots of different credit at once.
- Account details
- Credit Inquiries
- Collections accounts
- Public records
Some other great features of Credit Karma™ are the Credit Score Simulator which show you how certain things can affect your credit. The My Spending feature that can monitor, banking accounts, savings accounts, credit card transactions which are things that are not put in a credit report. And the My Recommendations which recommend the best products for you based on your data. There are also tons of tools, advice, resources and articles.
Taking the first steps to buying a home feels a little scary but also exciting at the same time. I am ready for my little family to have a home we can call our own and some more space to grow in.
You can create a free account and get your own credit information at Credit Karma™!
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