So close ... and yet so far away...

So today we went to the bank AGAIN, for the 4th time to make this home loan pre-approval happen. Hubby had paid off the last of the past due things from long ago that was on his credit and we paid down our Chase Visa a little more, which should help bump his score up, as we need it to be a 620 and it was just a tad under that last time we went in in September.

So we get there and we have some good and bad news, the bank/mortgage lady we've been working with tells us. The bad news is that starting Monday FHA is raising their required minimum credit score for a home loan from 620 to 640! Doh! The good news, is that we are eligible and qualify for this 1st time homebuyer's program they have which lets you get by with a 620.

Also, we figured out what the problem was from the last time we were in as she ran a separate credit report for each of us.

On our Chase Visa, it shows the balance on my credit report to be around $225, reporting monthly while on hubby's it shows up with a balance of around $1300 and hasn't reported since January!

We think we figured it out - I opened the card about a year ago when I started Mary Kay to purchase my inventory and hubby and I had discussed putting him on the card as well so he would have some revolving credit as the bank lady had suggested we do for hubby as he had no revolving credit. Well, we went back to the bank 3-4 months later and met with a guy that time as we couldn't remember the lady's name and couldn't find her card (I found it after the fact) and he said that because the card was so new, it was hurting hubby's credit a lot and that it would be best to take him off that. So I called Chase and requested he be removed. Then we went in this past September and met with the original lady again and it showed that hubby was still on the Chase card, but since it had been almost year, the balance was a lot lower and counts as revolving credit it was actually helping his score - we figured the girl I talked to at Chase was just an airhead and didn't actually take him off when I requested it, but we decided it's working in our favor now so whatever.

So they took his name off the Chase card but reported the $1300 balance that was on it last January when they took him off to the credit bureau and haven't reported any activity in his name since!

Our bank lady said that since it's already under his credit, adding him back on won't hurt his score at this point as all it will do will report him monthly along with me with the updated balance and will help his score - she said once it reports to the credit bureau with his name on it and all the updated info we should be good to go as that'll bump him up to at least a 625 and we just need a 620.

I called Chase as soon as I got home and explained that I had both credit reports in front of me and what it was showing. The guy I spoke to (who was starting to act like I was freaking out when I wasn't, I was just explaining the situation to him) stated that hubby is not listed on the account and started to tell me we could dispute it or whatever to get it off his credit but we don't want that - we want to make sure he's on it and make sure they start reporting it ASAP. So we added him back on and while I know thanks to the credit reports that Chase reports monthly to the credit bureau it should show up for him in the next cycle, despite the guy saying major changes to the account like that report quarterly which won't be til January.

So we're *right* there - soooooo close!

We figure at this point, while we could check at the beginning of December to see if Chase is reporting for hubby, we might as well just wait until January. Hubby's swamped with work during December and I don't want to do the house hunting without him. At least now I know I can pull out all the Christmas decorations in a few weeks and put them out - I really didn't want to decorate here for the holidays and then start moving right away, that would just be annoying!

In other news, I get to wake up bright and early and drive down to St. Louis to retrieve our car and drop off the rental and try and make it back by 630pm for our childbirthing class. Let's hope for smooth travel there and back!

Also, heard back from The Children's Place - I start Saturday morning - yay!! I'm actually pretty excited as I get sooooo bored at home, especially with hubby working as much as he does, and I look forward to having somewhere to be and something to do!