Very silly mortgage question

Xstatic3333

So our offer was approved (hooray!) and we go for the official mortgage application tomorrow. We use a CC for points but pay it off in full every month. Can the mortgage underwriters "see" that we do this, or should I make sure the balance is actually zero when we go in tomorrow? Is it better to show that the card is active by leaving the current $200 balance alone and paying it when I normally would?

*I know I'm being ridiculous. We're already preapproved-for way more than we're actually spending on this house. I just find myself anxious about the whole thing for some reason.

Mom987

I'd pay it off but I think it'll still show as active since it's not closed??

hoffse

Nah it should be fine - just proceed as normal.

What they look for are late payments, etc.  Having a balance at any given time is NBD, as long as none of it is late and is paid in full each month sometime during the grace period (the time after your billing cycle closes).  They can look back for at least a year.

They aren't looking at specific cards, either - but rather, what those cards report to the credit bureaus.

H and I are maybe a couple days ahead of you in this, and I've found that because we applied for so much less than we were approved for, things are rolling right along. There was some discussion the other day about leaving H off of the mortgage entirely since he has student loans in deferment (they become due in Nov), and he won't have an income until after we close (he starts early Sept.).  However, the amount we are borrowing is so low that the underwriter ultimately decided it was fine to leave him on the mortgage.  So he will be on the loan too, even though he won't have a stream of income for 30 days after closing.  

I think they scrutinize more closely when you are borrowing close to the limits they define for you - because we (and they) know those borrowing caps are awfully high for most people and put the borrower at a much higher risk for default.

formerlyGDaisy09

I wouldn'y worry about a $200 balance. Our bank was just looking to make sure we hadn't opened any new lines of credit recently. 

Xstatic3333

That makes sense everyone.  Thanks for talking me out of crazy town.

The way our credit union ran the applications, we actually had to decide how much to get pre-approved for instead of them deciding how much they were willing to loan us.  We just plugged in the top of our price range, and I was actually slightly bummed not to find out what crazy number they would have allowed.

jtmh2012

We run on average about $2000/month through our credit cards and like you always pay them in full at the end of the billing cycle. Mortgage company didn't bat an eye on it.

ta78

$200 isn't going to make any difference. Congratulations!