I am 42 and have never had credit.?

Question

I have never had any positive credit and I am 42 yars old. I have three or four negatives on my credit report for old medical and other things. I have paid off the rest. I think the largest is 950.00 the remaining 200-300.00 each. I have not ever bought a car or home on credit and have never had any credit cards. My question. Is there a way I can build credit quickly? I am not getting any younger and would like to buy a home. Help anyone!

I have never had any positive credit and I am 42 yars old. I have three or four negatives on my credit report for old medical and other things. I have paid off the rest. I think the largest is 950.00 the remaining 200-300.00 each. I have not ever bought a car or home on credit and have never had any credit cards. My question. Is there a way I can build credit quickly? I am not getting any younger and would like to buy a home. Help anyone!


To the limey mummy's boy. I have been on my own since 16 years old and have raised two sons on my own. I have paid my way the entire time. Perhaps the basement thing is of your liking.

Answer 1

Yeah, you can do it but it won't be quick.

Answer 2

Until you have paid off your outstanding balances, you will have bad credit. A number of credit reporting agencies will not expunge that from your record until it is been paid off for a number of years. If it is too tough to pay this off quickly, it may not hurt to go to credit counselling to see if it can be broken down into payments that you can afford.
Please remember that you need a decent downpayment for a house. Without it, you will have a tough time getting a mortgage. Also, the bigger the downpayment the more manageable the monthly mortgage payments will be. It is easy to get oneself into a financial mess even with a house because there are a lot of other expenditures (taxes, maintenance, utility bills, lawn care supplies, etc). Try to start saving.

Answer 3

The best thing you can do right now is try to pay off your credit cards on a regular basis, making sure to add one or two extra payments possibly lowering your APR Rates in each of them and paying them off in full. Look up your credit score on freecreditreport.com, that site provides your with your score at no charge for a month, after that month, be sure to CANCEL your membership with them to prevent their fees for further reports. In order to be accepted for more credit cards, home / car loans you must have decent credit and they will look at your major credit cards, any revolving accounts, any delinquent or canceled accounts, etc. so you have to be sure that your credit cards are in good standing. I think the best thing you should do also is NOT open up anymore credit cards unless you can pay them off and have the other ones as well. Unfortunately,boosting up your credit score can take months, even a couple of years!

To be able to get a car or loans, try getting one of your good and reliable friends to co-sign with you. In this case, the car and payments will be in their name so if you pay the car off in time, their credit score will increase, but at the same time if you cannot pay it off and miss one or two payments, it will hurt their credit score.

It's a gradual process and you can always use help from the bank or other businesses out there that will help you through this situation.

I'm only 20 and started building up my credit at 18. I have 3 opened accounts in good standing but even with that I don't have "sufficient" credit or have only had credit for two years, to get myself a car loan even though my credit score is average.Having credit is a tricky thing so be sure to act on your dilemma so that you will be able to buy the house or car that you want!

Good luck!

Found a little something extra for ya!
http://money.aol.com/cnnmoney/credit/bad-credit-fixes

Answer 4

I guess people don't need credit cards while they live in their mum's basement. This reminds me of a certain early 90s sitcom where a 40 year old man was a paperboy and lived with his parents. My advice is to acquire a time-machine and tell yourself at about age 18 to get a credit card and use it.