Shawn and I are quite determined to teach our kids all about credit scores and how to maintain a good score. When I was 17 I didn't think much about credit scores until I was driving home on highway 5, over-tired, at 2 a.m. and fell asleep. I awoke when my car collided into a power-pole knocking the pole over into the tall grass so, when I stumbled out of the car, half-asleep and half-in-shock, I had no idea what destroyed my car. Two days later I was made well aware of what I crashed in when a bill for $5000 came from Fortis Alberta for replacing the power pole.
$5000 for a wooden pole.
I should really get into the power pole industry.
The kicker was they would not accept monthly payment plans, rather they wanted it all upfront.
Riiiiiiight, at 17 I was working full-time, but at McDonalds for $5.90/hr....
I would have had to work 847 hrs (before taxes) or 21.4 full-time weeks and NOT have spent any money at all before I could have had enough money to pay it of... Not happening.
When I told Fortis this, they were very understanding. Very understanding that they would not be getting the money out of me right away so they sent a collection agency after me.
Good news: the collection agency WOULD accept monthly payments
I had previously thought that you cannot start to develop credit, good or bad, until 18. Luckily for me, they just waited until I turned 18 and dinged me. Happy Birthday!!! So my first credit rating was bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. I couldn't even get a student credit card let alone a new car. After being denied for two student credit cards I wrote off my credit as being dismal and never attempted it again.
A month ago, our plans changed and now the prospect of buying a house is in the very near future. I was not very optimistic about securing a mortgage. Shawn has just come to Canada from the States two years ago, I had the pole incident, Shawn has been working at his current job for only two months, and my work history has been spotty to say the least due to traveling, broken backs and moving. When I was talking to the Mortgage Broker, I could envision him laughing at me as I brought up each new 'but'.
"I am a R.N. but I have only worked 6 months in Alberta in the last 18 months"
"We DID have a good amount of money in our account, but Shawn just bought a new truck for his future business so that's where half of the money went"
When he called me today, I braced myself for the worst, thinking,
"Maybe living in a one bedroom, 100-yr-old house wouldn't be so bad. Shawn does like the idea of flipping houses. It will be a good story, telling our kids how sketchy/tiny/dingy our first house was."
"Maybe we could live in a trailer. Sure there is the stereotype but we can defy it. Or maybe embrace it. Hmmm perhaps we should watch some trailer park boys to get some insight on trailer life." We were pre-approved for almost double than what I had dared to hope for!!! More amazing was this sentance, "You both have rather good credit scores so..."
WHAT?!?!?!? The girls who couldn't even get a $500 limit student visa has a GOOD credit score and you are pre-approving me for how much????
Apparently, bad credit dings only last 5 years so 7 years later all I have left are good credit reports!!!! Who knew?? And even though our job history is spotty, our jobs are good enough that they didn't mind too much.
So here we are, pre-approved for an amount much more than we will be looking at and working hard to save for the down-payment. But I can't help be as excited about my new-found good credit rating as our future house.
Never mind, I am crazy excited about buying our first house together.
I like the sound of that.
