• Transcript of Video Blog:

    Hi everybody. Rowan Smith from the Mortgage Centre. I want to talk today about credit, specifically someone that doesn’t have a reporting credit score. I had a client call me this week who has tons of assets. They ran two different companies. The companies, the companies not her, have fantastic credit. The companies themselves have several hundred thousand dollars in clear assets cash. Now, she came into her bank before she spoke to me and the bank looked at her and said, “I’m sorry, we can’t help you. You don’t have a credit score.” She said, “Why not? I’ve got all these assets.”

    Well, assets don’t report on your credit bureau. It doesn’t matter if you have $10 million in the bank. The credit bureau is about just that: credit. They want to specifically see that you know how to manage monthly payments without missing them, without falling into arrears or getting write-offs. If you’ve been paying cash your whole life for something I applaud that and think that that’s fantastic.

    You haven’t had to borrow to live most of your life, certainly not the trend in Canada. Unfortunately, it’s not great for borrowing because you have no proof that you have a capacity to make payments or to manage a debt at all even though you’ve managed your savings fantastically. How do you get out of this trap?

    First off, go and get a credit card. If you’ve got good assets and you’ve been paying everything with cash then your credit score will be nil for the most part. Apply to get a Visa. Start with that. Do you have to use it all the time? Not necessarily. Use it from time to time, make sure you pay it off. Try to keep that limit over $1,000, though. Ideally you want to get up over $5,000 because when the credit lenders look at you, especially if you’re applying for a mortgage, they want to make sure you can handle a payment that’s more than $50 a month.

    If you’re looking to build and establish credit start with one card. You might want to get a couple. Don’t go crazy. 10 of them is not better than three or four and it just has more chances that one of those payments will get forgotten. Establish that score, get going on it, and then after a couple of years, or realistically even just one year of on time payments and reporting history, we should be able to get you into something.

    That will establish that much needed credit history for vehicle loans, vehicle leases, commercial loans, all that type of thing.

    If you need any help with this or if your bank is telling you you can’t get a Visa even though you’re offering to put your own money up as security I have a solution for you so please give me a call. It’s Rowan Smith from the Mortgage Centre.

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