Dear Dave,

My husband and I are trying to buy a house, but we both have low credit scores, so we’re having trouble securing a loan. We’ve heard you talk about getting a mortgage loan with no credit score. Is this the same as a low credit score?

Laura

Dear Laura,

No, it is not. No credit score, means you don’t have any credit or your credit score is “indeterminable.” A low credit score indicates you’ve had – or still have – debt in your life, and you haven’t done a good job of paying creditors on time.

Two things will help solve the problem of having a low credit score. One is time. If you’ve had instances of late payments from years ago, time will help heal that to a degree. The older late issues become, the less they count against you.

But my guess is you two probably