I write educational posts on buying your home for the first time. I even posted my homebuying book at r/NewbHomebuyer here's the book on reddit.

We just went under contract today. And I also just got notified that I missed a credit card payment. It’s been more than 35 days and was reported delinquent. I’ve had this card for almost 16 years and never missed a payment before. Actually, I’ve never missed a payment on anything before, until now. It’s a card I rarely use these days and I guess it just got overlooked. I already submitted a payment, it was only $70. My FICO score is now in the low 700s after being right around 800. My spouse’s score is still 750+. We’ve already been pre-approved, but now I’m afraid this will screw us during underwriting.

It's not a deal-killer and might even go unnoticed by underwriting.

They do credit refreshes to make sure you're not taking on any new debt. Not so much to check new credit scores.

Your initial hard credit pull is good for 90-120 days, so if they had a hard credit pull within 90 days, you'll porbably be fine.

Prepare a letter of explanation if they need it. "A one-time late payment on a card I rarely use, thought it was set on auto-pay"

Worst case, if they call for a brand new hard pull report, they'll re-run numbers and tell you where everything lands with a new score.

One more thing worth checking: ask the credit card company for a goodwill adjustment. Call them, explain you've had the card 16 years with a perfect payment history, ask if they'd remove the late payment as a courtesy. They don't have to, but with that long of a history, there's a real chance they'll do it. If they do, your score bounces back almost immediately.

I write educational posts on buying your home for the first time. I even posted my homebuying book at r/NewbHomebuyer here's the book on reddit.

Originally shared by u/SamTMortgageBroker in r/NewbHomebuyer — view the original thread.