Calculating how much home I can afford - credit card question?

At sites like this: http://money.howstuffworks.com/framed.ht...

they have calculators to see how much home you can afford.

I am trying to figure out what to enter for the %26quot;credit card liability.%26quot;

I have never carried a balance on a credit card. So technically I have no credit card %26quot;debt.%26quot; But I use credit cards for EVERYTHING (almost never use cash), so every month I have over one thousand dollars to pay to my credit cards.

What is the right way to calculate -- do they want the amount I am %26quot;in debt%26quot; (zero) or the average of my monthly credit card bills (over one thousand dollars)? I feel that the latter figure may not accurately represent my actual financial situation, since if I used cash instead of credit cards I could enter %26quot;zero%26quot; -- I just use the cards to earn rewards.

Maybe the real question is -- how will the banks calculate it?

Calculating how much home I can afford - credit card question?

I disagree.....I have cards w/ high limits.....never carry a balance and always put ZERO.....

The liability isn%26#039;t there if the acct doesn%26#039;t have a balance....

Our last home loan application at closing (which is printed)showed just what we filled out at the begininng.

Calculating how much home I can afford - credit card question?

If you don%26#039;t carry a balance, then the value is 0.

Calculating how much home I can afford - credit card question?

Credit card liability means, what is your total credit line on credit cards? Paid off or not. For example if you have 3 credit cards with a $1000, $5000, %26amp; $2000 credit limit. Then you have a credit card liability of $8000.

The bank wants to know how much you could potentially be indebted to all your lenders.

Calculating how much home I can afford - credit card question?

paula and level6 are correct. if you pay it off each month that will be shown in a good credit score. when it comes time to qualify be sure it is zero!