Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Basic Credit Scoring 101 For A Better Mortgage Rate

By Rob Kosberg

Credit scoring is becoming more important to mortgage pricing so now would be a terrific time to brush up on your credit education. If you understand how the system works, after all, you can make it work to your advantage. One terrific place to start your research is at myFICO.com.

Equifax publishes myFICO.com, and Equifax is one of the major credit scoring companies. All can learn from the numerous pages of financial tips, suggestions, and tricks.

Check out the following basics:

Use It Or Lose It: If you don't use credit, the credit agencies can't assign you a credit score. Spend $10 monthly on your credit cards and then pay it in full to "get on the grid" and get yourself a score.

You Have A Friend In The Trend: The credit bureaus smile on "on time" payments. If you have a record of paying on time, you are likely to continue the pattern . If you're late, catch up right away. This is the biggest portion of your credit score at 35 percent.

If You Don't Use It You'll Lose It: You need to use your credit because this is how you get an assigned credit score from the credit bureaus. You can simply charge a small amount and pay it off each month and you will have a score.

Pay Attention To History: Maintain a credit "history." Don't close out credit cards that you don't use. That history will be 10% of your score.

The web site mentioned can provide more suggestions to help you. Take a proactive approach because this year it is expected that there will be added credit score adjustments to mortgage rates You need to find out what the issues may be with your current credit score and take the appropriate steps to fix your score.

We all want the best mortgage rate possible, but are not always clear about the best way to get credit scoring formation . Please speak with your loan officer about getting the personal information that you need. - 15224

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