During your initial pre-qualification, have your mortgage loan specialist order
a credit report.
This will allow you to resolve any problems that may interfere with the loan
approval at an
early stage in the loan process.
When lenders or other businesses extend you a loan or line of credit, they may
inform one
or more of the credit reporting agencies. Consequently, if payments on the loans
or line
of credit are made over 30 days late, this information will be reflected on your
credit history.
When you apply for a mortgage, the lender accesses your credit report to
determine how likely you
are to repay the loan. If the report shows you are carrying debt out of
proportion to your income
or that you are consistently late in your payments, the lender will probably
consider you a poor risk.
Correcting Your Credit Report
f you discover errors in your credit report, you should contact each business
that made an inaccurate
entry and ask them to retract it. If they refuse, contact the credit reporting
agency or agencies and
notify them of the disputed entry.
By law, the credit reporting agency must
include your objection in
the credit report.
If you find many serious errors or encounter difficulty in
rectifying them, you may
consider hiring an attorney to help you.
Improving Your Credit Record
If your report is accurate and shows you to be unreliable in your financial
dealings, you
must change your habits to have any hope of securing a loan. Pay any past due
accounts immediately
and re-establish a good credit record by paying all your bills on time.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act entitles you to obtain copies of your credit
history. You can order
a report from any of the three by calling the toll free numbers and following
the instructions.
The following companies are the three major credit reporting agencies:
Experian
Consumer Assistance
P.O. Box 2350
Chatsworth, CA 91313
Tel: (888) 397-3742
Fee May Apply
Equifax
Consumer Relations
P.O. Box 740241
1150 Lake Hearn Drive #460
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Tel: (800) 685-1111
Fee May Apply
Trans Union
Customer Relations
760 West Sproul Road
P.O. Box 390
Springfield, PA 19064-0390
Tel: (800) 888-4213
Fee May Apply
