Consumers interested in purchasing or refinancing a home will pay an interest rate based on current market conditions and their ability to pay back loan. The borrower’s income and debt ratios are taken into consideration by lender, as well as predictability factor provided by credit scoring. It’s important to have a mortgage professional in your corner that has a keen eye for solutions to improving credit scores in an effort to get best interest rate possible. Interest rates associated with various loan programs are broken down into schedules based on credit score ratings. While each lender has its own guidelines, it’s safe to assume that as consumer’s credit score goes down, interest rates will go up.
A borrower with an outstanding credit rating will get what is called an A-paper loan. This type of borrower is rewarded with a lower interest rate because they have a proven track record of using credit sensibly and paying their bills on time.
Loans designed for consumers with less-than-perfect credit – sometimes referred to as “sub-prime” – can range anywhere from A-minus, B-paper, C-paper or D-paper loans.
If you have already taken out a mortgage loan with a higher interest rate because your credit score was a little under par, you will really appreciate value in doing a little work to improve your credit score. Refinancing from a D-paper loan to a B-paper classification can save literally thousands of dollars in financing fees over time, even though B-paper loan is still considered sub-prime.
A qualified mortgage consultant will guide you through nuances of process of improving your credit score to refinance and save money. First and foremost, he or she will want to review terms of existing mortgage loan to determine if you have a pre-payment penalty clause written into your contract. In general terms, that means that if you sell home or try to refinance before pre-payment penalty expires and you have not already paid off 20 percent of original loan amount, you will most likely have to pay a 3 percent fee back to lender to compensate for high risk and high costs incurred to provide that financing.