What Does My Credit Score Mean?Written by Don Blackhurst
Lenders are using credit scores more and more to make decisions about who they will lend to. The main developer of these scores is called Fair, Isaac Co (FICO), thus these scores are often called FICO scores. Scores range from 300-850 with a lower score indicating a higher chance of defaulting on a loan and a higher score representing a better chance that lender will get paid back. The national average score is approximately 680.Every lender sets up its own score cutoffs but generally speaking, you can expect to receive following treatments based on your score: 300-549: Extremely difficult to find any lender that will offer you credit. 550-619: You may be able to find credit, but very high interest rates and fees will likely apply. 620-679: You should be able to obtain credit, but you will probably be offered a higher interest rate. 680-749: You should have no problem getting credit and you will receive good interest rates and repayment terms. 750-850: Lenders are happy to offer you credit and provide you with their best rates and terms.
| | Refinance Mortgage Loan – Tips on Refinancing Your Home MortgageWritten by Carrie Reeder
Refinancing your home mortgage can come with some great perks. If you do it with no money out of pocket, you can skip one to three mortgage payments. You can save money on your payment or pay off your entire mortgage faster when you have better terms. Here are a few things to pay attention to when you refinance your mortgage loan, to make sure that you don’t overlook anything that you might regret, or that can cause you problems later:1. Apply for a pre-approval to many different lenders to make sure you are getting lowest rate possible. When you do this, make sure that with initial pre-approval application, lender is not pulling your credit history. You will want to reserve your credit pull for lender that you are most likely to work with. You can decide that after you have gone through preliminary pre-approval process with a few lenders. Each time your credit is pulled, it docks your credit score just a little. If you have too many inquiries, it could keep you from refinancing your mortgage loan with lowest rate possible. When you pre-apply for home mortgage loans online, most lenders or mortgage service companies will not initially pull your credit. Check for information about this on their website. They will usually tell you whether or not they are going to pull your credit. Also, if on application you do not give them your social security number, they cannot pull your credit. If, on application, they ask you to describe your credit, they are probably not pulling your credit. 2. Make sure that your original mortgage does not have a pre-payment penalty or early payoff penalty of any kind. Sometimes people will get into their mortgage with mortgage having a pre-payment penalty and they will not even know about it. Pre-payment penalties usually range from 6 months to 3 years with a penalty for an early payoff. The penalty is usually about amount of 6 months worth of your mortgage loan interest, but this varies. You would have to be able to have some significant payment and interest savings on your refinance loan to justify refinancing a mortgage loan with a pre-payment penalty.
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