Know Your Credit
Your credit scores are the most important items in determining you ability to obtain a mortgage loan (or any loan for that matter). First, I will try to explain what goes into a credit score and what general credit scores can obtain different kinds of loans. Due to the melt-down in the mortgage industry this information has changed enormously in the past 6 months. In the loan sections, the general credit scores required will be noted on the type of loan product as it applies.
The credit scoring system used today was first developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation. It is known in the lending industry as the FICO® score. These credit scores range between 300 – 850. (There website is http://www.fairisaac.com/fic/en/ for more information). For most low or no down payment mortgage products, a minimum of 640 is necessary. The better your individual use of credit, the higher your FICO® scores. A common mistake most people make is that they think that they only have one score. There are three scores for every consumer who has used credit. Each of these scores are from the three national credit repositories in the country. These repositories collect information on you. Lots of information including: name, current and former home addresses, social security numbers, date of birth, creditors, list of credit cards and loans, mortgage information, loan and credit card balances, minimum payments on the credit payments, spending habits, expectation of payment on new credit, and much more.
To accurately understand your credit in relationship to your mortgage loan you must know all three scores one from each of the national repositories. The repositories are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Nearly every mortgage lender will use the middle score of the three repository scores for both the borrower and co-borrower(s). To obtain a credit report from these repositories you can contact each repository individually. There information is listed below:
Equifax
Website: www.equifax.com/home/
Phone to order a Credit Report: 1-800-685-1111
Mailing Address:
Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
Online Dispute information: www.equifax.com/answers/correct-credit-report-errors/en_cp
Experian
Website: www.experian.com
Order a Credit Report you must use the online site (see above).
Mailing address:
Experian
475 Anton Blvd.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Phone# 714-830-7000
Experian
955 American Lane
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Phone # 224-698-5600
Online Dispute Information: www.experian.com/disputes/index.html
TransUnion
Website: www.transunion.com
Order a credit report by phone: 1-877-322-8228
Corporate address:
TransUnion Corporation
555 W. Adams St., Floor 6
Chicago, IL 60661-3719
Mailing address:
TransUnion Corporation
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834
Phone # 888-909-8872
Online Dispute Information: http://annualcreditreport.transunion.com/entry/disputeonline
Credit Dispute resolution by Phone call 800-916-8800.
Credit Scores Information
To better understand your credit scores, Fair Isaac Corporation put out a booklet, which you can review or download at http://www.myfico.com/Downloads/Files/myFICO_UYFS_Booklet.pdf.
Free Credit Report
To Order a Free Credit Report on an Annual basis go to the following website and request it: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
