How a Low Credit Score Affects Your Purchase of a Home

Have you ever considered what a lender thinks when he or she reviews a credit report in relation to approving or denying a mortgage application? Well, the most common answers would be: What is their credit score? How is their credit history? What is their income? What is their debt to income ratio? Will they be providing a substantial down payment?

The negative effects of a less than stellar credit history may be minimized by a large down payment; however, you will still likely pay more in fees and end up with a high mortgage interest rate. The fact is that in the past 12-18 months the minimum score necessary to buy a home has increased.

You cannot hide from a low credit score. In order to purchase a home, it is necessary to have a good credit history, whether you can provide a large down payment or not. A prospective homeowner should attempt to obtain an average credit score of 758 in order to receive the lowest interest rates, according to CNN.com.

Find Out How to Raise Your Credit Score and Improve Your Chances of Purchasing a Home

It is helpful and easy to request a copy of your credit report and read it over for negative entries. Mistakes and errors are often found on credit reports and this information can be disputed.

A dispute letter to the relevant credit bureaus would be a good start. Alternatively, to resolve the negative entry, you will need to contact the creditor directly.

Sometimes a cleverly crafted dispute letter will result in the removal of the negative entry. However, it is often the case that investigative procedures are careless and result in errors.

The reason for this is, when investigating any dispute, credit bureaus must necessarily spend additional resources and time to resolve the matter. Unfortunately, some credit bureaus feel it is more cost effective to take their time or ignore the matter altogether. It is their desire that you give up on your request to remove negative entries from your credit report.

Will it Take Long to Boost My Credit Score?

Often people want to know how long it will take to see an improvment in their credit score. This answer, of course, is dependent upon the individual situation, however, in many cases, an improvement may be seen by 6-12 months.

Although this may seem like an extremely long time, it is exceedingly shorter than waiting 7-10 years for the negative information to be erased. If you plan to purchase a home, it is imperative that you wait the 6-12 months to clear your credit report of any negative information.

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To begin with, a credit card judgment is a court order acknowledging that the consumer owes a debt and which allows the creditor the right to seize assets to repayment the debt owed. This normally comes about when a credit card cardholder falls behind on their monthly minimum credit card payments and has virtually ignored repeated requests from the credit card provider to bring the account current.

Idealistically speaking, before getting to this point, it would be best to contact the card provider so things do not get out of hand. Credit card providers are often willing to work with a cardholder to either arrange a payment plan or to arrange for a pay off in full for a reduced debt amount.

If a credit card provider feels it will get nowhere with you regarding your credit card debt, it may sell your debt to a collection agency. If so, you will then have to negotiate with the collection agency as the credit card provider has removed itself from the equation. Most collection agencies do not want to file a law suit against you as it is time-consuming and costly. They would much rather work with you to settle the debt, either through a lump sum payment or by arranging monthly payments.

If your debt does come before a judge for a credit card judgment, you have the right to appear before the judge and plead your case. If the debt is not yours or if the seizing of the assets would mean serious difficulties for you, the judge may take this into consideration. However, this is viewed on a case-by-case basis.

Additionally, not all assets may be seized and a judge may determine exactly which assets may be taken. A judge may also order that money be taken from your bank account to pay the debt , may set a ruling to garnish your wages (depending upon state law), or may even order the filing of a lien upon your real property, if you own any.

Your credit score will be severely damaged if you obtain a credit card judgment. Also, it will be extremely hard to be approved for any credit products. Your credit history can carry this albatross for up to seven years.

As if this wasn’t enough, this credit card judgment can also affect your chances of future employment or advancement in your current job. Also, searching for reasonable rates on home and car insurance may be affected.

It is best to pay the credit card debt off as quickly as possible once the judgment has been issued. Once you have paid this debt off, you should try to contact the credit reporting agencies to attempt to have the debt removed in its entirety or to request this entry be revised to a “paid” status, at the very least.

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Posted under Credit

The phenomenon of credit reports and why they’re around always comes to the front of a person’s attention whenever he or she needs to apply for credit for just about anything these days. What is a fact is that a credit report has much more of an impact on almost every aspect of a person’s life than in the past, even when much of their life has nothing to do with actual credit.

As an example, it’s important to understand that having what the credit industry refers to as poor credit can cause much more to be paid for something that’s financed — in terms of interest rates — than if good credit existed when upon initial application. Additionally, understand that organizations like auto insurance companies are pulling credit to determine policy cost.

The reasoning behind this — most auto insurers would say — is that people with poor credit (nowadays, that would usually be people below a 600 credit score) seem to be higher risks in terms of claims and driving behaviors. Many experts dispute this and say that it is pure nonsense and some states have begun to outlaw the practice, but it is still out there.

What is also good to know is that more and more prospective employers are looking at a prospective employee’s past credit history before coming to a decision about hiring him or her. Keep in mind that a prospective employer must obtain, in writing, permission from the prospective employee to pull credit from one of the three major bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) in order to assess it.

For the most part, just about everything discussed should serve to reinforce that there are a myriad of ways that credit and how it’s assessed exists in society nowadays. Think about the typical mailbox and how full it becomes from companies and the like who have pulled a quick look report from one of the bureaus and then sent out an offer for possible credit based on that quick look.

These reports exist as a way of gauging a person’s risk, for the most part. They can provide a 7 to 10 year (or even longer in cases where a bankruptcy has existed in the past) glimpse of a person’s consumer life. Poor credit can mean a much higher interest rate on a mortgage or an automobile loan. In other words, poor credit cost people quite a bit of money over the long run.

All of the above highlights why it’s important for a consumer to pull his or her credit reports on an annual basis. By law, each of the reporting bureaus must provide a free credit report to a consumer who asks for it. There won’t be a credit score on the report (that costs money) but the report itself can be a good way to see just what each bureau might have on a consumer, which is a good thing to know.

Understanding and appreciating credit reports and why they exist becomes necessary anytime a person is going to apply for credit and they want to make totally sure they’ll be successful in the application for it. Bad credit thus calls for credit repair.

Posted under Credit