Sunday, January 11, 2009

Basic Credit Scoring Tips For A Better Mortgage Rate

By Rob Kosberg

The right time to review your credit scoring is now because the credit score is becoming more important for mortgage prices. You can make the credit system work for you if you have the knowledge of how the system works. For research or review look at myFICO.com

Equifax is one of the primary credit bureaus and is the publisher of my FICO.com. This site provides a wealth of suggestions, tricks and tips that will help you figure out the credit scoring system.

Check out the following basics:

Remember the number 30: Credit card balances should hold steady at no more than 30% of the card limit. The credit bureau believes that you are responsible with use of credit if this is your situation. If you consider consolidating several credit card balances into a single card, be careful of the single card limit because overloading could hurt your score.

Your Trend Is Your Friend: Payments that are "on time" are favored by the credit bureaus. If your pattern is on time payments, the bureaus know you will probably continue paying regularly and on time. This is the biggest part, 35%, of your credit score. If you have late payments, catch up.

If You Don't Use It You'll Lose It: You need to use your credit because this is how you get an assigned credit score from the credit bureaus. You can simply charge a small amount and pay it off each month and you will have a score.

Learn From History: Your "credit history" is 10% of your score. So, to hold that history, don't close credit cards that you don 't use.

Start to identify the probable issues in your credit history and improve them. More helpful ideas are available at my FICO.com. Later this year, more credit score adjustments to mortgage rates are expected. So, protect yourself with proactive measures.

We don't always know all about credit scoring and may need more assistance than a web site can provide. In order to get your best possible mortgage rate, speak to your loan officer for an analysis of your personal information about your credit score. - 16492

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