Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Mortgage license solutions and your credit report

Many of the states request that you send in a current credit report or agree that the banking department can pull your credit report. What are they looking for? The same things you are looking for when you have a potential customer - how good you are at managing money.

Does your credit report have a low FICO score? Lots of late pays? Open judgments? Some states, like West Virginia, will automatically deny the application if you have a FICO score in the 500s. Other states will also deny the application if you have open judgments and refuse to pay (no matter what the reason for the non-pay). The banking departments take the position that if you can't manage your own finances, how will you be able to advise consumers on what is the best financial decision among the many loan programs that are out there.

What do you do if you suspect you have a problem credit report? First, get a copy of your credit report and FICO score. Review the report and note any items that would raise a red flag. If there are problems with your credit report, pay the judgments, take a few months to make all of your payments on time, get your FICO score up. If you cannot solve this dilemma, do not become an owner of record. Let your partner be the one to submit only his/her credit report.

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