Viewing entries in
Trending

New Changes Coming to Your Next Mortgage Application: Trended Data

Comment

New Changes Coming to Your Next Mortgage Application: Trended Data

Planning to apply for a mortgage in the near future? If so you should be aware of some major changes on the horizon in the mortgage world which might impact your next application. At the end of June, 2016 Fannie Mae will be adding a new element of credit data to be considered by their automated underwriting system, Desktop Underwriter (DU Version 10.0). The new element which DU will consider the next time you apply for a mortgage is known as "time series data" or "trended data."

What Is Trended Data?

According to Fannie Mae trended credit data is "expanded information on a borrower's credit history at a trade line (credit line) level [based] on several monthly factors, including: amount owed, minimum payment, and payment made." More simply phrased, trended data is a just a list of your account management information which allows lenders to see a chronological history of your credit card balances, payment amounts, and minimum payments over a series of time (2 years to be exact).  This historical payment data shows lenders whether you are a credit card balance transactor (someone who pays off her credit card balances monthly) or a credit card balance revolver (someone who does not pay off her credit card balances monthly and instead revolves a balance from month to month).

Why Does Your Mortgage Lender Care about Trended Data?

Credit reports and scores are products, sold by the credit bureaus and FICO (among others), which serve the purpose of helping future lenders predict the risk of doing business with you. If your credit reports and scores show lenders that you are a high risk borrower (aka you likely will not pay your bills on time) then future lenders may either turn you down when you apply for a loan or may charge you a higher interest rate to offset the risk they are taking.

Before trended data was featured on credit reports mortgage lenders (and any other lender for that matter) could not truly tell whether or not you made the habit of paying off your credit card balances in full each month or not. They could only see a snap shot of your current credit card balances.

Your historical payment data is important to lenders because it allows them to more accurately predict the risk of loaning you money. If your credit reports show that you pay off your credit card balances monthly then you are without question a lower risk borrower than someone who revolves credit card balances from month to month. Adding trended data to DU's risk assessment process allows mortgage lenders to more accurately predict risk.

Will Trended Data Impact Your Credit Scores?

At present trended data is only being considered by Fannie Mae's DU system when you apply for a mortgage. The data is used to help mortgage lenders using DU to predict risk, but it will not have any impact upon your actual credit scores at this time. Trended data is not considered in the calculation of your credit scores currently, but in all likelihood it is only a matter of time before trended data will have an impact upon your credit scores. Trended data is a powerful predictor of risk. You should expect to see it used more widely in the years to come.

Your New Pre-Mortgage Game Plan

In the past the best way to prepare your credit for a mortgage was to pay your bills on time, maintain credit reports which were free from derogatory information (i.e. collections, public records, etc.), and to pay off your credit card balances. However, since trended data shows lenders a 24 month window into your historical credit card payment habits, paying off your credit card balances 30-60 days before a new mortgage application simply is not going to cut it in the future.

(Need help preparing your credit for a mortgage? CLICK HERE to schedule a no-obligation credit analysis with a HOPE4USA Credit Expert today.)

As mentioned previously, mortgage giant Fannie Mae will begin considering trended data in the mortgage application process at the end of June, 2016. GSE Freddie Mac has also expressed an interest in eventually considering trended data as well. What this means for you is that with the consideration of trended data quite possibly thrown into the mix for your next mortgage application the truth is that the habit of revolving credit card balances from month to month could certainly cost you more money on your next loan and (in cases of borderline approval) could even potentially prevent you from being approved for a mortgage at all.

It has always been important to pay your credit card balances off monthly, both from a credit and a financial perspective. Yet it is now more important than ever to make and execute a plan to eliminate your credit card debt. That plan may include dipping into your savings, taking out a consolidation loan, or using the snowball method to wipe out your credit card debt as quickly as possible. Regardless of the exact method, it is important to stop feeling overwhelmed by your credit card debt and to start taking action. Remember, failing to plan really is as good as planning to fail. 

michelle-black-credit-expert

Michelle Black is an author and leading credit expert with over 13 years of experience, the credit blogger at HOPE4USA.com, a recognized credit expert on talk shows and podcasts nationwide, and a regularly featured speaker at seminars up and down the East Coast. She is an expert on improving credit scores, budgeting, and identity theft. You can connect with Michelle on the HOPE4USA Facebook page by clicking here. 

Comment

Building a Credit Score from Scratch

Comment

Building a Credit Score from Scratch

There is no shortage of articles and ideas online clamoring to offer you tips and pointers about how to best manage your credit. You can even find videos, radio shows, and even television shows from many self-proclaimed "gurus" who are quick to share their credit secrets with you. Add to this flood of so-called professional credit advice the advice you may have received from your family, friends, and acquaintances and before long your head will be spinning with dozens of contradictory credit improvement strategies.

Unfortunately, the truth is that many self-proclaimed "professionals" and even your loved ones can give really bad advice when it comes to your credit. Most of this advice is likely given with a very well-meaning spirit; however, bad credit advice can hurt you even if the damage is unintentional. It is important to be careful whose advice you follow when it comes to your credit, especially when you are building credit for the very first time. Here are 3 tips to help you build great credit from scratch.

Tip #1: Do Not Assume Anything

If you are preparing to build credit for the first time you may genuinely believe that your credit reports are completely blank. However, assuming that this is the case without verification is a mistake. You should begin by checking all 3 of your credit reports.

You are entitled to a free copy of these reports every year from AnnualCreditReport.com. You can also access your 3 credit reports and 3 scores (if they exist) via credit monitoring services such as those found at GreatCredit101.com. You should develop the habit now of checking your credit reports often. It is ultimately your responsibility to monitor your credit reports to be sure that they remain accurate and error-free.

Credit Expert Advice: If you discover errors on your credit reports then you have the right to dispute those errors on your own or you can hire a reputable credit restoration company to assist you.

Tip #2: Establish Revolving Accounts

After you have checked your credit reports, if they are indeed completely blank, then you should consider opening a few credit card accounts - aka revolving accounts. Secured credit cards are a great place to start when you have zero established credit since these types of credit cards offer less strict qualification standards than most unsecured cards will offer. In other words, qualifying for a secured credit card is an easier process than qualifying for unsecured credit cards.

Credit Expert Advice: Just remember, it is absolutely essential that you keep all of your credit card payments on time every single month and you should never revolve a credit card balance from month to month either.

Tip #3: Establish an Installment Account

Credit scoring models such as FICO like to see that you know how to manage a variety of account types. Consumers who have a good mix of accounts showing up in their credit history can potentially be rewarded with higher credit scores. However, a problem which consumers with no established credit history face is the fact that it can be difficult to qualify for certain types of loans with little to no credit. Your solution? Enter the credit builder loan.

Many local credit unions will offer credit builder loans as a means for their customers to rebuild or build credit for the first time. Credit builder loans are generally issued for a low dollar amount ($500 - $1,000) and the funds are held in a savings account while you make the monthly payments to pay off the loan. Once the loan has been paid in full the funds are released to you, plus any interest earned, and if you managed your account properly then you will probably have around 6-12 months of on-time payment history showing up on your credit reports.

Credit Expert Advice: If you are thinking about applying for a credit builder loan product be sure to ask the credit union if they will report the account to all 3 credit bureaus.

Tip #4: Ask a Loved One for a Favor

The final way to establish credit from scratch which I will mention is to ask a loved one or a family member to add you as an authorized user to an existing credit card account. Though it is true that authorized user accounts will not show up on your credit reports 100% of the time, in the majority of cases when you are added as an authorized user to a credit card the account will show up on your 3 credit reports within a few months. Plus, if you are a parent then authorized user accounts represent a great way for you to help your children establish credit without dipping your toes into the very dangerous waters of co-signing.  

Credit Expert Advice: Before being added to any account as an authorized user you should be sure that the account has a flawless payment history and a low or $0 balance. Otherwise, being added as an authorized user could backfire and hurt instead of help your credit.


Michelle Black is an author and leading credit expert with over 13 years of experience, the credit blogger at HOPE4USA.com, a recognized credit expert on talk shows and podcasts nationwide, and a regularly featured speaker at seminars up and down the East Coast. She is an expert on improving credit scores, budgeting, and identity theft. You can connect with Michelle on the HOPE4USA Facebook page by clicking here. 

Comment

Scorecards: Why It Might Be Impossible for You to Earn an 850 Credit Score

Comment

Scorecards: Why It Might Be Impossible for You to Earn an 850 Credit Score

Credit scores run the world. Okay, maybe that is an overstatement, but the truth is that your credit scores will have a massive influence over your life. In fact, your credit scores exert nearly as much control over the financial quality of your life as does your income.

If you are wise then you already know that learning what it takes to keep your credit reports and scores in stellar shape is a very important goal - one of the most important wealth building goals you can make for yourself. Yet if you are a natural born overachiever and are shooting for the stars with your credit scores you might find yourself a bit disappointed. Achieving the ever elusive perfect credit score of 850 might actually be downright impossible for you right now thanks to a not-so-well known component of credit scoring models - the scorecard.    

What Is a Credit Scorecard?

Behind the scenes of every credit scoring model there are multiple scorecards at work. Scorecards evaluate the information on your credit reports and turn that information into credit score points which are added up and delivered to a lender in the form of a credit score. The way that scorecards evaluate the information on your credit reports is by asking questions - questions such as "Are there any late payments present?" The answers to these questions are known as "characteristics." If the answer to the previous question about the presence of late payments was "yes" then you would earn less points to be added to your overall credit score than those which you would earn if the answer to the question was "no."

Scorecards are the nuts and bolts of a credit scoring system. They set the rules for how your credit scores are calculated. Without scorecards it would be impossible for a lender to ever get a copy of your credit scores.

How Different Scorecards Impact You

As mentioned above, every major credit scoring model features multiple scorecards. Depending upon the information contained in your credit reports you are assigned a specific scorecard each time your credit scores are calculated. When FICO releases a new credit scoring model, such as the most recently released FICO 9, what most consumers and even financial professionals do not realize is that - thanks to the existence of scorecards inside of the scoring model - all consumers credit reports are not graded according to the exact same scale. Instead, scorecards will separate consumers into like or homogenous groups and those groups will have their credit reports scored differently.

For example, there are separate scorecards for consumers who have filed bankruptcy or those who have delinquencies (late payments) present on their reports. There are scorecards for consumers with thin or young credit files (not many accounts) and files for consumers without delinquencies as well. While FICO and VantageScore do not disclose the actual types or numbers of scorecards working behind the scenes of their credit scoring models, it would not be unusual for there to be 10 or more scorecards in existence for a single credit scoring model.

The most common credit scoring range for consumers, especially for the most popular FICO and VantageScore scoring models, is 300 - 850. Therefore, if you ask were to ask most credit experts what is the highest credit score you could possibly earn you would probably receive "850" as an answer. Not so fast. 850 may be the highest credit score available, but that does not necessarily mean that an 850 is available to you, at least not at immediately. If you have a bankruptcy on your credit reports, for example, then you would find yourself being scored by a bankruptcy scorecard.

Scorecards designed for those with derogatory information do not have the same maximum credit score possibility, 850, as those scorecards without any derogatory information would have. As a result, if you did have a past bankruptcy on your credit reports then achieving an 850 credit score would be impossible for you until the bankruptcy (and any other derogatory information) was removed and your report was able to be scored by a scorecard which actually included an 850 maximum credit score as an option.

hope-4-usa-credit-expert-michelle-black - Copy.jpg

Michelle Black is an author and leading credit expert with over 13 years of experience, the credit blogger at HOPE4USA.com, a recognized credit expert on talk shows and podcasts nationwide, and a regularly featured speaker at seminars up and down the East Coast. She is an expert on improving credit scores, budgeting, and identity theft. You can connect with Michelle on the HOPE4USA Facebook page by clicking here. 

Comment

5 Perks You Can Land If You Have Great Credit Scores

Comment

5 Perks You Can Land If You Have Great Credit Scores

Everyone loves earning perks, benefits, and bonuses, right? Credit card reward programs, brand loyalty programs, and even grocery store discount cards are built upon this very concept. However, while most people can easily recognize the value of a credit card rewards program there are still many consumers who do not see the value of having high credit scores in the same light. That is a costly mistake.

The truth is that great credit scores can help you to score a lot of awesome perks. Check out the list below to help you start viewing the potential value available to you by maximizing your credit scores.

1. Saving with lower insurance premiums.

When you have excellent credit scores you can secure lower interest premiums. You may not be aware of this fact, but insurance companies routinely check credit scores when you apply for a new policy. In fact, your credit scores can even be more important than your driving record when it comes to determining how much an insurance company will charge you for an auto policy.

Earning great credit scores can pay off every single month in the form of money saved on insurance premiums. If your credit has improved since you took out your current insurance policy then it would be very advisable to talk to your agent or shop around to see if you now qualify for a better price on your insurance coverage.

2. Saving on deposits.

When you open a new utility account it is often common practice for the utility provider to check your credit in order to determine whether or not you will be required to put down a deposit for service. As a result when you apply for new electric service, gas service, cable service, or internet service having less than stellar credit scores can cost you. Additionally, when you apply for a new mobile phone account your credit will again be consulted not only to determine whether or not you will be required to put down a deposit for service but to also see whether or not you qualify for a new account at all.

3. Saving interest costs every month.

Did you know that financing a home with a questionable credit rating could realistically cost you nearly  $85,000 extra over the course of the loan? Purchasing a home with a credit score of 620 could cause you to pay an extra $235 per month on a $300,000 mortgage compared to what someone with a credit score of 740 would likely pay for the same loan. Over the entire course of a 30 year mortgage that is an extra $84,600 you would pay - a pretty expensive penalty for not having great credit scores.

If you have already overcome credit issues and have rebuilt great credit scores then you should take a look at your current loans (i.e. mortgage, auto, credit cards, personal loans, etc.). You may just qualify to refinance some of those loans at a lower rate and save yourself a bundle on interest.

4. Saving on vacations.

Having great credit enables you to land better credit card offers. Many credit cards offer exciting perks such as 0% interest on purchases for 12 months, generous airline reward miles which can be redeemed for free airfare, or even 0% financing with a specific resort or cruise line. However, the most attractive credit card offers are generally reserved for those consumers who have excellent credit scores. Achieving excellent credit scores can open the doors for you to cash in on some amazing vacation deals.

5. Saving face.

If you have ever applied for financing in the past and been turned down then you probably can recall a vivid memory of the red hot embarrassment which crept its way up your face when you heard the words, "I'm sorry, but your application was denied." Simply put, bad credit can be very bad for your self esteem and your sense of self worth, especially if you are the primary bread winner for your family. It is well worth the hard work required to build better credit scores just for the pay off of the added confidence you will receive once you know you never again have to worry about being turned down due to bad credit.

Earning Better Credit

It is completely possible to start earning better credit right away. However, just because it is possible does not mean that the process is easy. Earning better credit takes a solid plan, hard work, consistency, and patience. In fact, it is very advisable to seek the help of a reputable credit professional.

CLICK HERE to schedule a no-obligation credit analysis with a HOPE4USA credit expert. Our team can help you build a plan to achieve the better credit you deserve - either on your own or with our help every step of the way. You can also CLICK HERE to download our free HOPE4USA Credit Repair Tool Kit. 

hope4usa-michelle-black-credit-expert

Michelle Black is an author and leading credit expert with over 13 years of experience, the credit blogger at HOPE4USA.com, a recognized credit expert on talk shows and podcasts nationwide, and a regularly featured speaker at seminars up and down the East Coast. She is an expert on improving credit scores, budgeting, and identity theft. You can connect with Michelle on the HOPE4USA Facebook page by clicking here. 

Comment