Your Secret Credit Score

So, you’ve been diligent; paying your bills on time; checking your Free Credit Score periodically.  Everything looks great and you’re ready to buy a house.  You’re confident and you make an offer on the home of your dreams.  You meet with your mortgage broker and fill out all the paperwork to apply for that mortgage, confident that your good credit score is going to put you in that house at a great rate.

Surprise!

Your mortgage broker sends you a commitment letter with terms you don’t understand.  How could they be asking you for more information, and offering you a higher rate than you expected?

You have a secret credit score.

That free credit report you get so easily is not the credit report that your mortgage lender will see.  And now you have only a short period of time to “fix it”, if you can! 

How to avoid this?  Get your mortgage broker (or friendly banker, if you’re early in the purchase process) to run your credit and review it with you.  You’ll see things there that you may have time to dispute and correct.  The credit bureaus have a process for disputing charges and things like duplicate accounts, mixed identities, etc., but you’re going to have to direct that process.  There was a recent news article about this process and the lax attention and zero responsibility that the credit bureaus have for correcting bad information on you.

Also, if your credit report is “pulled” too many times, it lowers your score!

Unfair - yes!  So, be proactive and protective of your credit health.  Review your real credit score/report and get on with making your real estate dreams a reality!