Posted on: 03rd Apr, 2010 05:43 pm
my husband and i need to refinance our house but local attempts have been unsuccessful and we started last fall!! we currently have a good income, he's had a stable job for 11 years, i'm a nurse and student. our income is about $55+ a year and we have little dept. no car payments and a small $4000 personal loan. another plus is that we only owe about $75,000 on our house and it appraised at $165,000 in 2007 when we bought it. we've never been late on our house payment either. unfortunately during the year we tried to sell our old house (while making our new house payment) we got behind on student loan payments and some medical bills. everythings settled now but we're haunted with scores right at 600. we even took out new credit cards (one for me, one for him) to help "build our credit" as we were advised but then our scores dropped for having low credit limits!!! we really need to do some home repairs, plus take advantage of lower rates (current rate is 7%) and reduce loan length (to 20 years). any advice? wanting to refi for about $90,000.
you got bad advice on that credit card thing. it's a shame what folk will tell other folk that's regularly incorrect. at 600, you'll find it difficult to locate a lender willing to work with you. they do exist, but they are rare in this marketplace. i know we've seen posts on here from some who are in that strata, and i wish i could give you names, but they don't stick with me.
it might just pay off if you simply get on the phone and call around, as well as hit up the internet search engines to seek out a lender in that category. be specific about what you need when you search online - credit score-relative, that is.
it might just pay off if you simply get on the phone and call around, as well as hit up the internet search engines to seek out a lender in that category. be specific about what you need when you search online - credit score-relative, that is.
Thanks for the advice. I actually just checked today (we've been monitoring through freecreditreport.com) and my husbands was up to 626 for some reason, mine is still 600. I do have another question though. Last fall we attempted to refinance through what use to be called Countrywide. We checked our scores with all three bureaus and printed them out, they all ranged between 626-648, and went to the lender the next day. Countrywide said that was fine (because their cutoff was 620) but said they would have to pull our credit report through their own credit service called Landsafe. The scores they had for us were much lower, some as low as 520, even though they claimed they got their scores directly from the three bureaus. I double checked our scores over the next week or two and they stayed the same for us and Landsafe verified their information as well. I had several lengthy conversations with Landsafe about this discrepancy and the best answer I got was that is was converted into a "mortgage risk score" but the person who told me that seemed unsure themselves. Anyone know why the scores would be so different??? It's made me a little nervous to get out there and shop because I'm afraid that even if my scores are decent to me, there's no telling what scores the lenders are gonna get. Hope this makes sense : )
it does make sense. what you were told is correct - there is in fact a mortgage-related scoring that is different from what you'll see when you pull your own report. why such a large discrepancy appears is still a mystery to most of us.
on another note, i would love to see you eliminate your relationship with freecreditreport.com, which is, as you now know, not at all free. the authorized site for free reports is annualcreditreport.com, where you need not pay for your report at all. of course, what you're paying for is monitoring (which you could do yourself anyway) and updated scores over time, i believe. there's a new law specifically aimed at outfits like them specifying that they have to add a disclaimer concerning the lack of "free" services for consumers. i think they're a ripoff, but that's just one man's opinion.
since you're on their system, use it to the utmost to track your information that is reported and strive to eliminate all the negatives as quickly as you can. avoid inquiries from creditors, avoid additional late payments and ensure that what's being reported is up to date. you can do this all yourself, though i know the easy way out is for someone to do it for you. that's the american way after all.
on another note, i would love to see you eliminate your relationship with freecreditreport.com, which is, as you now know, not at all free. the authorized site for free reports is annualcreditreport.com, where you need not pay for your report at all. of course, what you're paying for is monitoring (which you could do yourself anyway) and updated scores over time, i believe. there's a new law specifically aimed at outfits like them specifying that they have to add a disclaimer concerning the lack of "free" services for consumers. i think they're a ripoff, but that's just one man's opinion.
since you're on their system, use it to the utmost to track your information that is reported and strive to eliminate all the negatives as quickly as you can. avoid inquiries from creditors, avoid additional late payments and ensure that what's being reported is up to date. you can do this all yourself, though i know the easy way out is for someone to do it for you. that's the american way after all.
Thanks again for clearing that up. Discouraging though, we could be a lot further from refinancing that I thought if all lenders use the mortgage risk assessment method instead of directly from the bureaus. I'll keep working on it though, frustrating how easily scores can drop yet take forever to repair but I can only blame myself.
By the way, we did get our reports through annualcreditreport.com last fall but since you are only allowed one free inquiry a year, subsequent attempts to get credit information this way have failed. The site itself will even block me by reporting that I've already gotten my credit info in the past year. This is why we turned to freecreditreport.com (and I do agree it's a ripoff) but it was the most clearly understood credit report we ran across and we can check it daily if wanted to, no limit to that, for $14 a month. It's a small price to pay for someone as impatient as myself. Also, if I remember correctly, annualcreditreport.com does not give a score, it only gives the report.
Thanks again
D Thompson
By the way, we did get our reports through annualcreditreport.com last fall but since you are only allowed one free inquiry a year, subsequent attempts to get credit information this way have failed. The site itself will even block me by reporting that I've already gotten my credit info in the past year. This is why we turned to freecreditreport.com (and I do agree it's a ripoff) but it was the most clearly understood credit report we ran across and we can check it daily if wanted to, no limit to that, for $14 a month. It's a small price to pay for someone as impatient as myself. Also, if I remember correctly, annualcreditreport.com does not give a score, it only gives the report.
Thanks again
D Thompson
you're right about not getting the scores with annualcreditreport.com, of course.
my main issue with the credit monitoring game is that it's a last-minute come-on by these outfits, and for many people, it's a $14 credit card charge every month that goes unpaid because people all too often pay the minimum monthly payment rather than paying it in full. that makes it $168 every year, plus interest at (minimally) 25% and late charges if and when that occurs.
it's a shame what an insightful ad campaign can do for a company. just stick a goofy looking guy singing a goofy little song on tv and look how quickly your company can grow. i need to hire that guy for my use.
my main issue with the credit monitoring game is that it's a last-minute come-on by these outfits, and for many people, it's a $14 credit card charge every month that goes unpaid because people all too often pay the minimum monthly payment rather than paying it in full. that makes it $168 every year, plus interest at (minimally) 25% and late charges if and when that occurs.
it's a shame what an insightful ad campaign can do for a company. just stick a goofy looking guy singing a goofy little song on tv and look how quickly your company can grow. i need to hire that guy for my use.
with a credit score of 600, you might find it hard to find a regular lender who will be willing to offer you a loan. you can opt to apply for a bad credit loan but you have to expect that you will be charged a relatively high interest rate which can add to more debt and decrease your credit score further. if i were you, i would exert more effort in paying off my debt and on improving my credit score instead of applying for a refinance with bad credit.
i am trying to refinance mortgage and pay off a car loan. the amount to refinance (consolidate) is $60,000. my house is appraisal at $90,000. my credit score is 600 now but i filed bankrupty about 4 years ago because my husband was sick and everything got behind. i have tried different lender and have been turned down because my score was low. everyone is saying that i am eligible for a reverse mortgage but i don't want to do that. now i am living off a fixed income and not much money is coming in. what would you advise in this situation
Hi diane!
Welcome to the forums!
You should take steps to improve you score so that you can at least qualify for FHA loan. You can check out the given page to know some steps to improve your score: http://www.mortgagefit.com/credit-rating/credit-repair.html
Feel free to ask if you've further queries.
Sussane
Welcome to the forums!
You should take steps to improve you score so that you can at least qualify for FHA loan. You can check out the given page to know some steps to improve your score: http://www.mortgagefit.com/credit-rating/credit-repair.html
Feel free to ask if you've further queries.
Sussane