It’s fairly common knowledge that everyone in the United States is entitled to one free copy of their credit reports every twelve months from each of the credit reporting agencies. And, depending on where you live, state law might entitle you for additional free credit reports. While it’s not hard to get a copy of [...]

What’s More Important in Your FICO Score… a Collection or the Balance of the Collection? One of the most common myths about credit scores (FICO) is that if you were to pay or settle collection accounts that your scores improves. Some also believe paying a collection will lead to the removal of the collection from [...]

Amid increases in new construction, homebuilder confidence, and existing home sales, Freddie Mac reported fixed mortgage rates reaching new record lows for the second week in a row. “Fixed mortgage rates continued to ease somewhat this week to record lows and should help the ongoing housing recovery,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at Freddie Mac. [...]

FICO does not differentiate between a foreclosure and a short sale. Further complicating matters, lenders don’t have a uniform standard as to how they report a short sale to the credit bureaus. Some lenders report short sales as “settled as agreed” while others may report it as “account legally paid in full for less than [...]

A credit score is the statistical prediction of one’s likelihood to pay late over the next two years. The higher the score, the less likely one is to have a late payment. The bank then uses this number to assess the amount of risk involved with lending someone money. Banks are a lot like a [...]

I am often asked what the impact of a short sale or foreclosure is on a credit score. Unfortunately, there is no straight-forward answer. This is such a difficult question to answer simply because it depends on a variety of factors. In general, a short sale or foreclosure will affect your credit score 85-160 points. [...]

A credit bureau based credit risk scoring model, more commonly known as a credit score, is a numeric representation of your credit risk based on a review of the information in your credit file. The score is generated by a sophisticated credit scoring model, which is made up a series of complex algorithms. The most [...]

When you apply for a loan one of the things you need to consider is the term of a loan. Most lenders will offer you a 30 year or 15 year term. The insider tip here is that you have other choices that most lenders will not mention to you and you might want to [...]

Credit freezes are one of the most effective tools against economic ID theft available to consumers. They allow you to seal your credit reports and use a personal identification number (PIN) that only you know and can use to temporarily “thaw” your credit so that legitimate applications for credit and services can be processed. That [...]