Prospective buyers are regularly advised to look at their credit reports and review them for errors. Unfortunately a significant number of people make a decision that affects their scores without having realized the implications; they don’t correct the errors. Here are five frequently occurring mistakes on credit reports that MUST be corrected! Your mortgage professional should be able to help you navigate through these murky waters. Call me if you’d like the name of someone who would be most willing to help.
1. An account balance that is higher than the amount actually owed. Since banks weigh your debt to income ratios very carefully when they calculate your score and how much they might be willing to lend, it is important to make sure that any balances that you reduce or pay off are correctly reported. You may even want to do something called a rapid re-score which can get the correction made in 3 days rather than a month or two. This may cost you a few dollars but in outcome it can be priceless.
2. Former addresses incorrectly listed. While this doesn’t seem like much of an issue, it will give a bank underwriter pause and could prompt a delay or derailment of your loan process. The underwriter or application reviewer might even think that your are trying to buy a second home or investor property and ask for an even greater down payment at a higher rate or even turn down the loan entirely. But the biggest concern might be that someone may have used your name or social security number to obtain credit using a different address while committing fraud and identity theft. At the best of times it is difficult to resolve these issues, while you’re in the midst of trying to get a mortgage it borders on catastrophic.
3. Bills or accounts listed on your report that were never yours. This is another identity theft indicator. Even if the account is on only one of the reporting bureaus or with a zero balance, it should be challenged. If a thief is at work, they might at any time use the account and you would then have your problems would multiply. Needless to say, if the report indicated non-payment or collection YOU MUST take disputing action immediately.
4. Limits listed as lower than they really are. There are two important items that are used in the calculation of your credit score: How much credit is available to you and how much have you used. If the available limits are reported as lower than they actually are, your use to availability ratio will be off and you may not qualify for a mortgage, one that you could readily pay and for which you should qualify.
5. Derogatory items that should have aged off. No derogatory item even if true, should appear on your report after a prescribed time period, that’s 7 years for a late payment, 10 years for a bankruptcy. If you are still seeing black marks on your credit after more than the relevant time frame has elapsed, dispute them and claim the improved credit score you’ve since earned.
The most dramatic effect of correcting these errors occurs when your score is close to a particular credit tier cutoff, for instance 620-640 or 740-760. At these levels even a very few points can affect qualifying for a mortgage at all. At very least it could make a big difference in interest rate which can come to a lot more money each month and a tremendous amount over the life of the loan. So take action now, get copies of your reports, scrutinize them and correct even the smallest mistakes!
