Bad Credit? Let's Fix it!

Fact: Poor credit history and a bad credit score can have a serious impact on your life. No one wants bad credit but sometimes mistakes happen. Sometimes factors like medical bills, job loss and tragedy influence our financial profile in ways we never could have predicted. Bad credit can happen to anyone.

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Factors that Damage Credit

First let’s clarify what can lower your credit score and damage your credit profile.

• Excessive Debt: If your credit cards are maxed and you have several loans, your debt profile is probably contributing to your low score
• Late Payments: The credit bureaus note any 30, 60, 90 & 120 day payment lates. It is essential that you pay your bills on time.
• Dormant Credit: A dormant credit card is an account that has infrequent or no use. In some cases, if an account has no activity for a period of time, issuers may close the account which revokes future charging privileges. Dormant accounts may not have additional debt but they also don’t help your credit score.
• Collections: If you fail to make a payment or pay off your account – the creditor may send your account to collections. This severely affects your score. Make sure to work closely with your mortgage or credit professional regarding paying off collections. Note: Collections on federal loans such as student loans will prevent you from getting financing from most (if not all) lenders.

Should You Add Solar Panels to Your Home?

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"Going Solar" is a hot phrase! If you're considering solar, review some of the pros and cons:

The Pros of Adding Solar Panels to Your Home

• Lower Electric Bill  - Depending on the size of your home and your electricity use, adding solar panels to your home can reduce your monthly bill.

• Installation Costs are Lower than Ever - Since 2011, the cost of installing solar panels has dropped by 60%. There are also federal and local tax credits & subsidies to help lower the upfront setup costs.

• Flexible Purchase Options - Due to the increased interest in solar energy, there are more companies to choose from for installing solar panels  more ways to afford the installation. You can choose to lease, buy or finance. There are also energy assistance programs such as mPower that tie the payment for the solar in with your real estate taxes. It is important to make sure than any financing option has a lower payment than your average electricity bill to ensure that you are saving money.

10 Credit Do's & Don'ts to Remember Prior to Getting a Mortgage Loan

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How can a fully approved loan get denied for funding after the borrower has signed loan docs? Simple, the underwriter pulls an updated credit report to verify that there hasn't been any new activity since original approval was issued, and the new findings kill the loan.

This generally won't happen in a 30 day time-frame, but borrowers should anticipate a new credit report being pulled if the time from an original credit report to funding is more than 60 days. Purchase transactions involving short sales or foreclosures tend to drag on for several months, so this approval / denial scenario is common.

Why this happens?

It's can be an ugly cycle where by the buyer receives an approval and thinks everything is OK so they make a credit impacting decision (buys new car, furniture, runs up credit card balance).

The lender's Funder pulls new credit report right before they fund the loan to check for changes. The Funder sees the new credit or larger balances and denies the loan.

10 Credit Card Myths Your Mom Might Have Told You

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The best defense against making a credit blunder is to better educate yourself. These are things that our parents didn't tell us because credit has changed and morphed into something that can limit our "pursuit of happiness."

Myth #1: Avoid Using Credit Cards

FALSE! - This may be a good way to get rid of debt, but it's utter destruction to your credit score. Why? Because of the 5 factors that make up your credit score, one is how you use and manage your credit, a factor that makes up 30% of your score. That's 255 points! Use the cards every month for gas, groceries etc. but pay them off.

Myth #2: Consolidate Debt onto 1, Low-Interest Credit Card

FALSE! - Everyone gets the tempting credit offers to consolidate your debt onto one credit card but when you max out that card, your credit score will drop 60-100 points overnight! Do not consolidate your credit card debt UNLESS, the balance will be under 30% of the available limit.

Myth #3: It's Okay If You Go Over Your Credit Card Limit Because The Bank Authorized the Purchase

FALSE! - Going over limit, even if it's just by one dollar deals you a double penalty a 50 point lower score and usually a $39.00 fee.