Bad credit refinancing » Prime Category

Bad Credit Mortgage Refinancing – Yes, You Can Do It

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:07:47 +0000

These days it’s all too easy to have your credit slip down a few notches. If you are looking to refinance, that’s not where you want to be, but it’s not the end of the world either. Let your FICO score dip below 680 and you could be a candidate for bad credit mortgage refinancing. It depends on the individual lender. Let it get down around 650 or worse and you’ll be a bad credit refinance candidate for sure. With the recent shakeup in the sub-prime lending market, many lenders are being more selective about who they’ll extend refinance loans to. They’ll be looking seriously at your recent credit history. Several sub-prime lenders have ceased operations or declared bankruptcy, so there are fewer options available to borrowers in the sub-prime category.

Even so, you can still refinance, bad credit or not. There are options available to you, so you can take advantage of better interest rates. This can be especially important if you purchased your home using an adjustable rate mortgage, and the 3 or 5 year initial period is about to expire. When it does, your mortgage will adjust upward. This can cost you an extra $200 – $600 per month in higher mortgage payments. Many people don’t have the financial wherewithal to absorb such an increase in their mortgage payment. Even if you do, there’s little reason to do so when you can refinance and avoid the payment increase.

One of the first things you should do before you attempt to get your refinance underway is to order a copy of your credit report. You can do that for free once per year from any of the three major credit reporting bureaus. It’s really important that you do this because it will give you an opportunity to correct any mistakes contained in the report. A 2004 study indicated that about 25% of credit reports contained factual errors that reduced the borrower’s credit scores. Don’t let that happen to you, if pushes you into the sub-prime category, it can cost you thousands of dollars. In addition, you may find some accounts that are listed as outstanding but only because you owe a few dollars on them. Those are easily corrected so they’ll read “Paid In Full” on your credit report. That will go a long way towards raising your FICO score, and getting you a better interest rate on your refinance.

After you’ve done all your homework and corrected any inaccuracies on your credit report, you can begin the process of getting your refinance loan. Contact the different companies so your can do a thorough comparison. There is a large variation among different lenders. Get a written estimate of their rate and fee structure. You’ll notice some will quote mortgages with more fees, while others will have lower interest rates. Rarely will you find both. These companies have to pay for the money too, and it’s not free. Be
very careful when you scrutinize the different offers.

There are some things you need to look for. One of these is prepayment penalties. This a penalty the lender imposes if you pay the loan off early. They do this because they don’t get all the interest if you pay the loan off early. They were counting on a 15 or 30 year income stream from you in the form of interest. Typically it’s best not to get a mortgage with a prepayment penalty, even if it includes a lower interest rate, which they typically do. If the penalty is large, you’ll be severely hampered if you want to pay off the loan early, such as if you’d like to refinance again, or if you sell your home. Interest only mortgages are regularly sadled with this type of clause.

One of the things that is difficult about any refinance, but bad credit refinancing in particular, is comparing the offers. There are many business out there now that allow different lenders to compete for your refinance business. The great thing is, the lenders know their in a competitive bidding situation, so they go out of their way to give you the best refinance deal possible. Remember you do have options, no matter how bad your credit may be. Just do your homework first. The money you save on your refinancing will be your own.

By: Steve Faber

Bad Credit Mortgage Refinancing – It’s Not Just a Dream

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:38:04 +0000

You may think that just because you have bad credit you won’t be refinancing your mortgage any time soon. Well, cheer up. You couldn’t be more wrong. With a just a bit of patience, you could be on your way to refinancing your mortgage. One key to your refinancing effort is raising your credit score. If it’s below 680 or so, you may fall into the sub-prime category. In the past, you could drift down to the 650 range with some mortgage lenders before you triggered their sub-prime threshold. You’ll save substantial money on your refinance by giving your credit score a little boost. You can probably make all this happen in just a few weeks, maybe even sooner. In addition, your credit may not be as bad as you think. Even if it turns out you actually do have really bad credit, you’ll still benefit from raising it before you do your refinancing.

The first thing you should do is get your free credit report from any one of the three credit reporting bureaus; Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion. Relax, it won’t cost you a cent. You now have the right to receive one report for free each year from each of the three credit agencies. Most experts advise you do so as the first step to getting a handle on your credit score. In addition, you should arrange to receive your reports staggered at four month intervals. That way you’ll never be more than a few months from a fresh credit report.

Once you have your credit report, you can see if there is anything you can clear up in the short term. About 25% of Americans have credit reports with at least some inaccurate entries, so there is a decent chance you’ll have something on there you can clear up to start the process of raising your score. You need to write letters to the creditors that are incorrectly reporting anything on your report.

Some of the errors you may encounter are: accounts listed as owing that are actually paid off and accounts that aren’t really yours. They may belong to someone with a similar name or social security number. When disputing any credit report entries, make sure you carefully document your position. Never send any of the original documentation, only send copies. Once you get any credit inaccuracies resolved, it’s time to move on to some other things you can do to help your credit score in the short term.

Why should you be so concerned with raising your credit score in the short term? Because you’ll save substantial money in interest charges, that’s why. In addition, your mortgage will likely close faster, and you’ll have a greater pool of lenders to choose from. So, even though you may have bad credit, you should aim to raise your credit score as high as possible before you try refinancing your mortgage.

What else can you do to raise your credit score before you get that mortgage? The most important thing you can do to help raise your credit score is avoid late payments. If you have any payments that are late, send them in, post haste. Lenders look at recent late payments more closely than those that are aged at least 24 months.

The next thing you should examine is your credit utilization score. That measures the percentage of your available revolving credit that you are currently using. If you have credit card limits totaling $25,000, and your outstanding credit card balances total $15,000, your credit utilization score is 60%. One note here; make sure your creditors are correctly reporting your credit card limits. If they are incorrectly stating them as too low, it will likewise lower your credit utilization score.

The strategy is to rapidly nab a few extra credit score points by paying down as much of your debt as possible. Your revolving accounts, such as credit cards and store charge cards are the most important for this strategy. That will also help your debt to income ratio, another figure used by mortgage lenders to determine your loan eligibility.

If you can raise your credit score a few points, you’ll fend much better on the mortgage market. You may still need to pay a higher interest rate than if you had great credit, but you can get the benefits of refinancing nonetheless.

By: Steve Faber