Mortgage Fraud Still Rampant – Forbes
If President Obama is serious about forming a new unit to prosecute financial and mortgage crimes, the first place he should look is at operators who are fleecing desperate homeowners. Scams that target these down-on-their-luck folks are rampant.
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BofA Continues To Fall In U.S. Mortgage Lender Rankings – Huffington Post
Jan 26 (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp was the fourth-biggest U.S. mortgage lender in the fourth quarter of 2011, continuing its descent in the rankings after it stopped buying loans made by smaller banks. The second-largest U.S. bank in 2008 …
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How to Read Credit Scores
SCENARIO #1: You went online and applied for a loan. Sixty seconds later, you realize you’ve been approved.
SCENARIO #2: You applied for a car loan and got pre-qualified.
SCENARIO #3: You and your neighbor applied for the same loan, but his loan rates are different from yours.
And all this without anyone even asking you how much money you make. How in the world did they know whether to approve you or not?
The answer lies in your credit score.
Credit scoring is a mathematical algorithm used by credit reporting agencies like Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union, in order to come up with a three-digit number, based on information found in your credit report as compared to information found in tens of millions of other people’s credit reports. Since your credit report contains factors that are predictive of future credit performance, the resulting number is a highly accurate prediction of how likely you are going to pay your bills.
Knowing how to read credit scores is important since these scores are used extensively by lenders when reviewing your application for a car loan, mortgage, credit card, or auto insurance. The rate you will receive from these credits will be directly related to your credit score.
Thus, if you have a high credit score, the better your application will look to your lenders. On the other hand, if your credit score is below average, lenders will give you higher loan rates.
What’s a Good Score?
How to read credit scores starts with knowing what are the scoring categories used. Fair Isaac Corp., a California-based company, is the developer of the most popular credit scoring system used by many of the country’s credit reporting agencies. Its score is called the FICO score and it runs in a scale of 300 to 850. In order to get the most favorable interest rates, your score must be 720 or higher.
However, it should be noted that there is more than one credit score available. There are three major credit reporting agencies and several smaller independent companies that provide their own credit scores using their own credit scoring system, not just the FICO scoring system. This means that your credit scores may vary from credit reporting agency to another.
Knowing how to read credit scores comes in handy whenever you are faced with inconsistent credit scores. When you know how to read credit scores, you know what factors are involved in order to calculate the score.
Another reason why it is important to know how to read credit scores is that this three-digit number will determine if you will get credit at all. Ed Ojdana, president of the Experian Consumer Direct, part of Experian, the largest of the three major credit reporting agencies, says that your credit score will also determine the interest rate on your credit.
Mortgage refinancers rush to duck fee hike – Bankrate.com
Mortgage rates remained near record lows this week as a wave of refinancers rushed to beat higher mortgage fees that could soon make the most common type of mortgage slightly more expensive for borrowers. 30 year fixed rate mortgage – 3 month …
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Obama Creates Unit to Probe Mortgage Misconduct by Banks – Businessweek
Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s mortgage investigation unit will probe bank conduct that created the housing bubble and bust, including the packaging of loans into securities, the New York Attorney General said. The president …
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New Car Loan Rate
If you’re looking to finance your new car, there’s something you should know about new car loan rates first. New car loan rates which lenders offer greatly vary from each other. Understanding your own credit history can very well mean the difference between high new car loan rates or low ones. Lenders may often interpret your credit history differently so it’s good if you know how credit-related information affects their interpretation. Both these valuable pieces of information play a big part in helping you get the best deal and the lowest new car loan rate possible.
With that in mind, here are a few things to remember that would help you grab the most favorable new car loan rates available:
New Car Loan Rates: Credit Report
Obtaining a copy of your own credit report will prove very valuable in your search for the best new car loan rates. Knowing what’s inside your credit report is very important. Check if there are any errors and then make sure that the information it contains are accurate and current. Remove any old addresses and such. If you find more errors, immediately contact the credit bureaus so they can make the necessary corrections.
New Car Loan Rates: Credit Score
In searching for the best new car loan rates, the value of your credit report is only surpassed by the importance of your credit score. Credit reports amount to nothing if they don’t contain your credit scores. So if you want to get new car loan rates that are most favorable to you, get your credit score. Online credit agencies, such as Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union, charge you about $9 so you can access your credit score, but it is money well spent. Knowing what your credit score before applying for a loan could save you a lot of money in interest charges.
New Car Loan Rates: Prime Lenders
If you want to get the best new car loan rates, you might want to target prime lenders first. The new car loan rates that prime lenders are significantly lower that those offered in the subprime category so it’s best if you try to obtain credit from them first. Because of low credit scores, some people tend to ignore prime lenders and go on applying for a loan in the subprime category. It is the belief of most that prime lenders do not approve bad credit borrowers for a loan. However, you need to keep in mind that different lenders evaluate your score differently. Don’t make any assumptions. Try out all your options first before settling down for less-than-good new car loan rates. It might also be beneficial if you’re a member of a credit union; they charge their members lower new car loan rates.
New Car Loan Rates: Credit Tiers
When looking for affordable new car loan rates, it’s always a good idea to investigate the tiers. Go to your bank and speak with the loan officers there. Ask them questions regarding their credit tiers. Usually they rate their credit tiers as follows: A, A-, et cetera. You can also ask them how their credit tiers correspond with credit scores and new car loan rates.
New Car Loan Rates: If worse comes to worst…
It’s unavoidable sometimes that you’re going to end up with high new car loan rates. In cases such as these, remember that timely payments on your loan could help you build up your credit in as few as two or three years.
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“New Car Loan Rates” – 19 ( 3.2%)
Outlook for Mortgage Market: Feels Like ‘Groundhog Day’ – Wall Street Journal
LAS VEGAS—The American Securitization Forum returned here after a two-year hiatus for an annual meeting with little of the optimism for a quick turnaround in the market for mortgage-backed securities that had marked previous events. Instead of …
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