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Archive for the ‘Credit’ Category

How Does a Short Sale Affect Credit?

Posted in Credit, tagged , on January 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

I was recently asked how selling a home as a  “short sale”  affects credit score and future homeownership potential.
I found that the impact can vary quite a lot,  because it depends on circumstances leading up to the short sale as well as how the lender reports information.
Unlike foreclosure, there is no way for a lender to code a [...]

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How to Improve Your Credit Score

Posted in Credit on February 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

You may know that mortgage rates are now tied to your your credit scores.  You may be interested to know that credit vendors now have ways to help you improve your credit score, quickly.
 When you apply for a loan, the lender will pull a credit report with three scores, one from each of the national credit data repositories (Equifax, [...]

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Are You Living Upside-Down in Your House?

Posted in Credit, Home Selling, Mortgages, Property and Value, tagged on October 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

Most of us are familiar with the idea of being “upside down” when we buy a new car.  We understand that a new car’s value will decline as soon as it leaves the dealership and becomes ours. But houses? We are so used to home values going up, we forgot they can also come down.
Because [...]

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“Free Credit Report” Alert

Posted in Credit, tagged on October 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

I recently learned about a credit industry mal-practice, in which people who are trying to get their free credit report inadvertently sign up for a credit service with a monthly fee.
The raw credit data is free, but the site asks for a credit card number; the customer is told that it is just in case they want to [...]

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Do Your Credit History Maintenance

Posted in Credit, Getting Ready, tagged on January 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »

A friend asked for advice after learning that her grown children had been turned down for credit cards and didn’t know why.  A prospective customer had old accounts that were included in a bankruptcy years ago but were still showing as “past due” on his credit report.  Another  homebuyer found that a credit card account [...]

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