Recent announcements by Freddie Mac ( the government backed home loan authority) shows higher fees for bad credit mortgage loan borrowers. Unfortunately with foreclosure possibilities looming over many homeowners the government has decided to make it even harder for bad credit borrowers to receive home loan financing. Lower credit scores have always meant higher fees to homeowners trying to refinance or even purchase a new home mortgage. In the past this was an unwritten rule however now with the new published higher fee figures their intentions are obvious. The lower your credit score the higher the mortgage loan fees you'll pay, meaning it's time to get control of your credit profile.



As the Ex Mortgage Broker, I'm always surprised at the lack of knowledge most home refinance prospects have in terms of maintaining control of their own credit report profile. Many homeowners believe they are either stuck with the credit they have or have no idea of what their true mortgage credit score is. I mention mortgage credit score specifically due to the fact that mortgage credit scores are lower than consumer credit scores. Consumer credit scores are scores used to determine creditworthiness for loans such as automobiles and credit cards, not mortgage loans.

Unfortunately most homeowners never check their credit score until after they begin the mortgage loan shopping process. As you may or may not know the credit bureaus owe you one free copy of your credit report every twelve months. Notice that I said free. It still amazes me that homeowners still approach the mortgage loan shopping process with no clue as to what is contained in their credit report. Why would anyone pay higher home refinance fees if they really don't have to? The answer is - as I stated above, consumers are either in the mindset that they are stuck with what they have or have no ability to change negative credit if they wanted to. That answer could be no farther from the truth.

If you're planning a mortgage refinancing or new home purchase it's absolutely imperative that you understand the difference between your mortgage credit score and your consumer credit score. Mortgage credit scores are always lower than consumer credit scores simply because a mortgage loan is a much higher value than say an automobile or credit card. Gaining control of your credit profile should start with getting a free copy of your credit report. Each credit bureau will provide a free copy once every twelve months. The purpose of checking your credit profile at all three bureaus is to find out if there are any negative items been reported. If you do find negative items on your credit report I'll detail the process below of exactly how to handle such an occurrence.

Under the new Government guidelines you'll be paying higher than normal fees for any mortgage credit score below 680. If you currently have negative items on your credit report which are holding your score under that limit there is a solution to your problem. The solution is credit repair however before you run off screaming in fear with all of the credit repair myths, let me say this. Legal credit repair is real and available however if you don't know the process or where to begin you could make some huge mistakes along the way. On the other hand if you do understand the credit repair process it's amazingly simple and can change your life forever.

The credit repair process entails three distinct steps. The first is getting access to all three credit bureau reports since each bureau contains different information. The next step is choosing the proper monitoring service which can alert you via e-mail every time a change occurs on one of your credit reports. Monitoring your credit report changes ties in specifically with using a credit repair service simply because negative items are disputed one by one. As one negative item is removed the credit repair service will need to be notified so they can move on to the next negative item dispute.