Buying a House: How do I get my Credit Information???

jonnyGURU

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Oct 30, 1999
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Hi guys!

I know that someone here has bought a house and has to have gone through the same thing...

What I'm wondering is where do I go to get my credit information/history/whatever to see what kind of &quot;risk&quot; I am for a mortgage loan.

Forgive my &quot;newbieness&quot;. I've never owned before (except for 0wn1ng 1337 h4x0r5).

Thanks in advance......
 

IBhacknU

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Oct 9, 1999
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Actually as Jonny asks, it's a good idea to get a copy of your own credit report just to see what's on it.

If there are any mistakes, it's better to get them fixed before the bank starts asking about them. In the same way, if there are some not so perfect marks, at least you'll have the chance to think about how you're gonna explain them to the lender.

check out this link for info on credit reports. The whole FOOL site is a wealth of info on money and that sort of thing!

Have fun!
 

jonnyGURU

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So if I get pre-approved with my bank, they'll pull my credit history and I can walk out of there with the details?

I'm trying to get a mortgage through a third party, but the wife wants me to look at our credit first and see if there are any surprises before giving the information to the particular lender.

It's not like I can't get pre-approved from three different places if I wanted to! :p
 
Oct 9, 1999
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goto yahoo's website and type &quot;Credit Report&quot; and then pick your choice.
Take the one that provides reports from both &quot;Experian&quot; and &quot;Equifax&quot;

that way you dont need to do it twice... but one report will do.

I used the Yahoo Credit Report.
 

rmblam

Golden Member
Aug 24, 2000
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What he said. The bank will examine your credit history and let you know how credit &quot;worthy&quot; you are. Some banks will be willing to loan more than others, but it mostly is based on your gross income and how indebted you are.

[rant]
The whole process really sucks for both sides. Wait till the closing and you see how much money the &quot;paper shufflers&quot; get. The title companies make a killing.

They are all in kahootz too. The bank required a well and mound inspection. We bought my parents house which is in the county. Anyway, they send this ass out that charges me $150 to &quot;look&quot; at my mound then do a half assed water sampling which came back &quot;contaminated&quot;. The house was 10 fuc-king years old. My uncle put in the well. Bullsh!t. He then wants to come back and &quot;disinfect&quot; the well and water lines. He informs me it will be $250 to do so. I told him to go spin. I called my uncle and had him inform me of what they do. My $250 would have constituted 4 gallons of bleach dumped down the well cap. After which you run the garden hose down the well pipe and leave it recirculate overnight. Thereafter, you let the hose run on the lawn for 12 hours or so to flush out the bleach. None of this was necessary, mind you, because the guy did not heat up the faucet head before taking the sample. If you don't you will get contamination from the faucet head. How convenient.

I still had to buy 4 gallons of bleach and do the routine to satisfy the bank. After which, my uncle came down and did the water test (he is certified) and submitted it. Of course it passed.

My point: They will screw you wherever they can. The process sucks and I even bought from my PARENTS. Got a sweet deal though.

[/rant]
 
Oct 9, 1999
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goto &quot;Truecredit.com&quot; its got all three credit agencies.. but check the fool.com link that IBhacknU gave.

TGG
 

Total Refected Power

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Oct 13, 1999
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If you suspect you have bad credit than maybe its more discrete to check your credit report first hand. If not then go to the bank and they will do it as part of the process. They will also give you your credit score.

The top is around 825.

Anything above 700 is considered great. Grade A.

You are not obligatged to that bank (make sure of course) for the loan and of course you can go to as many places as you like for pre-approval.

 

Yeeny

Lifer
Feb 2, 2000
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You can also get a copy of your credit report free if you sign up with Consumer Info. You have to sign up with a credit card, but I did it and was able to cancel before 30 days with out a hitch. If you cancel before then, there is no charge. And I got my credit report pretty quick too. We are trying to buy a house too, I wish I had known all the stuff involved before I started.

<edit> Brain is not working correctly tonight... <edit>
 

IBhacknU

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Oct 9, 1999
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It was my experience that pre-apporval had a lot more to do with your income/expenses. The bank asks you for this info, and then using their ratios decides how much you could borrow.---- Wait, no... that's pre-qualify, not pre-approve.

I think to actually pre-approve, you're gonna have to give most lenders some money for the credit report.

I know money is tight (well, if you're buying a house, it's probably tight... I know it is for me), but you may consider shelling out the cash and getting a credit report in you hot little hands.

The only other way you can get them without paying is: &quot;At your request, a Credit Reporting Agency must give you the information in your file, and a list of everyone who has requested it recently. There is no charge for the report if a person has taken action against you because of information supplied by the CRA, if you request the report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. You also are entitled to one free report every twelve months upon request if you certify that (1) you are unemployed and plan to seek employment within 60 days, (2) you are on welfare, or (3) your report is inaccurate due to fraud. Otherwise, a CRA may charge you up to eight dollars and fifty cents ($8.50).&quot;
 

Total Refected Power

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Oct 13, 1999
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Preapproval was FREE at our bank. Including credit report. He did it right on the spot in about 5 minutes.

No strings as well. Very positve experience.
 

jonnyGURU

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Well, my wife is a teacher and is wioth the county's school system credit union, so I'm sure the credit check will be free.

I doubt I have any credit problems. I mean; credit card companies keep offering me $20,000 credit cards! (No shat!)

The only run in I had was when a satelite dish company installed a dish that we had financed in my and yakko's yard and they didn't pull the proper permits. The city said that they would fine us if we didn't pull the dish. The company came and pulled the dish, but went out of business a week later.

They never told the finance company that they had picked up the dish because THEY didn't pull permits for installing it.

We talked SEVERAL times to the finance company, but they still held the responsibility against us.

That was back in 1990 though. Credit history is erased in less time than that, right?
 

rmblam

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Aug 24, 2000
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Ha! You will likely be answering to that one. I had an ex-girlfriend I lived with that racked up a $120 phone bill. Well, after we finalized the split she agreed to pay the bill and gave her forward address to the phone company. They screwed up the address then later fetched a collection agency on me because my name was on the bill. I was so pissed because I had ANOTHER phone number with the same phone company but they &quot;couldn't find me&quot;. Anyway, I paid the bill and forgot about it. 10 years later my bank asked me why I had a collection agency after me for $120. hmmm. That was SUPPOSED to have been removed. Don't count on it.

 

Total Refected Power

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Oct 13, 1999
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No, any bad marks will remain until resolved. Once they are resolved, then 7 years later they will be erased.

My parents had a false lien placed on their house by a financing company. The company went belly up and some of them went to prison! Nevertheless, the wrongful lien remained (was their for several years without knowing) and it cost them 3K to resolve it in the courts. Talk about bad luck!! The judge felt really sorry for them.

Good Luck
 

kranky

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Oct 9, 1999
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Not all credit blemishes are that big of a problem, though. If you have just one or two small black marks that are fairly old, the lender might ask you for a letter of explanation.

When we bought our house, I had two negatives in my credit report. One was from Sears showing two late payments years earlier. The company I was with was on strike and I did pay late. I called Sears to see if anything could be done, and after explaining we were buying a house they quickly offered to remove it from my report, as we had been good customers for years after that.

The other one was a two-year late payment on a small department store credit card that we rarely used. My wife had spent about $30 just before we moved. For whatever reason the bill never arrived (wasn't forwarded, I guess), and we didn't notice it. Two years later they sent us a bill at the right address which we paid immediately once we figured out what it was for. The lender asked us to write a letter explaining what happened (I threw in there that the mail should have been forwarded, the amount was small and we didn't notice never being billed, our number was listed the whole time and the store could have called, etc.). After that, no problems and our loan was approved.

But I agree that it's a good idea to get the reports yourself, before any lenders do.
 

jonnyGURU

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Oct 30, 1999
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<< No, any bad marks will remain until resolved. Once they are resolved, then 7 years later they will be erased. >>




:(


Suck.

Nobody actually &quot;persued&quot; me for the money for the dish. They (the finance company, Household Retail Services, or collection agency on their behalf) called me once, I explained the situation and never heard back from them again. :(

Hope that's all there was to it. :(
 

IBhacknU

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Oct 9, 1999
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You should be fine jonny. Like kranky was saying, you're probably just going to have to write a short letter.

Your overall credit history will speak for itself. One or a few small incidents shouldn't matter.

Heck, when I borrowed money for my lot, I had to explain 5 'things'. Most of them had been taken care of years ago and they were small, but the bank still wants an explanation.

You'll be fine!