The information in your credit report has a huge impact on whether or not you qualify for a mortgage loan and what interest rate a lender will offer. Therefore, it’s important your credit report reflects a positive image of the way you manage your money. If you're getting ready to buy a home, checking your credit report is the best way to ensure you get the loan and interest rate you deserve.

New law promotes free access to credit reports
A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) mandates that each agency provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every year, from www.annualcreditreport.com. 

Stay away from other web sites that claim a "Free Credit Report".  They entice you with a free credit report, when you agree to pay a monthly fee for a "credit monitoring" service.  The only truly free credit reports are requested through www.annualcreditreport.com

You should check your credit report from each of the three agencies, because they are all independent of each other and your information may differ on all three reports.

You could start by requesting your Free report from one agency and checking it for errors.  If you do find errors that need to be corrected, I would recommend that you request your report from the other two agencies and check them also.  If you do not find errors, you could check one Free report every 4 months and spread them out!

If you've been denied credit, insurance, or employment because of information in your credit report from any of the three agencies, you can obtain a free credit report by contacting the agency within 60 days of receiving a denial notice. In addition, you're entitled to a free copy of your report each year when you certify in writing that (1) you're unemployed and looking for a job within 60 days, (2) you're currently on welfare, or (3) your report contains errors due to fraud. Otherwise, the agencies charge a fee for a copy of your report.

For additional fees, each agency may offer you different report variations, such as:

• A credit report with or without your credit score.  ***
• A three-in-one credit report that lets you see a side-by-side comparison of records, from all three agencies, with or without scores.  ***
• Notification services when your credit history is requested. ***
• Routine notification changes to your file.  ***
• Subscriptions that allow you to access your report on a regular basis. ***

            ***  These services are for a fee and are not recommended unless you have been a victim of Identity Theft or you have a reason to be concerned about potential Identity Theft.  If this is a concern for you, please contact your Loan Officer for references to free services that you can use and recommendations to different "fee" services.

Whether you are thinking of buying a home or simply curious about what’s in your credit report,  it’s important to correct any errors you discover as soon as possible.  You don’t want errors in your credit report  affecting your eligibility for credit in the future and the process to make corrections takes time.

If you do have errors that should be corrected, you will want to request that the correction be made by each of the three national credit bureaus and you will need to contact each one individually.  For information that can help you expedite this process, talk to your Loan Officer.

Equifax www.equifax.com,
Experian www.experian.com                                                                         TransUnion www.transunion.com