What Not to Do When Going Through the Mortgage Process, Regarding Credit.
During this time period you need to make sure not to do anything that could hurt your credit score. When you buy a new home it is very tempting to go out and buy new furniture, appliances, decorations, etc. Don’t! Making any big purchases during the application process can really hurt you. You do not want to finance anything, open any new forms of credit, or even make big cash purchases. You want to keep relatively low key in able to qualify for the best rate and program available.
DON’T APPLY FOR NEW CREDIT– This is key! It is very very tempting to go out and buy a new couch that will look amazing in your soon to be new living room. Don’t do it, you need to fight off the temptation until the loan process is over. Opening any new form of credit is also bad, don’t switch banks, don’t personally run your credit score, just wait till the process is over.
DON’T CLOSE LINES OF CREDIT– When you close a line of credit there is a significant chance that it will change your ratio of debt to available credit (30% of your credit score). Once again wait till after.
MAXED OUT CREDIT RUINS CREDIT SCORE – If you max out your lines credit you credit score can drop up to almost 100 points overnight. This is by far one of the fastest way to ruin your credit. I suggest to my clients to try to keep your credit cards below 33% of their limit during the loan process.
BAD TIME TO MAKE MAJOR DECISIONS – During this time period you just want to lay low, don’t change your address, your name, co-sign for loans, this is just an overall bad time to make any other life changing decisions.
OVERALL- Overall this is pretty easy, just lay low and don’t go on any big spending splurges. If anything is to happen that might jeopardize your credit make sure to call you mortgage banker right away so they can work with you to get anything resolved.
Thanks,
Sam Giannakakis
Follow me on twitter for daily rate updates “loanonahome”
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