TIME FOR YOUR ANNUAL CREDIT CHECKUP

If and when you even think about buying a home, you want to ensure your credit history is at it's best. Your FICO score will determine if you can qualify for a "conforming" loan, the industry, FNMA and FMAC, standard loan. More important for the long term, your FICO score will determine what rate of interest you will be paying for the next 30 years or so. The best interest rates are offered to those with scores in the 760 to 850 range (6.313% National Average on 7-1-07) to 6.819% (660 to 699 range) or 9.930% (500-579 range). If your FICO is less than 500, even renting could be a problem!

A free, one time a year, free credit report is available to you. This web site will also give you the opportunity, separate from the free report, for $7.95, to get a copy of your FICO score (Equifax Credit Reporting Service). The other 2 credit reporting services offer similar options. All three services (called a tri-merged report) are used by lenders so each must be corrected for any problems.

This is the web site for all three services, and you can get the free report from each:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

If you find problems with your report, real or errors, there are options for improving and correcting these items. A good place to start is the FICO web site:

http://www.fico.org/

If you know there are problems with your credit history, get started now! You will wish later you had as you suffer the penalties and pain of trying to buy your home. Good luck!