Loannetter has flown the coop!

I suppose I am remiss in not letting my blog followers know sooner but life has been exciting since I touched down in New Zealand in January 2016. I founded a new firm, Niche Mortgages, and am already up to my old tricks of client advocacy and networking. Feel free to contact me if you are seeking financing or just a cuppa should you find yourself wandering the beaches and volcanoes (yes, we have many of both) in Auckland. Do drop in! 

Popular posts from this blog

What's Your FICO Score Really Worth?

In today's market, personal credit scores are being skewed by a decline in average FICO ® scores. Why should you care? Well, if you are intending to get into debt responsibly in the coming year your FICO score is still the number one criteria your lender will use to determine your likelihood of paying them back. It's also one of the chief pricing factors to getting the best interest rate. That said, things are changing at a rapid pace. The newly minted FICO models are supposedly taking less consideration for small things like parking tickets but the really big defaults for big items like mortgages and car loans will weigh even more heavily as a result.  All defaults have less effect on your score as time goes on . With improved history that is! So it stands to reason that if more homeowners take the 'walkaway' option the impact will be figured into the score models for that particular historical period of consumer behavior. Essentially scoring mod...
Read more

Good Credit Scores=Good Behavior

Remember, your credit scores are based on your financial behavior, so good behavior is key to maintaining good credit scores as well as improving your current position. The List below is a quick review of how responsible borrowers behave . Always pay all of your bills on time. This proves your reliability and demonstrates consistent behavior and responsibility. Check your credit reports regularly and correct inaccuracies. Verify that the information reported about you is correct. Dispute anything incorrect with each of the credit bureaus immediately. Some disputes may require contact with financial institutions too. While it is best to document your disputes in writing, to all three bureaus simultaneously. Some bureaus provide customer service by telephone with instructions on how to register for a fraud alert. Monitor your accounts closely for signs of identity theft. Simply review each statement and verify that all bills are authorized, accurate, and your own. Guard PINs and acco...
Read more

Stop Your FICO From Becoming a Fido!

Online Mortgage Shopping Impacts FICO Scores If you've considered checking out an online mortgage site: think again. What they don't tell you is that their network may comprise multiple agents. Each may pull your credit report (separately) over a course of hours or days while they review your loan options. While all this is going on, your FICO score is taking a nosedive. Each mortgage inquiry can negatively impact your score 3 points. Each time. So if 10 brokers pull your credit in one 90 day period you could be 30 points worse off. And here's the scary part: each of those 10 brokers could actually submit your application to another 10 banks who also check your credit and that little exercise just cost you 30 points per broker...so the potential for damage is exponential. Because banks and lenders have strict FICO score requirements, a lower FICO Score can affect your qualifying for the loan you want. So much for convenience... What is a FICO Score? Invented by the ...
Read more