credit – Daniel Bortz

How to Get a Mortgage With No Credit

October 4, 2017Posted in Realtor.comTagged credit, credit scores, home buying, real estate

Trying to buy a home with bad credit is hard. But what about trying to buy a home with no credit at all?

There’s a name for these people: “credit invisibles.” It means they don’t have a credit report or score on file with the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), usually because they don’t have a traditional credit trail such as a credit card or college loan. Far from being anomalies lurking on the fringes of society, credit invisibles are shockingly common.

According to a recent report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, roughly 45 million Americans are characterized as credit invisible. Meanwhile, 19.4 million are known by another equally ominous label: “credit unscorable.” That means they have some credit history, but not enough to generate a score. For example, they might have had credit cards or loans at one point but then stopped, usually due to financial difficulties.

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6 Surprising Things That Can Sabotage Your Credit Score

October 3, 2016October 4, 2016Posted in Realtor.comTagged credit, Credit Card, homebuying

If you’re hunting for a house and a mortgage, you’ve probably heard that your credit score will affect your buying power big-time, because lenders use your credit score to determine whether to give you a loan, and at what rate.

Odds are you also know that your credit score will suffer badly if you make credit card payments late, or miss them entirely. So as long as you’re current on those payments you should be fine, right?

Not exactly. Thing is, credit scores are tallied using a whole slew of factors, and they aren’t always as straightforward as whether you’ve paid your bills. Just so you’re clued in to these surprising credit score saboteurs, check out this list to make sure you aren’t destroying your home-buying odds without even knowing it.

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How to Make Sense of a Credit Card’s Terms and Conditions

June 23, 2013Posted in U.S. News & World ReportTagged credit, Credit Card, fine print, terms

A zero percent introductory interest rate sounds great. So does a juicy rewards program. And who couldn’t use a sweet $100 sign-up bonus? We’ve all seen credit card commercials touting such offers, but most close with those dreaded words: “terms and conditions apply.”

Digesting the high volume of information contained in a credit card offer is not only time-consuming for many people but headache-inducing. While it’s up to you as the consumer to make sense of the fine print, you can avoid most of the grunt work by asking issuers these right questions. Click here to read on.

How to Convince a Prospective Employer to Overlook Poor Credit

December 20, 2012February 5, 2013Posted in U.S. News & World ReportTagged credit, employment, jobsLeave a comment

Job seekers have plenty to worry about these days. Stiff competition and fewer available jobs are holding many Americans back from joining the labor force. Unfortunately, job seekers with poor credit have yet another thing working against them.

Nearly half of U.S. employers conduct credit background checks on job candidates, according to a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Red flags differ among employers but could include late payments, maxed credit cards, or other financial black marks that indicate a lack of responsibility in a hiring manager’s eyes.

The good news: Even if job seekers have a lousy credit history, they can still make a strong case for why an employer should hire them. In fact, among organizations that perform credit history checks, 80 percent say they have hired someone despite a poor credit report, according the SHRM survey.

A key factor is how well the applicants present themselves. Click here for tips on how to play up one’s strengths and use a poor track record with credit to their advantage.