You may be thinking "Why do I need my free credit report right now when my lender is going to get it before I can get a loan?"
Because you need to be prepared. You need to know what that credit report says and how your credit scores stand before you talk to any lenders.
That's because every time a lender checks your credit on your request, your credit scores take a little "hit." You should never let any lender, landlord, or service provider check your credit until you are ready to move forward.
Do call the lender and discuss the scores that will qualify you to buy a home. Ask him or her about the differences in interest rates offered to consumers with different credit scores and find out where your scores need to be before going forward.
Note that when you do decide to buy, you can "shop" different lenders and they can all pull your credit report without doing you harm - as long as it's done in a very narrow time frame. The credit bureaus do recognize that consumers shop for loans just like they shop for homes or cars.
But back to why you need your free credit report first.
If you find mistakes - and as many as 7 in 10 credit reports have errors - you'll have time to get them corrected and raise your credit scores by having negative information removed. This can take 30 to 60 days, so you don't want to wait until you're trying to be approved for a loan.
If you find an old debt that you dispute and did not intend to pay, you'll have to decide if not paying it is worth the damage its doing to your credit scores. If it's a $50 charge and it could make a difference of even $10 a month in your 360 month mortgage, you might want to bite the bullet and pay the thing.
By checking your own credit scores, you'll see if you need to make some improvements before you shop for that house. Strange things can affect your scores. For instance, if you have $10,000 in credit card debt and it is all on one card with an $11,000 limit while 2 or 3 other cards carry zero balances, you can raise your scores by spreading the debt between all the cards.
And of course, if you can pay down the debt your scores will go up.
Because you need to be prepared. You need to know what that credit report says and how your credit scores stand before you talk to any lenders.
That's because every time a lender checks your credit on your request, your credit scores take a little "hit." You should never let any lender, landlord, or service provider check your credit until you are ready to move forward.
Do call the lender and discuss the scores that will qualify you to buy a home. Ask him or her about the differences in interest rates offered to consumers with different credit scores and find out where your scores need to be before going forward.
Note that when you do decide to buy, you can "shop" different lenders and they can all pull your credit report without doing you harm - as long as it's done in a very narrow time frame. The credit bureaus do recognize that consumers shop for loans just like they shop for homes or cars.
But back to why you need your free credit report first.
If you find mistakes - and as many as 7 in 10 credit reports have errors - you'll have time to get them corrected and raise your credit scores by having negative information removed. This can take 30 to 60 days, so you don't want to wait until you're trying to be approved for a loan.
If you find an old debt that you dispute and did not intend to pay, you'll have to decide if not paying it is worth the damage its doing to your credit scores. If it's a $50 charge and it could make a difference of even $10 a month in your 360 month mortgage, you might want to bite the bullet and pay the thing.
By checking your own credit scores, you'll see if you need to make some improvements before you shop for that house. Strange things can affect your scores. For instance, if you have $10,000 in credit card debt and it is all on one card with an $11,000 limit while 2 or 3 other cards carry zero balances, you can raise your scores by spreading the debt between all the cards.
And of course, if you can pay down the debt your scores will go up.
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