Danny Garcia - Investormortgage.org

Credit Corner

We feel that it is important to understand how credit works even if you already have good credit.

Because we are very protective over our clients credit and credit score we don't pull your credit until after you made your decision and identified a property. Most customers have a pretty good idea of their credit and I have never had anyone lie to me about their credit. When getting you a rate quote we will do so based on what you tell us about your credit. If you have no idea of what your credit score is I recommend that you pull your own credit scores through an online service like the one I have shown on the right side of this web page.

We have included this section to help educate you on some of the minor aspects of credit scoring that can greatly affect your credit score.

Q. Should I pay off my credit card balances every month?

A. Credit scores are highly influenced by your debt to credit ratio. This is a comparison to your total unsecured debt compared to your total unsecured credit limits. For best results you want to have your debt to credit ratio between 10% - 30%. If you pay off your credit cards every month you are labeled a "deadbeat" by the credit card companies because they don't make any money off of you. Once you establish a pattern of being a "deadbeat" creditors will reduce their special offers to you. I would recommend that you keep your debt to credit ratios in the 12% area. If you are currently much higher than the 12% and you want to improve the ratio without paying off your debts call and ask us about our credit counseling program.

Q. Does credit repair work?

A. Credit repair does work but many credit repair companies are using old techniques which do not work as well as the current methods. We use the most current methods and offer this service for only $124.00 per person. (free for clients who have closed loans with us) For more details please see our sister website www.WeFixBadCredit.com (coming soon)

Q. Is there a way to improve my credit within 60 days without paying off my existing debt?

A. Yes, there are several things you can do to improve your credit that will have an almost immediate affect on your credit scores. I will introduce a couple of them here but to find out all of them ask us about our credit counseling service.

Apply for new credit cards or secured credit cards (this will help decrease your debt to credit ratios) Call your existing credit cards and request higher credit limits (this will help decrease your debt to credit ratios) Redistribute your debt over several credit cards (this will help decrease individual debt to credit ratios and make it easier for your credit card companies to increase your credit limits) Q. Can my job affect my ability to get credit?

A. Yes, believe it or not your job does affect your ability to get credit cards. If you are self employed the creditors consider you to be a higher risk. As a higher risk you will get lower limits and higher rates. We have several items like this that will surprise even the most credit savvy customers, and remember a score increase of just one point can save you from having to put down more money or paying a higher rate.

When you speak to us please make sure you talk to us about your credit and how we can help you tweak your credit for the future. Remember once you close a loan with us we provide this service for free.

Author of this article is Danny Garcia, this and other articles related to real estate investing and real estate investing mortgage loans can be found at www.InvestorMortgage.org