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Common Types of Credit Errors that Might Hurt Your Mortgage

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According to financial statistics, homeowners who refinanced their home loans in 2015 have already saved up thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, most people have not yet taken advantage of the low mortgage rates most lenders now offer for refinancing. One of the causes of this is the lack of knowledge of the benefits of a mortgage refinance. Most people assume that refinancing is for those looking for some cash.

By opting for a home refinance by a lender in Ogden, you stand to get better loan rates, terms, and leverage in addition to cash in your pocket. The primary element that everyone is looking for when refinancing their mortgage is a better interest rate. While you might have little control over a few aspects that determine your rate, there are a few you can work on. One of them is your credit report. Unfortunately, one in every five people have some errors in their credit reports, which might affect their refinance rates. The following are some of the standard errors you should watch out for:

Identity-Related Errors

These errors affect your basic personal information. These include your address, name, social security, phone number, and birthday. In some cases, an identity-related error will follow the mixing of your file with someone else’s who has a similar name. Although this is in most cases a clerical error, it sometimes might be a case of identity theft. As such, you might end up paying heavily in increased rates if the other person’s credit report is unfavorable.

Incorrect Account Status

Here, a closed account might be reported in your credit report as open or the account reported as delinquent or late. Most people also have the same debt type listed more than once under different names. Moreover, others are reported as account owners when they are in actuality only authorized account users. All these incorrect account statuses will make you legally accountable for a considerable amount of debt, which increases the rate your mortgage lender will advance.

Account Balance Errors

Agent explaining account balance

These are fortunately easy to pick if you regularly track your balances and spending. At times, account balance errors are caused by a wrong credit limit or credit card balance. If you are unsure about your credit card limit, look at the disclosure statements you got when opening your account.

Data Processing Errors

These are errors that show up after you have successfully disputed them. The errors could also be in the form of your account appearing multiple times with different listed creditors. This is common with accounts in collection and delinquent accounts.

Improving your credit score is only one step in getting a good refinance rate. If your credit report has any of the errors mentioned above, you should reach out to the credit bureau and report the inaccuracies. The bureau often takes about thirty days to investigate the discrepancies then rectify the issue. As such, it is prudent to get a copy of your credit report months before you start shopping for the best mortgage refinance rates. This way, all errors will be clarified in time for your refinance application, and the credit report will work to get you the best rates possible.

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