Your Guide to Credit and Personal Finance

Mortgage Match is one of the Net’s leading websites for assisting borrowers who have had to file bankruptcy to obtain mortgages after their bankruptcies have been discharged. Now, while it’s entirely possible that a borrower can obtain a mortgage just one day after bankruptcy discharge, it’s not typical that a borrower has been able to sustain a credit score high enough, after reorganizing through a bankruptcy, to be able to qualify for a new mortgage… especially a zero down mortgage.

The vast majority of lenders who make mortgages available to borrowers who have filed bankruptcy require a minimum, midscore FICO of 580 for a zero down mortgage. In fact, it’s practically impossible to obtain a zero down mortgage with anything less than a 580 midscore FICO after a bankruptcy is reported by any of the three major credit bureaus.

Now, the vast majority of borrowers who have filed bankruptcy typically sustain a midscore FICO of around 550. Moreover, after filing bankruptcy, it’s quite rare that a borrower comes through the bankruptcy process with a FICO too much higher than this common 550 score. Therefore, if the borrower is looking for a zero down mortgage, or a zero down mortgage is the only way the borrower can purchase a property, then the borrower will have to employ some method of credit repair or improvement to raise their midscore FICO to the magic number of 580.

The author of the PDQ DIY Credit Repair Guide offers this free tip for those borrowers who need to employ a quick fix for their credit after a bankruptcy filing… “When you file bankruptcy, there is a difference between your creditors and the credit bureaus. A successful bankruptcy petition erases your debts with the creditors, but does not erase the record of the debts reported by the credit bureaus. For the fastest fix, and by far the most important and meaningful improvement to your credit reports after a bankruptcy, take the following steps:

First, collect the following materials: your driver’s license (or some other official, photo ID), your Social Security card, and Schedule F (the schedule of debts from your bankruptcy petition which lists the name, account number and address of the creditors). Then, make three copies of this package — one for each of the three major credit bureaus… Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Next, go through the dispute resolution process. For the proper and most effective way to approach the dispute process, please refer to the PDQ DIY Credit Repair Guide (click here). Send a copy of your dispute package to each credit bureau with a letter explaining that each creditor, listed as either active or derogatory, was included in your petition, and should therefore be removed or deleted from your credit report.

It is important to be aware that even if you mistakenly left out a creditor from your list of debts… that debt is still discharged. Under Beezley v. California Land Title (994 F.2d 1433), a bankruptcy discharge, discharges all debts that arose before the filing of the bankruptcy, whether or not the debt was listed in the schedule of debts. If this is your situation, you do not need to re-open your bankruptcy to include the omitted debt. However, the creditor must be notified, so send your dispute package to the credit bureaus… and any creditors… who were left out of your bankruptcy petition.

Last, but not least… you may need to keep after the credit bureaus to make sure they follow through and remove the inaccurate items.”

After you’ve enlisted this credit repair step, your Mortgage Match Loan Consultant may be able to employ our Rapid Rescore process to effectively raise your credit score as fast as possible.

If you’ve been searching the internet for a mortgage portal which can provide you with a free quote, preapproval and everything else you need to know about your mortgage entirely online, you’ve found it at Mortgage Match. There’s no need to talk with anyone until you’re well into the mortgage process. You must simply be agreeable to providing the required information, and have the willingness to respond and communicate via email. Your preapproval and obtaining accurate pricing, rates, terms and conditions can be accomplished faster… sometimes in just a matter of hours… rather than it stretching into days… when you use the Mortgage Match Online approach. If you’re purchasing a property, you can expect your preapproval letter to e-mailed to you; usually within just a couple of hours after starting the process. If there are any issues with your request and quote, you’ll be advised what those issues are, and how they can be resolved. To take advantage of the fast and free online preapproval and rate quote at Mortgage Match, just click here.

Current interest rates are naturally of major concern to most mortgage shoppers. However, the average mortgage shopper or prospective borrower shouldn’t put too much stock into current, interest-rate reports or feeds, like the one published here, and updated 14-times daily. The average borrower should be using these reports only as a benchmark, and shouldn’t be disappointed when the interest rate they’re quoted is more than just slightly higher than those published rates they’ve researched. Here’s why…

For a variety of reasons, the average borrower won’t be offered a rate that’s as low as the current published rate. First, the lowest published rates represent national averages which may not be available in all states. Next, the published current rates are usually those offered to the most well-qualified borrowers who are borrowing funds under optimum conditions. This means borrowers who have down payments for purchases, borrowers who can document their incomes, borrowers who are financing properties which will be owner-occupied, and borrowers who have midscore FICOs which are higher than the reported national average FICO score of 678… to name just a few.

And, be wary of mortgage brokers who quote you a rate or suggest they can obtain a specific rate without first pulling your credit and submitting your 1003 loan application to at least one lender. There isn’t a mortgage broker in the country who’s going to write the check which funds your loan at closing. Consequently, the only valid, bona fide quote you can be confident about is the one you’re offered when you’re preapproved by an actual lender. At Mortgage Match, you can get a fast, free and accurate quote on interest rates after a short interview with a Senior Loan Consultant for preapproval by clicking here. Or, you can get preapproved entirely online and through email, and know eveything there is to know about your loan by clicking here.