Bryant Pryor, Elevations Credit Union
If you are in the beginning steps of purchasing a home, it can be a good idea to understand your credit score and how you may be able to improve it. Take these tips from our Elevations Mortgage Team into consideration:
• Carefully decide whether you want to close out a revolving credit account, such as a credit card. When you close out a revolving credit account, you reduce your total amount of available credit. This total amount of available credit factors into your FICO® Score, so keeping a credit card open and maintaining a higher available credit balance may positively impact your score.
• Be mindful when shopping for credit. Multiple hard credit inquiries may negatively impact your score. If you plan on applying for a mortgage, you may want to avoid other hard pulls associated with credit shopping before you apply.
• Check freecreditreport.com once a year to make sure all items on your credit report are accurate. If something is inaccurate, file a dispute to ensure the inaccuracy isn’t negatively affecting your score.
• Pay all your bills on time. If you’re traveling, have an emergency or are unexpectedly away from your home, setting up automatic payments may help eliminate late payments that could negatively impact your score. If you have a loan or credit card at Elevations, you can set up recurring payments through digital banking.
• Avoid maxing out your credit card(s). Maxing out a credit card affects your balance of debt to credit and can negatively impact your score.
For more about mortgages and credit scores, visit elevationscu.com/mortgageblog.
By Bryant Pryor, Elevations Credit Union. Bryant is a Mortgage Loan Originator at Elevations Credit Union. If you have questions regarding mortgages, please call 720.879.2464 or e-mail [email protected]. NMLS# 484157.
