READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/rapid-rescore/
5 MIN READ
Published October 01, 2020
Written by Steve Bucci
Everyone knows that the rate you get on your mortgage can cost or save you thousands over the term of your home loan.
But did you know that you may be able to influence (lower) that rate while you are sitting in the lender’s office with a quick and easy fix known as a “rapid rescore”? Let’s take a closer look at this money saving tool.
Your credit score is an important piece of the pie when it comes to getting a mortgage, especially in terms of the interest rate you will eventually qualify for. For that reason, you will want to put your best foot forward in terms of your credit score.
Typically, this means getting your credit report in advance of making a mortgage application, looking for errors, disputing any errors you find and paying down balances so that your credit utilization ratio is at 25 percent or lower. Then you might order a credit score to see where you fall and for what rates you qualify.
Still, surprises can crop up at the last minute when the lender orders a score for you and it is different from the one you thought you had. The difference can be because lenders often use a different score (FICO or VantageScore) or score version (FICO 6, 7, 8 or 9, or VantageScore 3.0 or 4.0) from what the consumer gets.
Here is where the term “rapid rescore” can begin to sound intriguing. You can’t order a rapid rescore on your own – your lender must do it for you. But that doesn’t mean you won’t benefit from a better understanding of what a rapid rescore might be able to do for you.
What is rapid rescore?
A rapid rescore is a way to get more current information onto your credit report, usually for the purpose of securing a mortgage (although it might be used for other lending purposes).
If you discover correctable errors on your credit report (like an account listed that does not belong to you) and provide documentation to have those removed, a rapid rescore can get those items removed quickly from your credit report.
Or, if you significantly reduce the balances on your credit cards or even pay them off, before your credit card makes its monthly update to the credit bureaus, rapid rescore can get those payments posted faster.
A word of caution here: if you choose to pay off a card, do not close it. You will want to leave it open to keep the benefit of the available credit on that card. Doing so will improve your credit utilization ratio, which is worth 30% of your overall FICO score. So this is not an insignificant number.
