Because Mortgage Professionals Deserve a Little Extra Credit

Understanding Credit

The three credit reporting agencies in the United States, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, collect data about consumers used to compile credit reports. The credit agencies use FICO (Fair Isaac Company) software to generate FICO scores, which are sold to lenders. Each individual has three credit scores, one with each Bureau, as the three credit agencies have their own databases, which they do not share with each other.  They each gather reports from different creditors, and receive information from creditors at different times.

A resident of the US is permitted by law to view their credit report once a year at no charge by visiting the website AnnualCreditReport.com. The individual’s “credit score” information is available for an additional fee from each of the three credit reporting agencies. This consumer credit score model provided to consumers may differ from the mortgage credit score model and the auto score model.  This is because each industry’s score model has different factors that are weighed differently in each score model.

A FICO score is between 350 and 850, exhibiting a left-skewed distribution with 60% of scores near the right between 650 and 799.

Once credit has been established and maintained, credit scores are based on five factors to varying degrees: payment history (35%), total amounts owed (30%), length of time (15%), type of credit (10%) and new credit (10%).

The largest impact on credit scores is payment history and amount owed, which is why it is important to pay bills on time and keep balances low.

Debt should be kept to a minimum and funds should be moved around as little as possible. It may be beneficial to leave all accounts open, even if they have a $0 balance.

Different types of credit (i.e., a mix of credit cards, installment loans and fixed payments) can also be beneficial to a credit score.

Key Factors That Impact Your Score:

1. Payment History (35%)

It is essential to pay your credit bills on time. Every 30 days late, collection, judgment, or Bankruptcy significantly drops your score.

2. Amount You Owe Compared to Balances (30%)

Your available credit compared to the amount owed. It’s a good rule-of-thumb to be at 40% or less of the available balances

3. Length of Credit History (15%)

Easy rule-of-thumb: the longer your accounts are open, the more positive impact it will have on your overall credit score.  In fact, if you happen to have a card that is over 10 years old with even a little activity, it would probably be a bad idea to close that card.

4. Mix of Credit (10%)

Generally speaking, if you have loans, such as a car loan, as well as open credit cards, it helps prove to creditors that you have experience borrowing money.

5. New Credit Applications (10%)There is a model that compensates for people shopping rates on home and car loans, but it can hurt your credit score to have multiple reports pulled in a short amount of time.

Factors That DO NOT Impact Credit:

• Age
• Race
• Sex
• Employment History
• Income
• Marital Status
• If you’ve been turned down for credit

•  

  Length of time at current address
• Whether you own a home or rent
• Information not contained in your credit report

Establishing New Credit:

Credit may be initially established through a bank, as a Secured line of credit, in which a credit card is linked to a specific amount of money deposited in the bank, typically $300-$500.  If the credit card is not kept in good standing, the bank can then take the secured funds for payment. 

This Secured line of credit will report to the Bureau, but won’t help the score very much until the bank decides to change it to an Unsecured line of credit. Then it will begin helping the credit score increase.

Initial credit may also be established with a department store credit card (for example), but borrowers should beware of the high interest rates associated with these cards and pay off the balances in full.

Several factors can be used to establish credit initially, though not on a credit report can include bank accounts, employment history, residence history and utility bills.

Although they are not reported directly to credit bureaus, bank account history may be important to lenders for first time loans and should be kept in good standing.

While they are also not reported to credit bureaus, utility bills (such as electric, telephone, cable and water) can, at times, also show a lender the risk associated with a new borrower.

Consumer Credit, Loans, Mortgages, Red Flag, RED FLAGS

How IRS Verifications Prevent Fraud

Among the many problems that contributed to the housing market implosion of 2007-2010 was that of unsubstantiated income claims on mortgage applications. In addition to the other variables, this misreporting (sometimes innocent, sometimes fraudulent by design) resulted in people getting mortgages that they could not afford. Today, mortgage lenders are making much more widespread use of IRS Form 4506-T, and it is also a good tool for verifying income for other reasons, including loans, employment and financial planning.

When signed by a taxpayer, Form 4506-T authorizes the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to release transcripts (not actual returns or copies) showing previous tax returns, W-2 data and 1099 information to a third party. This third party can be a lender, employer or even one's accountant. The great majority of requests for tax transcripts, however, come from home lending institutions and/or real estate agents and firms. Government guidelines for federally guaranteed mortgages now require Form 4506-T to be filed at two different points in the application process.

Bulk ordering

The IRS charges a fee for Form 4506 (without the "t"), because this form requests actual photocopies of returns. This is often a lengthy process, as the IRS allows itself up to 60 days to fulfill these requests. Although there is no fee for Form 4506-T, it is costly and time-consuming for individuals as well as financial institutions to process large numbers of requests. Various companies have formed to process bulk orders of these forms with the IRS, and the government has established advantageous guidelines for doing so. In many cases, requests are fulfilled within 24 hours, although the guidelines allow the IRS up to 48 hours to respond to bulk requests. It can take from 10 to 60 days to receive a reply from the IRS when you file the forms yourself.

Clearly, any company claiming a same-day turnaround is being deceptive, as the guidelines are clear. The best tax verification firms have no need to be deceptive as their records and results are easy to demonstrate. A good tax verification company will also work with you and your company to ensure that the paperwork is all filled out correctly, minimizing rejections and maximizing efficiency. Form 4506-T must be filled out completely and correctly, including the taxpayer name(s), Social Security number(s), current and former addresses, and the tax years requested. For transcripts that will be sent to a third party, the form must be received within 120 days of the date it is signed by the taxpayer.

Technology at work

Authorized bulk vendors process millions of requests every year through the IRS system's various data processing centers. As would be expected of companies doing this professionally, leading firms will stay on the cutting edge of technology and work with the IRS to continuously improve, streamline and optimize the processes. Because of this, the firms can usually offer a range of prices, depending on the number of records requested and other factors. With Form 4506-T one can order transcripts covering a taxpayer's 1040 personal returns, as well as 1120, 1065, W-2 and 1099 data.

The service as practiced by leading verification firms could not be easier or more straightforward. Typically, you and/or your company will establish a customer profile in the verification firm's Web-based order system. Orders are created online and Form 4506-T is uploaded directly into the company's processing system. In the usual transaction, you will likely check certain boxes or otherwise indicate what kind of transcripts you wish to obtain for verification of income. When results are obtained, you may receive an e-mail (or other contact, such as a phone call) and then log in to your account to get them. Transcripts are usually supplied in the easily-read, digital file format known as PDF (Portable Document Format) that is viewable with the freely available Adobe Acrobat Reader application.

A few lines of fine print

 You can request information from the last four tax years. Be forewarned, however, that if a taxpayer has filed for an extension or submitted amended returns, the IRS can take from six to eight weeks to integrate this data into their system. This is further incentive for you to get all relevant information up front, so that you do not waste time, money or effort in what should be a smooth, simple process. An analysis of the 4506-T program shows clearly that bad information at the beginning is the major reason for order rejection. With fraud prevention being increasingly important in home sales, employment and other financial dealings, it is thoroughly unprofessional to give the verification process anything less than full, effective attention.

In fact, non-matching addresses are the primary reason for rejection. If accurate previous address information is not included (line 4) on Form 4506-T, you may not receive the transcripts you request. Another major cause of problems is another simple, avoidable error, namely, illegible entries and obscure signatures. It is essential when filing this paperwork that all data is not just correct, but clear and readable, as well. If there is a reason to reject a request, the requestor is typically contacted via the method they indicate in their customer profile, and the problem reported by the IRS service center is then relayed. With proper use, the Form 4506-T process shows how IRS verifications prevent fraud in a wide range of financial transactions and settings.

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