It seems like year after year, auto, home and other insurance premiums keep going up. How can you fight back and lower your insurance premiums? There are a few steps to follow to try and lower the pain.

The FHFA has responded to criticism about their new fee structure. How does the fee structure for a conventional mortgage work and how does these changes impact a homebuyer’s interest rate?

For many years, Mr. Dave Ramsey, debt solutions guru, advocates a position that no consumer needs a credit score. He claims that you can purchase a house or anything else without a credit score. He basically tells his followers that a credit score is a bad thing. Since he doesn’t understand FICO® credit scores, he pushes a position that is financially illiterate.

The three major credit bureaus, Experian®, Equifax®, and TransUnion® have marketed different credit monitoring tools to help you track the credit information in your credit report – as long as you pay something. But, why don’t the credit bureaus do it? It is their information. I’ll explain.

Over the last 15 years, the credit score has become a vital part of every consumer’s financial life. Good or bad, politicians have recently got more involved to have their impact on consumer’s credit scores. As one observer correctly pointed it out, those with higher credit ratings are losing out while those with lower credit scores are benefitting. Let's take a look.

Quite often, I get an email or text from someone asking me to validate some information that has come out from a news story or on the internet. It is quite rare to find a story or article on the internet that is accurate.

Mark was making every effort to raise his FICO scores in order to purchase a home. His Experian (Classic) FICO scores was at 702. He had gone in and opened an account with Experian Boost hoping to increase his credit scores. However, he was questioning that maybe it was hurting his scores.

With the US Government spending money during this pandemic like there truly is no tomorrow, can the government run out of money? One could say, "No", but there is that possibility. It depends on the credit rating of the US Government. In essence, the US Government does have a credit score. How could the credit rating of the US Government impact your personal finances? There are many ways it impacts all of us.

Credit Karma tells everyone to get their free Credit Karma "Vantage" credit scores. You think that is good. Actually, it is not. All mortgage lenders require Classic FICO® credit scores for their loan approvals, which also determine your interest rates and loan fees. Vantage Scores do not give the same precise scores mortgage lenders require from the Classic FICO Scores. That is where the problem with Credit Karma starts.

Most every homebuyer is unaware of the potential savings / she is bypassing by not knowing this critical information. This blog pulls the curtain back for homebuyers - your loan officer is not going to tell you this information. We will - this is critical to know!