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Showing posts with the label credit score
MORTGAGES FOR SENIORS When a person retires, he or she may see a dramatic change in their income - at a level a lot less than they were accustomed to when working. Perhaps they had saved money for retirement, but some incidence may have occured to use up these savings, perhaps an illness. How do people meet these finnacial challenges? Over the past few years, as home prices have escalated, substancial equity has been built up in their home. Do you tap into this equity to free up funds for use. What are the pros and cons? What types of mortgages are available?  Reverse mortgages, lines of credit and equity take-outs are available. However the amount of income and debt level may make one or more of these unavailable. Over the next few days, each one of the types will be discussed along with the pros and cons for each.  Are there other reasons that a senior may wish to pull equity out of their property? Perhaps they want to help with the down payment of a child who wishes
Is It Time To Refinance? When people take on a mortgage the majority opt for a 5 year one usually because they intend to stay in the residence and they know their payments for the next 5 years. However life sometimes throws a curveball at us and we have to make hard financial decisions. Perhaps an illness occurred or 1 person was laid off or a divorce occurs and suddenly you can't pay for anything in cash anymore and resort to using credit cards. As we well know credit cards companies love this because the amount of interest you are paying increases. Perhaps you took a 5 year mortgage out several years ago You now look at how you can lower your payments and because mortgage rates are at a historical low these days it makes sense to look at breaking your mortgage and taking on a new one at a lower rate.  Paying off credit cards at 20% + interest looks attractive when you can get a new mortgage under 4% these days. Before you do anything you need to know what it will cost to b

Understanding and Keeping Your Credit Score Healthy

One of the least understood financial tools that a consumer has that affects their ability to borrow and at what rate is the credit score commonly known as the beacon score. This is a number that is assigned to you based on various criteria that a lender looks at to see if you are an applicant that they consider being financially able and credit worthy to repay a loan or mortgage. In Canada there are 2 credit rating bureaus – Equifax or Transunion. Each has their own scoring system and they may or may not contain the same financial information. Equifax has a number system from 300 to 900. A number above 700 is considered good while a number in the 300-400 range is very poor. Prime mortgage lenders look for a number from 620 to 650 to consider a candidate. There are alternate or “B” lenders that will go as low as 500 and private lenders do not look at the credit score. The   credit score is made of 5 different components: a)      Payment history           35% b)     Debt