Homebuyer beware of authorized user accounts

 Credit Scoring, Loan Guidelines  Comments Off on Homebuyer beware of authorized user accounts
Mar 142019
 

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

The authorized-user account: It’s been a trick folks with weak credit histories have used for a long time to improve their credit scores. Mortgage lenders have grown wise to this trick, and they’re finally clamping down on its use.

An authorized-user account is an account on which a consumer has signing privileges, but the consumer’s credit history wasn’t used to open it. For example, a parent might allow a child to be an authorized-user on one of the parent’s credit cards to help the child establish credit.

A few years back, credit repair companies started promoting this as a way for folks with weak credit to quickly improve their credit scores. Someone with strong credit would allow the consumer with weak credit to sign on an account, even if the two individuals had no other relationship. Unfortunately for creditors, the score improvement didn’t reflect the consumer’s true credit risk.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan guidelines now instruct lenders to carefully review loan applications for which a borrower has an authorized-user account. The intent is to weed out potential borrowers who used an unrelated individual’s strong credit to try to improve their chances for loan approval.

According to the guidelines, it’s acceptable for a borrower to be an authorized-user on an account belonging to another borrower on the loan, with the borrower’s spouse, or an account on which the borrower makes the payments.

If these situations don’t apply, the guidelines instruct lenders to review the borrower’s credit to make sure an authorized-user account didn’t have a significant impact on the borrower’s credit scores. If the borrower otherwise has weak or little credit, it’s possible the borrower’s loan request will be denied.

Will your credit score rise with new FICO model?

 Credit Scoring  Comments Off on Will your credit score rise with new FICO model?
Dec 012017
 

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

The recent hacking of Equifax data has brought the credit bureaus into the headlines again. While the credit bureaus don’t control the FICO scoring model, the most popular model and the one the mortgage industry uses, the spotlight seems to have brought renewed attention to the fairness of credit scoring.

Yesterday, we discussed how FICO 4, the current model of choice in the mortgage industry, doesn’t seem to align with current credit risk factors. Congress is trying to force the industry to consider newer credit scoring models. So, let’s look at the potentially negative effects of the newer models. There will be winners and losers, and some of the losers may be surprised.

The current model rewards consumers who make on-time minimum payments on all their credit accounts. The account balance only seems to matter if the consumer allows it to exceed 30% of the available credit.

The newer models look at this a little differently. They reward consumers who make larger than minimum payments. They also penalize consumers who have large, unused available credit as that is credit that they suddenly could decide to use.

It may be years before any of these changes affect your ability to qualify for a mortgage. However, you are likely to start seeing them when you apply to other types of credit.

How mortgage credit scores are unfair

 Credit Scoring  Comments Off on How mortgage credit scores are unfair
Nov 302017
 

For more information, please contact me at (512) 261-1542 or steve@LoneStarLending.com.

By G. Steven Bray

Your mortgage credit score is based on a credit model developed almost 20 years ago, and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Watt says that’s not going to change anytime soon.

Many in the credit industry acknowledge that the FICO 4 model, the use of which is required by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is deficient. It doesn’t differentiate between paid and unpaid collections. Nor is it able to distinguish medical collections, which seem to have little predictive value of credit risk. It also poorly models student loan debt, which has ballooned in the last 10 years, and only incorporates negative information for rent and utility payments.

Congress is trying to force a change through The Credit Score Competition Act, which would encourage Fannie and Freddie to consider other credit scoring models, including the newer FICO 9 and VantageScore models.

Watt contends that Fannie and Freddie already consider the same or greater levels of credit data in their computer models that determine whether a borrower qualifies. He also notes the change would be quite expensive. He prefers to wait until after Fannie and Freddie merge their investment security platforms, slated for 2019.

However, Watt fails to mention that Fannie and Freddie impose a minimum credit score, which prevents folks from qualifying regardless of how Fannie and Freddie tune their computer models. Fannie and Freddie also use credit score for determining interest rates and mortgage insurance coverage.