Ignore The Score & Other Tips For Helping Your Clients Build Healthy Credit
Credit scoring is a science, but building and maintaining healthy credit is not. If you’re a mortgage or real estate professional, it pays big to help clarify your client’s understanding of healthy credit. We’ve put together 4 ways you can help your client better understand healthy credit.
Healthy credit goes beyond a credit score. In today’s market, your client will have access to multiple different credit scores from multiple different sources. This leads to confusion and adds to the anxiety of having an unhealthy credit profile. The best way you can get your client on track is to ignore the score, and focus on healthy credit habits (like paying down credit card debt or avoiding new unnecessary credit inquiries).
Leverage isn’t free, but it can be inexpensive. Most of the time, people don’t recognize the amazing amount of money they’d save if they obtained better financing terms. We recommend showing both the amount saved monthly and annually by having healthy credit. Even if you have a client that qualifies today at a mid-600 credit score, it is worth their time to build healthy credit to save money down the road on a refinance.
You can’t have healthy credit if you don’t monitor it. Even if you are a Dave Ramsay super fan, you can’t deny the need for credit when it comes to large purchases (like a house or business). Many people are surprised when they have a credit issue, and get sidelined when they have to try and resolve it because they didn’t pay attention to their credit profile. Make sure you’re checking your credit report often to identify mistakes and keep tabs on your personal information.
Credit is a snapshot in time. Your credit score is going to be different today than it will be six months from now. This can be a benefit if you know you have a purchase on credit happening soon. If you have a few months before you buy your house, car, etc., then be sure to pay your credit cards below 30% of the available limit, stop all credit inquiries, and check your credit to make sure the information on file is correct.
Ultimately, there are a lot of ways to build healthy credit. If you have questions about a client file, or simply about the information in this post, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly!