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Hi, everyone. How are you? It's Leah Coss with The Mortgage Center, and I wanted to talk about pulling credit. Is it bad? Is it going to hurt my score? What's the situation with that? Well, it really actually depends on what your score is now, upon whether it's going to hurt you. For people with good credit, 680 or above, even 650 and above. For the most part, if I pull your credit, which is called a hard pull, or any institution like a car dealership, the banks, a mortgage broker.
If we pull your credit for the purpose of wanting to know what your credit is for a purchasing reason, then it won't really hurt you. You could probably pull your credit five, six times in a year. It's really not going to affect you at all. The reasoning is your credit is good and a hard pull, it's so miniscule compared to the other things that affect your credit.
However though, if your credit is bad, if it's 650 or below, if you're around the 600 mark, it is devastating to your credit if it's pulled. Because what that's telling the credit bureau is this person has horrible credit. There's no way that they don't know that their credit is this bad. And therefore, they're still trying to get more credit. They're trying to get a credit card, or they're trying to get a mortgage or a car. And so, they go, "This person just needs to be kyboshed. They need to be put... stopped in their tracks on trying to attain more credit."
So they kill it, and for that reason, if someone comes to me looking to get a mortgage, I always ask ahead of time, "What do you think your credit is?" They say they don't know. Then I ask them, "Do you make the payments on time? Have you been getting your statements regularly. Do you think you've missed any?"
If they tell me that everything should be fine, then I'll pull their credit, no problem. But if they tell me that, "Oh, you know, I have. I've missed about three months of payments," or, "There was this bankruptcy thing in the past, " or whatever the case may be, I'm actually not going to pull your credit. I don't want to make it worse if it's already not so good.
And so what I'll actually have you do is what's called a soft pull. This is where you're going to pull your own credit. It will probably cost you about $30, $40 dollars, but at the end of the day, if it keeps your credit at a point that is manageable to still get a mortgage later on, or a car, or whatever the situation is, where you're wanting something, then that's the situation we want to keep you in.
So if credit is unknown, pull your own credit. It's called a soft pull, and it's not going to affect your credit, even if your credit is bad. Where can you do this? TransUnion and Equifax are the two companies that most banks and lenders use, Equifax being the first and foremost one that they will pull. Some pull both, but most all always pull Equifax.
So go to Equifax.ca, if you're in Canada, pull your own credit. They're going to ask you a series of questions. Then give that to me, and then I can go, "OK. You know what? Your credit's way too bad. You need two years to get it fixed. Let's put you in a lease to own program."
Or, "You know what? Your credit's actually OK. I think I've got one or two lenders, or a private lender that will do this for you with your credit as it stands now."
That's the difference between a hard pull and a soft pull. If your credit is good, don't worry about your credit getting pulled. It's really not going to make a difference, although if you are ultra concerned with that, it's one of the benefits of going to an independent mortgage broker. We pull it once and it gets served off to all of the different lenders. You're not going from institution to institution to institution who keeps re pulling your credit every time.
If your credit is bad, or you're not sure, it's always best to keep on the safe side. Pull it yourself, and we'll go from there. If you have any questions about this, or what your credit is like, go to Equifax.ca or TransUnion, or just give me a call. I'm always happy to answer a few quick questions. Or to fill out an application and see if you can get a home today based on what your credit is today.
So, Leah Coss with The Mortgage Center. Talk to you soon.
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When Should You Pull Your Own Credit Score?by MortgagesInVancouver269 views
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