Best Interest Rate for Home Loans

What is the best way to go about getting the best interest rates for a home loan? For example, I always pay off my credit cards at the end of the month but should I stop using my credit cards? I had 2 late payments in my previous loan which was about 3 1/2 years ago, will that hurt me? Looking for some advice. Thank you.

 

Check your credit report- www.annualcreditreport.com It won't get you a score unless you want to pay for it...but you'll know if those late payments are on your record.
Using credit cards is fine if you are paying them off.

Shop around...Local credit unions, big banks, online...just look at all the options before you sign into anything.

 

+1 for the answer above. If you're looking to buy a house, it's worth the few bucks to know your credit score along w/ your free report.

 

You had a hiccup on your CC...don't sweat it. If your shopping for a loan I got mine thru my credit union. Pentagon Federal Credit Union. If you have Wachovia you can shop and compare with them as well. What I liked about my credit union load is they gave me closing cost to do business with them. That saved me about $800. If you can put money down put a min of at least 20%. It will save you a shit load of money not having to pay PMI (Private Mortgage Ins). DO NOT GO WITH AN ARM!!!! Go 30 year conventional or less to get your payments where you can afford them. You can always pay more on the principal (when you pay more tell your loaning agency you want it to go to the principal---DON'T JUST SEND IN ANOTHER PAYMENT OR THEY WILL USE PART OF IT FOR INTEREST) Pay it toward principal...I learned the hard way.

 

Its the law that you can get 1 free credit report every year. Go to freecreditreport.com and get your 1 free.

 

Do not use freecreditreport.com. They are a business- and as such will be pushing you to buy something or sign up for something.

annualcreditreport.com is the way to go. THAT (and that ONLY) is the mandated by law free credit report each year. The one thing to mention is that you get one free report per reporting agency. That means you can get a credit report 3 times a year...one from each agency. Spread it out and you'll have a better idea what your reports look like.

 

Great advice right there!

 

My point was that he doesnt need to pay for a credit report.

 

Would it be wise to go to the other credit reporting agencies like experian (I think that is the name of it) and ask for a report?

 

That's like what I do, but I make it even MORE frequently. Since my wife's credit and mine are pretty well tied together now, I get one of her reports every four months, and one of mine every four months, so that I'm getting a report from ONE of the bureaus for ONE of us every two months.

 

the reports that come from annualcreditreport.com actually come from
experian, equifax and transunion. The site redirects you to each reporting agency, you fill out a request and get a free report, one per year from each. If you go directly to each of them, they are not free, you pay. Its the same report.

from their site:
AnnualCreditReport.com is a centralized service for consumers to request free annual credit reports. It was created by the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

AnnualCreditReport.com provides consumers with the secure means to request and obtain a free credit report once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).