Opt-Out Prescreen Me

I am currently trying to refinance my home.My credit score was 626 and I had a broker offering a 6.75 thirty year fixed, and was going to go with this. A week later, after not hearing from him, I finally got him and he said my credit score had gone down to below 620 in a week. He didnt know why but speculated it could be my current mortgage and I also thought it might be credit inquiries that weren’t authorized.

  Today, I got call from another broker who said he could beat the 6.75 rate because he could raise my credit score dramatically in 7 days by doing something that required my SS#. Now…he offered to do this magical thing for me if I would guarantee him my business, which of course I would not. My guess is that he is talking about the optout program. Am I correct in this assumption?..as I need to bring my score back up over 620 quickly.

Debbie

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Hi Debbie,

Many mortgage brokers believe that opting-out raises a credit score.  This is simply not true.  While I strongly recommend for every consumer to opt-out, the belief that it improves a credit score is false.  According to OptOutPrescreen.com:

Does Opting-Out improve my credit score?

No, since inquiries for firm offers for credit or insurance are not used in calculating credit scores, Opting-Out does not improve your credit score.

Now that we are done telling old wives tales, let’s get into some truth.  There are two Trans Union models currently in use by the mortgage community – the 98 and 04 models.  If your middle score was the TU, then find out which TU model the mortgage broker was using.  Then, find another mortgage broker or company that uses the other TU model.  Of course, the other option to raise your credit score in a few days is the rapid rescore.

Debbie, thanks for the questions and when your mortgage broker asks where you learned this then send him back to the Broken Credit Blog for some free credit score lessons.

Paul

(source=optoutprescreen.com/faq.htm)