During the mortgage loan process do not go out and apply for new credit, even if the offer is for 90 or 120 days, or for 6 or 12 months, same as cash with no payments necessary. Applying for new credit can not only lower your credit score, but it can still report to your credit report before closing and it can still negatively affect your credit score, even if a payment is not necessary to be made for a year. In some cases this could even increase your debt ratio enough to possibly disqualify you for the home mortgage financing. Therefore, do not apply for new credit or charge up new furniture or appliances on existing credit cards (even if there are exceptional buy now, pay later promotions going on) until after you have closed on your home mortgage loan.

Do stay current on your existing loans. Even if you are paying off accounts with the proceeds of a new loan, be sure to still make your monthly payments on those loans. 1 late can significantly impact your credit score.

Don't max out or over charge on your credit cards. Going over your credit limit raises a red flag and is the quickest way to reduce your score without being delinquent on an account.

If you accidently DO run up one of your credit card bills during the loan process, there are resoruces available to have your credit scores go back up. The downside with this is, you usually will have to #1 . pay down the balance to under 50%, and #2, pay for a rescore fee which can be up to $90 to expedite within 5 days to get your score back to where it was. This really can be a headache and time consuming. You should really not touch any of your cards, or get anything new added to your credit report during the loan process

When refinancing your home to consolidate your debts, one mistake borrowers make is thinking they can stop making the payments on the debts they are going to pay off. If for some reason the mortgage doesn't close on time and you haven't made the debt payments, they could fall 30 days late which could impact your credit scores negatively. Some lenders will re-pull credit before the closing to insure that the borrowers credit hasn't changed. And, if the credit scores are lower than when the loan process was started, the loan could change or be canceled. Always make sure to continue making the monthly payments on the debts you are going to consolidate right through the loan closing.

During the loan process do not make any late payments on an existing mortgage. Mortgage late payments are very unfavorable in the eyes of the lender and can hurt your chances of qualifying for a loan.

Do not be concerned that the balances listed on your application might be reduced by recent payments. The title company handling the closing will verify payoff amounts just prior to closing, and any overpayment, including escrow balances, will be refunded to you.

A good rule of thumb for keeping your credit clean during the loan process is to never provide your social security number. You social security number is required to perform a credit check, so by refusing to provide it you will never accidentally apply for new credit (which could potentially ruin your mortgage financing).