The Drive to 850, Advanced Strategies for Increasing Your FICO® Credit Scores

Lenders give you one credit score and then give you an entirely different credit score. Does it make a difference? I’ll show you the problem with this practice.

Since Discover started offering a free FICO® Score a few years ago, more lenders are offering a so-called 'free' credit score. There is a problem, however. In trying to 'better educate' their clients, as Discover Card put it, they are creating more confusion and misinformation. I’ll explain the problems here. 

Many consumers freeze their credit thinking that this will eliminate any possibility of someone opening a new loan in his / her name. This thinking is incorrect. In this podcast, I highlight the several unknown problems of freezing your credit and how it can come back to haunt you and your credit report.

Very few people understand this issue of student loan debt. Many college students utilize education loans to finance their education. Many wonder how student loans impact their FICO® credit score and their future financial standing. Additionally, hundreds of thousands of graduates have completed their college education and on their path to their selected field – with multiple student loans. Can student loans lower your lender’s FICO Scores? Yes, they can. I will show you how they can drop your FICO credit scores upwards of 100 points. Understanding this critical information will help you better manage your student loans and help you keep your credit scores much higher.

Many lenders utilize a FICO® Score Improvement Program that comes with the lender’s credit report called Credit Assure. This program is used by many loan officers when they need to have a quick boost in a potential borrower’s credit scores.

There are several problems however with Credit Assure. It does not maximize a consumer's FICO® credit scores because it fails to address all the questions that need to be answered to maximize your scores. In this podcast, I will go through the problems Credit Assure can create for you when utilizing this system.

The biggest changes in mortgage lending occurred over the last 15 years occurred on May 1, 2023. There is a lot of controversy – and rightly so. Some say it benefits homebuyers and others say it raises the interest rates on homebuyers. Some homebuyers with lower credit scores are getting much lower interest rates than those with much higher credit scores.

I get right to the chase. I explain through graphic detail what changes occurred by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to the most popular loan programs for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These changes will impact most homebuyers. I explain how FHFA is not exactly telling the truth to Americans about these changes. 

This is a great podcast to see before you purchase a home. I also provide some valuable news stories that are great resources to better understand the changes. 

It is advisable to check out Podcasts 2 & 3 of The Drive to 850 to better understand how the system works. 

Credit repair companies promise a lot to consumers. They often promise that they have a necessary insight, experience and understanding to the law and only they know how to remove any collection late payment or any other bad mark on your credit. In addition to charging a lot of money, they market many things they claim they can do, that are not true. There are many issues with how they do their business and I go through the law that governs the credit repair companies and you can see for yourself whether they are adhering to the law. Before you think about spending a lot of money and working with a credit repair company on your Drive to an 850 credit score, you want to know this critical information.

Over the last few weeks, we have witnessed some banks go insolvent. Most consumers have concern about their money in those banks, and rightly so. But there is a second concern that can cost many consumers a lot of money that is rarely discussed. Many failed banks will end of costing their clients by suddenly dropping their customer's FICO Credit Scores. How? I will show you how it can impact you, what signs to pay attention to, and what steps you can take now that can alleviate a lot of problems if you get caught up in a bank failure.

Chime, Lyft and Self claim they can help you build your credit scores. They tell all consumers they can help you raise your credit scores. I identify the problems with their results they promote to all consumers. There is a much bigger issue that will cost you for many years when you open an account with one of these lenders. I introduce you to the problem with opening any type of loan with such lenders. 

Looking for resources to improve your FICO® credit scores? I highlight My Credit Plan, a certified non-profit credit counselor, that continues to report superior score improvement results. I review the changes that have occurred recently for consumer credit counseling agencies and how that benefits you. More specifically, I review My Credit Plan, a FICO Score improvement program managed by Family Financial, a certified non-profit credit counselor. This program has more tools to offer to help all consumers know where they stand, what mortgage loan options they have, and what score improvement to expect.

Looking for resources to improve your FICO® credit scores? One of the companies, Experian Boost®, claims that you can raise your FICO® credit score by simply paying your rent, or your phone bill, or any utility bill. I walk through what Experian Boost promises in great detail, identify the good things it can offer, along with understanding the problems it can create for you in improving your FICO scores and qualifying for different loans. 

These four questions are the gatekeeper to higher FICO® Credit Scores. Everyone has a suggestion to raise your FICO® credit scores. “Open this”, “Pay down that” are some of the common suggestions from friends, family, loan officers, credit counselors or even educators. You don’t want credit score suggestions. Rather, you want FICO Score solutions that are personalized to you because FICO Scores are very particular. I have done many news stories throughout the country by demonstrating how to raise FICO scores upwards of 100 points within 45 days. I outline the four critical questions I ask when I review a credit report and that everyone must answer correctly if you want to raise your FICO credit scores more than just a few points.

There are over 70 different credit scores and over 50 different FICO® Scores offered to consumers. Every credit score almost always produces a different three-digit number that can vary over 100 points. This is where most consumers are all too often misled. I highlight some of the misleading statements put out by various media and different companies trying to promote value to certain credit scores, that really hold no real value with any lenders. I go through the different credit scores offered to consumers and I identify which ones are used by mortgage lenders, auto lenders, credit card companies, and also banks and credit unions. Knowing this critical information will help prevent any misunderstanding when you look to take out a new loan. Every point matters for lenders and not tracking the correct credit scores can easily cost you thousands annually. 

There are too many credit scores that all produce a different number. Do you know how many different credit scores are offered to consumers? Don’t you notice that the credit score you follow is much different than the ones your lenders use? Why are credit scores so different, who creates them and are there some credit scores that are more important than others? Do you know the difference between consumer and lender credit scores? Do you know what information generates the credit scores? Do you know what ranges the different credit scores go to? I answer these questions in this and the following podcast.

Want to buy more house for less? This podcast is one that you need to see before you purchase a house. What can you do to qualify for more while paying less. This podcast shows you the numbers that are at stake – and what you can do to improve your purchasing power $10,000s -- and no lender or loan officer will ever show you. It reveals many hidden and unknown secrets of the mortgage process that can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. This podcast also reveals why shopping your mortgage with different lenders is NOT the best way to shop for the lowest interest rate and payment. This is one of the best podcasts to see when purchasing a home. It’s a game changer!

When you apply for and take out a mortgage, you are often left with a lot of unanswered questions. In this visual podcast, Al shows you how mortgage lenders determine your interest rate and loan fees based on your FICO® credit score and your down payment. This information is the backside of a mortgage and Al brilliantly walks through the steps and identifies the best questions to ask to make sure you secure the lowest payment possible. Mortgage lenders do not disclose this information. Now you can see how the system works and how your interest rate, and payment are determined. Welcome to The Drive to 850! 

There is one credit score that has critical importance to your mortgage. This particular credit score is graded on nine different credit score possibilities and impacts your fees, interest rate and monthly payment on most mortgages. Do you know how mortgage lenders determine that one credit score for your mortgage loan? This podcast is part one of a three-part series on improving your home purchasing power. Part 2 identifies how fees, interest rates and payments are determine by mortgage lenders from that one critical credit score. Part 3 shows the differences in payments and identifies why shopping around your mortgage has little impact on lowering interest rates and fees, and what steps you can take to get the "Best deal".

What is the biggest mistake most homebuyers make? It happens over and over again and costs them tens of thousands of dollars. Most homebuyers end up paying more when they don't need to. How?

Al Bingham, the author of The Road to 850, Advanced Strategies for Increasing Your FICO® Credit Scores, identifies the challenges many homebuyers face in trying to find the best loan program, with the lowest interest rate, payment and closing costs. All too often, prospective home buyers and most consumers are following consumer information that is inaccurate and unreliable. Too many consumers are left vulnerable to 'the complex mortgage process' and end up losing thousands and tens of thousands of dollars.  

Al walks through what is stake financially for homebuyers. Too often, homebuyers move too fast to identify the potential financial savings when taking out a mortgage. The information shared from Al is hardly ever provided from any mortgage lender, especially the online lenders. But you need to know it.

This podcast will give you great insight to your mortgage loan. Welcome, to The Drive to 850!