The relationship between your credit score and the loan you need
If you’re interested in
applying for a loan in the near future, you may be wondering about the relationship between credit scores and loans. Not only does your credit score impact the type of loan you can receive, loans also affect your credit score. The following information will help you understand more about the ways that loans and credit scores impact each other.
Credit score affects loan interest rates
When you need funds for a large purchase, such as tuition, a new vehicle or a home, it’s important to understand all of the factors that will be important during the loan application process. Your credit score is one of the most important of these factors. If you already know your credit score, you’re one step ahead of many people, but you still have to know exactly what it means.
“Today’s economy runs on credit,” states Erin Peterson from Bankrate. “Good credit can be the make-or-break detail that determines whether you’ll get a mortgage, car loan or student loan.”
Your credit score represents your financial history and paints a picture of how responsibly you have used your credit. Lenders use this information to assess how likely you are to repay a loan. If you have a low credit score, lenders fear that you may not be able to pay off your loan, which will cost them money. In order to balance this risk, lenders offer people with lower credit scores loans with higher interest rates.
“If you have a higher mortgage rate because of a low credit score, it means you’ll be paying that much more in interest in the end,” according to Elizabeth Rosen, Banks.com contributor. “Thus, a strong credit rating can help secure a low mortgage rate, which gives you lower monthly mortgage payments overall.” This is why it’s important to pay attention to your credit if you need to secure a loan.
Loans also affect your credit score
Your credit score has a big impact on your ability to get a loan, but loans also affect your credit score. The application process itself can have an impact on your credit score because each time a lender checks your credit, your score goes down a few points.
“That’s because 10% of your credit score comes from the number of credit-based applications you make,” according to About.com guide LaToya Irby.
Fortunately, this won’t hurt your ability to shop around to find the best loan because there is a grace period during which multiple lenders can check your credit without your score going down. This means that the second lender you speak with will see the same credit score as the first, so you have the opportunity to receive competitive offers.
“Even after you’re done rate shopping, the loan inquiries are treated as a single application rather than several,” explains Irby. “That window of time is between 14 and 45 days depending on which credit score the lender checking your score is using.”
Any loans that you have now can also impact your credit score. You can improve your credit score and prospects for future loans by making payments for any current debt on time. Irby notes that “payment history is 35% of your credit score. That’s more than any other credit score factor.” This also means that paying late or defaulting can seriously harm your credit, so be sure to take your current financial responsibilities seriously.
The balance of your current loans also affects your credit; you gain credit points as you pay back the balance.
“The larger the gap between your original loan amount and your current loan balance, the better your credit score will be,” states Irby.
Your credit score and loans go hand-in-hand. Good credit can help you receive a good loan, and good loan repayment patterns can help you achieve good credit. The steps you take today to repay your loans responsibly and take care of your credit will boost your ability to get a great loan in the future.
Used with Permission. Published by IMN Bank Adviser Includes copyrighted material of IMakeNews, Inc. and its suppliers.