Mortgage Fraud Still Rampant – Forbes

If President Obama is serious about forming a new unit to prosecute financial and mortgage crimes, the first place he should look is at operators who are fleecing desperate homeowners. Scams that target these down-on-their-luck folks are rampant.
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BofA Continues To Fall In U.S. Mortgage Lender Rankings – Huffington Post

Jan 26 (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp was the fourth-biggest U.S. mortgage lender in the fourth quarter of 2011, continuing its descent in the rankings after it stopped buying loans made by smaller banks. The second-largest U.S. bank in 2008 …
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Mortgage refinancers rush to duck fee hike – Bankrate.com

Mortgage rates remained near record lows this week as a wave of refinancers rushed to beat higher mortgage fees that could soon make the most common type of mortgage slightly more expensive for borrowers. 30 year fixed rate mortgage – 3 month …
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Obama Creates Unit to Probe Mortgage Misconduct by Banks – Businessweek

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama’s mortgage investigation unit will probe bank conduct that created the housing bubble and bust, including the packaging of loans into securities, the New York Attorney General said. The president …
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Outlook for Mortgage Market: Feels Like ‘Groundhog Day’ – Wall Street Journal

LAS VEGAS—The American Securitization Forum returned here after a two-year hiatus for an annual meeting with little of the optimism for a quick turnaround in the market for mortgage-backed securities that had marked previous events. Instead of …
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Cheapest ever ten year mortgage – Daily Telegraph

Homebuyers and homeowners looking to take advantage of rock bottom Bank Rate can now get the cheapest-ever ten year mortgage at 3.99pc. Norwich & Peterborough Building Society announced that the rate, available to those who have a 25pc deposit or 25pc …
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When Credit Scores Rule

I think it’s about time that we should watch closely on the credit score system, as we should have done before. Credit scores aren’t new stuff. When Fair Isaacs & Co delivered to the public the FICO system in 1970, it wasn’t universally used until 1980 where it began to make an impact to how a credit should be awarded on an individual. Though the algorithm that computes the Credit Score is a proprietary trade secret of Fair Isaac, the FICO score did make a tremendous impact on the world of banking and economics. Before, investors and bankers watch individuals as walking assets, now they refer individuals as three digit credit scores.

When did we allow this to happen? Being judged by a credit score is tad bit unfair, don’t you think? After all, the policies of maintaining a good credit score are quite bothersome. In case you don’t know, having a credit account on the limit can considerably damage your credit scores. So we question the use of having a credit limit in the first place. Financial analyst says that maintaining a strict 35% on a credit account can help your credit score. In short, you can buy a 1000 square meter lot and use only 350 square meters or building 100ft of storage to use a 35ft room. Wasted lot, wasted space.

Credit scores are now being referred creatively more than you could think. So much for the time when all you have to do to lodge on an apartment is sign through a couple of documents. Now landlords can put you under unsympathetic scrutiny by the means of your credit score, thus predicting how often you will show up with your monthly rent.

The apartments I can take, but what about job hunting? What made employers nowadays ride with the bandwagon of credit scores? Education and work experience plus history is non factor for your credentials, instead it is credit scores.

When someone applies for a loan, it’s been a long tradition to check credit history. That’s how credit scores evolve, particularly the FICO score. But when we’re talking of secured loans other things go first priority. One such is the collateral. One problem though, even if you apply with a collateral, it’s your FICO score that will still dictate your interest rate. So a poor credit score will surely hurt you in many ways.

One funny thing though, and it is a case of consideration. Credit scores are provided when you apply for them. But the actual computation remains hidden. And except if have a flair for numbers; you can spot right away the errors. Identity theft operates in this weakness. In fact, cases of identity theft have risen significantly nowadays. And in an attempt to contain these thefts, the very people that provide the credit scores offer protection for the said number.