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Personally, I have had very good experiences with Countrywide Home Loans. Their customer service is great, it has really improved over the years and their loan officers are very low pressure. They get paid off a flat fee and so they are interested in getting you the best rate and giving you the best experienced so you will come back again and refer your friends. Even the front-line customer service representatives are very helpful and very well trained.

When looking into your Countrywide home loan, there are some industry jargon with which you should probably make yourself familiar. There are really two kinds of Countrywide home loan: a fixed rate or variable rate loan. Fixed rate means that the interest rate and monthly payments will stay the same throughout the life of your loan. A fixed rate Countrywide home loan will generally last for 10, 15, 20, or 30 years depending on what best works for you.

The loan rate may also be fixed for a period of time and then become variable after that (where the interest rate and payments change month to month depending on the market). This is what is called an adjustable rate mortgage or ARM. You should talk to a representative to figure out which Countrywide home loan would work best for you.

Like I mentioned above, do your homework before you talk to anybody, know what your FICO score is, look at sites like www.bankrate.com so you’re up-to-date on current home mortgage loan rates and industry trends. Determine ahead of time which loan is for you whether it’s an interest only loan, a fixed-rate loan, or a cash out refinance

As for home equity loans, look for open end. Which allow you to take as much equity out against the home as you need, as often as you want. Which is very helpful for all borrowers.

When it comes to personal finances, your credit history plays a huge role. If you want to apply for a mortgage, for instance, your FICO credit score is going to be on of the big factors considered by lenders when it comes to approving or rejecting your application.

So, just what is a FICO score? FICO is an abbreviation for Fair, Isaacs and Company, the business that came up with the calculation. Your FICO score reflects a calculation of various elements on your credit score ranking from the type of debt you have to payment histories.

If you’ve every bought a car or home, you probably think you know everthing you need to about how a FICO score works. You don’t. Why? Because the recent changes to the calculation change the way the game works.

So, how exactly is FICO changing? Is FICO still, well, FICO or is it something else? Well, it is still the dominant credit calculation used by lenders, but the factors involved in coming up with the score have changed.

FICO has traditionally been criticized for incorrectly weighing demarkations on credit scores. For instance, a person that was late on one payment was hurt in their FICO score almost as much as person who missed four payments.

The restructured FICO calculation corrects this. People missing one payment are punished much less, but those with multiple late or missed payments are hammered. In short, the restructured FICO calculation recognizes we’re all human.

Authorized user accounts have been removed entirely from FICO score calculations in the new methodology. These “piggyback” accounts occurred where a person with good credit would back another person, often a parent and child relationship.

Time is on my side said the old song. Well, it really is in the new FICO. The longer you have credit that is positive, the more it impacts your credit score. If you are a parent, establishing credit for your kids is a wise move. Just hide the credit cards.

From a financial perspective, our life is pretty much defined by our credit score. If you need to borrow money, your score is going to be an issue. Given this fact, it makes sense to know what it is before the ball gets rolling.

You go into a lender’s office prepared to apply for and receive a loan. After all, you’ve done your homework, you’ve pulled your credit reports and you know what your credit scores are–you even got one score from each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax. Experian, and TransUnion. You are shocked when your loan is denied, or maybe you were approved, but the interest rate is much higher than you anticipated. How can that be you say? My credit score is good, I know I checked. Maybe it’s not as good as you think. It all depends on there you got it and what kind of credit score it is. 

The fact is there are several different credit scoring methods. Credit scores calculated from the same credit reports can differ substantially from credit scoring method to credit scoring method. So how can you ever know what your credit score really is? Well, luckily, 75% percent of lenders use FICO scores exclusively and you can purchase FICO scores yourself–you just have to know where to go. (www.myfico.com) 

FICO credit scoring is a numeric method of scoring your credit worthiness developed by Fair Isaac and Company. Your credit score is a number between 300 and 850 that tells creditors how likely you are to pay your bills. The higher the number, the better it looks to potential lenders and creditors. 

The three major credit bureaus each have their own version of the FICO score: Equifax uses the Beacon system, TransUnion uses the Empirica system, and Experian uses the Experian/Fair Isaac system. Despite each credit bureaus’ use of their own versions, all systems are based the original Fair Isaac FICO scoring method, so each credit score calculated with these systems are generally called FICO scores. However, although most lenders do use FICO scoring, some lenders may have their own scoring methods. 

There is only one place where you can get your FICO score from all three bureaus and that is at www.myfico.com. If you order your credit score from anywhere else, again be aware that these scores are “FAKOs” (or “fake”) and can differ considerably from your FICO credit scores. 

Adding to the confusion is the credit bureaus themselves. Recently, Experian revealed that the national average credit score of its consumers is 678. This is very misleading to the average consumer. When you buy your credit report and score directly from Experians website, you are getting what they call the “PLUS Score,” which is NOT a FICO score, and is NOT used by lenders anywhere. (Equifax is the exception–you can buy your FICO score directly from them at their website; however, the only place to get all three scores together is at www.myfico.com.) The 678 PLUS Score reported by Experian is actually the average of consumers’ PLUS Scores, not their FICO Scores. 

Clearly, the PLUS Score (and all Non-FICO scores) are useless. Not only that, but such hype misleads consumers into purchasing their PLUS Score thinking that they are getting the same credit score that their lender will use. Non-FICO scores are worthless not matter what the credit bureaus or any website selling non-FICO scores claim. Even a few points difference in your credit score can mean confronting the reality of the loss of thousands of dollars out of your pocket–a loss that you probably didn’t plan for. The next time you want the most accurate credit score available, do yourself a favor and get the industry standard: the FICO credit score.

For more financial information, visit All-About-Finances.com