FHA Loans & Credit Scores

by Peter G. Miller
June 14th, 2007

If you look through the FHA Handbook you can find an interesting omission: The term “credit score” does not appear.

What the FHA does want are credit reports. As the HUD explains, “the minimum credit report required by FHA is a “three repository merged” credit report (TRMCR). A Residential Mortgage Credit Report (RMCR) from an independent consumer-reporting agency also may be used. One report is required for each borrower, or a joint report may be obtained for a married couple.”

Because credit reports are important in the FHA borrowing process you should take a look at your report several months before seeking a loan (in case there are factual errors or out-of-date items to clean up).

Where can you get your credit report? Where can you get it for free?

See AnnualCreditReport.com. This is a site set up by the three major credit reporting agencies (CRAs) under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act). You can get your credit report online and without charge — and no one on this site can require that you enroll in a credit “protection” plan.


This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 4:12 am and is filed under FHA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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