Current Mortgage Rates

Monday, October 06, 2008



  • Pay your bills on time Payment history is the single most important factor in determining your credit score, making up 35% of the total. Since recent history carries more weight than what happened five years ago, getting in the habit of making on-time payments is an incredibly powerful way to start rebuilding your credit rating. Likewise, delinquent payments can devastate your score. Missing even one payment can knock 50 to 100 points off a good score. Skipping payments for a single month on all your bills can lower your number from a respectable 707 to the dismal range of 562 to 632, according to the credit score estimator at Bankrate.com. The simulator lets you estimate your credit score and see the impact of various credit behaviors on your score.
  • Monitor your credit report and dispute errors: Errors in your report will usually translate into a low score.
  • Consolidating balances: or moving debt around may make for one easy payment, but this can have an adverse effect on your score. Shuffling of balances could be especially harmful to your score if you close established accounts and open new accounts to consolidate your debt.
  • Old accounts: (even those you haven't used for a long time) can help your score. Scoring models look at not just how to use credit today but also how long you have used credit.
  • Don't open a number of new credit cards that you don't need: New accounts will lower your average account age, which could actually lower your score by up to 10 points.
  • Have credit cards - but manage them responsibly: In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and making timely payments) will raise your score. Someone with no credit cards, for example, tends to be higher risk than someone who has managed credit cards responsibly.



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Current Mortgage Rates*

Loan Type
National Average
30-yr. fixed6.12%
30-yr. fixed jumbo7.62%
15-yr. fixed5.88%
15-yr. fixed jumbo7.12%
7/1 ARM6.38%
5/1 ARM6.25%
3/1 ARM6.00%
1-yr. ARM5.50%
1-yr. LIBOR ARM6.25%
10/1 ARM8.25%
40-yr. fixed7.12%
*Mortgage Rates Updated: 10/05/2008