Just When You Thought It Was Safe

MetroBoston, Publication Date August 8, 2012
By Attorney George Warshaw

By now most of you know that there exists a secret society of people cloistered far underground, never seeing the light of day, walking hunched over from computer to computer yelling “see that 30 day late, gotcha now!”, who control your credit score and hence your destiny.

It’s bad enough that three competing credit reporting agencies put their own spin on your creditworthiness and some gnome then “scores” your credit like a Vegas Bookmaker, but now there’s a new referee in town who will have even more to say.

On July 10^th, the credit scoring gnome “FICO” joined with CoreLogic (a data mining firm) to design a wholly new score specifically for mortgage lenders and borrowers. The FICO Mortgage Score Powered by CoreLogic is based on information provided by CoreLogic in a detailed report called the CoreScore Credit Report.

The report grabs information that Experian, TransUnion and Equifax don’t consider. CoreLogic has access to information about you that others don’t.

Pay your rent late or miss an alimony or support payment (how would they know?) and you could have a problem getting a loan. Supposedly if you dispute an inaccurate item on the CoreScore report, the disputed item won’t be held against you.

Let’s see how that works out!

 © 2012 George Warshaw.

George Warshaw is a real estate attorney and author. He represents buyers and sellers of homes and condos in Massachusetts, and prepares wills, trusts, and estate plans. George welcomes new clients and questions at metro@warshawlaw.com.