Most mortgage news over the past months have conveyed that lenders are moving from one extreme to another in their loan approval process. If you're thinking about applying for a loan any time in the near future, you should be on top of your credit score and taking steps to polish it for the lender's desk. Not only do you want to be approved for a loan, but you want one with lowest interest rates possible. To find out what kind of score you need and how to boost your number just read more.

Experts say that you must have good credit to qualify for a loan today— a score of 680 will get you a loan in some places but it may have to be as high as 720, and the magic number is becoming increasingly higher all the time.The first step is knowing your score to evaluate how much improvement is needed, and you can get your free annual credit report here. The report is free but your FICO score costs about $15.

Look for errors on your report and send any complaints in writing to the credit bureau. These are the three biggest factors that go into your credit score: your history of paying your bills on time; your credit to debt ratio, which is the difference between the amount of credit available and how much you're using; and how long you've been using credit and managing it responsibly.

When your credit score is generated, the credit bureau will also provide a list of different two-digit numbers called reason codes. You should get your score from all three nationwide credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) because the data they collect may be slightly different and the reason codes on your reports may vary from one bureau to another.

The codes are meant to tell you — and lenders — why your score is less than perfect and messages include things like delinquency (late payments) or amount owed on accounts too high. Use these codes to your benefit — they tell you the most important points about where you need to begin on the road to improving your credit.

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