ChoiceDATA

FAQs - ChoiceDATA Mortgage Services

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:19:00 GMT

What are Tri-Merge credit reports and how are they generated?

Tri-merge credit reports are essentially three separate credit files that have been merged together into an easy to read, single report. Commonly pulled by lenders or brokers when evaluating larger credit applications, like a mortgage, these reports provide the quickest, most comprehensive look into an individual’s personal credit history with each major bureau: Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.

What are FICO® scores and what do they do?

Simply put, a FICO® score is a number that predicts a person’s likelihood to repay credit obligations, including those accounts held by other lenders. FICO® scores are calculated individually for each major bureau, meaning a person can have up to three different FICO® scores. FICO® Scores can range from 300 to 850, and most US Consumers fall somewhere between 660 and 724. Most lenders develop their own risk standards when making credit-based decisions, so the impact that FICO® scores will have on a lending decision or interest rate may vary based on how the lender considers other factors such as employment history, annual earnings, total debt to income ratios, etc…

How can FICO® scores be improved?

FICO® Scores consider five basic categories of information when calculating a score, and assign a weighted average to each category. “Payment History” and “Amounts Owed” make up two of the five categories, but represent 65% of the total score. In other words, paying accounts on time and managing your overall level of debt are critical first steps towards maintaining a high FICO® score. Please visit http://www.scoreinfo.org/ for much more information.

Are ChoiceDATA tri-merge reports compatible with many lenders?

Yes! Our technology provider, Sharperlending, has been recognized as a top technology provider in the mortgage industry and allows our customers to integrate directly with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and most LOS platforms on the market. If you have questions about access to a specific lender or underwriting system, please contact us at sales@choicedata.com.

How long does it take ChoiceDATA to obtain updated trade-line/account information on tri-merge credit reports?

Most of the time, we return updated account information to a loan officer within 1-2 hours after receiving a request. Our staff is experienced at reaching out to creditors to obtain a verification of mortgage or updated balance amount, and treat all requests with the urgency our customers expect. If you require trade line updates that reflect at the credit repository level (i.e., Rapid Re-score), those changes typically require 48-72 hours for the bureaus to process.

Do tools exist that help loan officer’s offer guidance to improve their applicant’s FICO® Scores?

Yes! While many of our customers like to call our support team to ask specific score-related questions, our systems do provide loans officers a suite of products from CreditXpert™ that offer the ability to scan all three bureau files for potential errors, areas of improvement, determine score improvement potential, and much more. Please contact us for more information!

Will ChoiceDATA tri-merge reports integrate into my LOS, like Calyx Point?

Yes! Our systems integrate with most Loan Original Software (LOS) platforms on the market. In fact, many systems even allow our users to order our reports directly within the software, by choosing “ACRANet” from the credit vendor drop-down list. Please contact us if you have a question about a specific LOS!

Does ChoiceDATA offer bundling services for other products a loan officer needs to close a loan?

Yes! Through our technology provider, Sharperlending, we are proud to offer our customers direct access to virtually all products and services they need to close loans for their borrowers, including: Flood Certifications, AVMs, IRS 4506-T services, Title services, Appraisals, and more. Let us know if you have any questions on our ability to provide a specific product or offer access to a preferred service provider.

If my lender requires I pull credit through another provider, can I still use ChoiceDATA for Flood Certifications, 4506-T requests, Appraisals, or other products?

Absolutely! While some of our credit related products require that you access a tri-merge report through our system, many products can be ordered as stand-alone products and we would be happy to work with your company to offer only the products you need.

If you have a question about our products or services that you don't see answered here, please feel free to ask us using the contact link above or by sending an email to sales@choicedata.com.

Is your financial institution impacted by recent ALLL regulatory guidance?

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:16:00 GMT

On January 31, 2012, Federal Regulators published supervisory guidance that impacted the Allowances for Loan and Lease Loss (ALLL) practices for financial institutions throughout the United States. As an Equifax Sales Agent, ChoiceDATA is able to offer combined consumer credit and collateral valuation solutions that will enable our impacted customers to maintain regulatory compliance relating to this new guidance, and mitigate risk within their respective portfolios.

Our solutions are designed to streamline the acquisition of property and credit data during a portfolio review, and our goal is to help customers create the most accurate allowance for loan and lease losses, improve efficiency, and reduce overall vendor management costs.

If your financial institution is planning to perform a portfolio review in the near future or update your collateral valuation data, please contact us at sales@choicedata.com and we will be happy to discuss how our solutions may fit your plans.

For more information on the supervisory guidance published January 31, 2012, please visit one of the following links:

FDIC: http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2012/pr12015a.html

NCUA: http://www.ncua.gov/News/Pages/NW2012JointReleaseJuniorLiens.aspx

Planning for growth in 2012? We can help.

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:05:00 GMT

Growing your business isn't just about finding new customers, it involves finding and retaining the right customers. We have the solutions and experience necessary to help you launch more effective marketing campaigns in today’s highly-competitive marketplace.

Most forms of advertising provide you the ability to broadcast or deliver messages to a diverse group of individuals, many of whom may very well never be a candidate for your products or services. With our marketing solutions available from Equifax, we can help you better define which individuals in your marketplace are best suited for your offers, ensure the credit quality of individuals receiving your offers, and ultimately improve your project response rates and ROI.

Helping clients meet their goals is our top priority. Contact us today and we’ll be happy to discuss your plans for 2012, and determine how our marketing solutions can help you achieve success.

Equifax Commercial Information Solutions

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:45:00 GMT

Whether you find yourself lending to a business, buying from it or selling to it, better intelligence can make a big difference in the growth and success of your company. Through Equifax’s exclusive partnership with the Small Business Financial Exchange (www.sbfe.org), we are able to provide our customers best-in-class commercial credit data, business linkage, and firmographics on over 24 million businesses throughout the United States.

When it comes to commercial credit requests, one of our primary goals is to help protect your company from financial losses. With accurate, relevant information from Equifax, we provide you the ability and confidence to help answer four important questions when making a commercial credit decision:

1. Is the business likely to survive?
2. How much credit can we safely extend?
3. Will we be paid?
4. When will we be paid?

We are able to help you answer these questions immediately and allow you to extend the most appropriate credit offer, by providing:

The most extensive credit-focused repository of business records - More than 24 million U.S. businesses and 2.3 million Canadian businesses.
Banking and leasing payment information - through an exclusive relationship with the Small Business Financial Exchange (www.sbfe.org).
Coverage of businesses of all sizes - with exceptionally thorough data on small businesses not available through any other commercial credit organization.
Credit folders sourced from trusted, proprietary accounts receivable data reported by credit grantors - our folders are not created from business subject-reported data, providing the extra benefit of additional fraud deterrent.
Easy-to-read, easy-to-understand formats for our credit information, enabling you to make decisions quickly and accurately.
Formal quality-focused coalitions with our data contributors, such as the SBFE Data Quality sub-group, where quality standards are created and emphasized among the peer groups who use the credit information we deliver.
Protection of your data from marketing use by other companies.

For more information or if you would like to discuss how Equifax's Commercial Solutions may benefit your company, please contact us using the contact button above, by emailing sales@choicedata.com, or by calling 888-758-6341.

Credit Score Question: "Should my borrower pay off AND close their credit card account?

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:48:00 GMT

We receive questions on a regular basis regarding credit scores, and felt it might be beneficial to share some of these Q&A's here on the blog. Please note that our findings are not scientific and are solely the result of information we've obtained from FICO®(www.fico.com) and our experience working with credit scores on a regular basis.

One of the more popular questions we're asked is: "Should my borrower pay off his/her credit card accounts AND close them?"

Like so many other score-related questions, the quick answer is "it depends." For the purposes of this question we will not address specific underwriting conditions or guidelines, and will focus solely on the effects to the credit score itself. In short, a FICO® score considers more than just the balance owed in its calculations. Therefore, if the goal is to increase a borrower's score as much as possible, these additional factors should be considered before making the decision to close the account(s).

According to MyFICO (www.myfico.com), a FICO® credit score is broken down into five categories, detailed below:

After reviewing this chart, it's easier to understand the different ways in which a single credit card account can potentially impact a FICO® Score. "Amounts owed" make up 30% of a person's score, therefore paying off a credit card balance would almost certainly be considered a positive action. Closing the account, however, might then negatively affect the score as it could reduce the remaining types of credit in use, and/or reduce the length of the individual's credit history.

MyFICO has a great breakdown of what's included in a person's FICO® score, including several other basics on scores and credit reports. Please visit the link below for more information, and feel free to contact our office if you have any other questions.

http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/WhatsInYourScore.aspx

Are you in compliance with the new Dodd-Frank Act?

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 14:56:00 GMT

It's been more than a month since the new Dodd-Frank regulations took effect, and many businesses and financial institutions are still working to ensure their compliance. Do you still have questions on what disclosures have changed and when you are required to disclose this new information? Let us help! According to the final rules published by the Federal Reserve & FTC: "If a credit score is used in setting material terms of credit or in taking adverse action, the statute requires creditors to disclose credit scores and related information to consumers in notices under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA."

More specifically, the rules state: "If a credit score is used in making the credit decision, the creditor must disclose that score and certain information relating to the credit score."

If you still have questions on how Dodd-Frank or any other recent regulatory change impacts the disclosures you are required to provide to your applicants, we can provide the information you need and will be happy to discuss these potential changes for your business. Please call us at 888-758-6341, or send an email to sales@choicedata.com.

Welcome!

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:10:00 GMT

Thank you for visiting the new CHOICEDATA.COM. As you might have noticed, we’ve made significant changes from our old site and are excited at the opportunity to provide more meaningful information to our customers in a way we haven’t been able to in the past. Moving forward, we plan to update this blog on a regular basis with a variety of important topics, legislative news, and product announcements, and ask that you visit often to keep up to date on matters important to your business.

There may be times when we are unable to share complete details surrounding a sensitive or confidential topic, but we will share as much information as allowed and will take whatever steps necessary to provide you with the most up to date information. If you are searching for posts on a specific topic, please use the expanded search features to the right. We encourage any questions or comments if you have them, and don’t hesitate to email us if you’d like to request a topic important to your business or industry.

Thank you again for visiting our site, we look forward to serving you.