How to qualify for a mortgage loan after a recent bankruptcy

If you have just filed for bankruptcy and are a homeowner, you will be able to rebuild your credit ratings by refinancing your mortgage. There are several ways by which you can qualify for the best mortgage deals while you are improving your credit ratings.

Once you have finalized for bankruptcy, you will need to wait for at least six months before you are able to refinance your mortgage. The process of rebuilding your credit ratings will get much easier after you get qualified for a new mortgage after a recent bankruptcy. The first two years after filing for bankruptcy may be quite difficult but afterwards, while you are working on improving your credit, you will be able to get decent deals from potential lenders. Once this is done, you can refinance your home and get better interest rate.

• Clean Up Your Credit

If a bankruptcy is showing up on your credit report, then you will have to overcome this financial hurdle over the period of time. It will be a tough time to Compare Loans, Credit Card, Compare Mortgages because most of the companies will not be willing to risk their finances. You need to work very hard on improving your credit ratings by making timely payments. Get a secured credit card with a bank and make small purchases on that card. Make sure that you are paying the balances in full and on time so that your creditor reports your payment history to the credit bureaus.

Shop for the best mortgage offer: Once you have established a good credit, you will now be able to shop for good mortgage deals. Browse through the internet and find the best lender in terms on interest rates, terms, and fees. It is very important to understand the terms and conditions before signing up for any mortgage deal. If you are not aware, you will end up paying a lot of money just in high interests and fees.

While shopping for different mortgage deals, most of the homeowners sign up on the basis of interest rates only. Just checking out the current APR is not enough. There are many other fees that come tucked in with the loan package. Some of the loan agreements have closing costs or hidden fees. If you need to make an informed decision and decide the best loan offer, examine the good faith estimate and compare all aspects of the loan.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act under the Consumer Credit Protection Act

The FDCPA was initiated in 1978 as a statute of law under the CCPA. Congress passed it as a law to protect and safeguard the consumers from any harassment by debt collectors. It is often reported that the consumers are more harassed by the collection agencies when a certain creditor hires or sells off the account to an outside third party. They start receiving harassing phone calls at home, place of work as well as their cell phones. Many people get furious by such extreme illegal collection tactics and file for bankruptcy. The congress had to take actions and that’s why the FDCPA laws came into effect. The biggest advantage of the FDCPA is that it allows consumers to dispute the validity of the debt and get all the required information from the collection agency when they try to recover money by false and misleading information. This was not possible before the FDCPA laws came into effect.

Debt collectors pretend to show themselves as “Factoring company” or “collection agency” so that they can create the scare among consumers and immune themselves from the FDCPA rules. A debt collector is a very normal person hired by the original creditor to recover the payments from the consumer when a certain account is past due. They don’t have any special powers and the consumers don’t need to be scared of them. Debt collectors will usually use two communication methods when they are collecting on a past debt. They will try to reach the consumer either by mail or phone.

• FDCPA laws apply on the following types of debts:

- Auto loans
- Medical care debts
- Mortgages
- Credit card debt
- Retail business loans

• The FDCPA does NOT apply to the following types of debts:

- Agricultural or farming debts
- Business debts

If a collection agency is violating the FDCPA laws repeatedly, you can sue them by pressing charges and get compensated up to the extent of damages. You can take legal actions against them within 1 year from the date they started doing the harassment. If you are able to prove that the debt collector has violated the laws, you will get the following compensation:

1) Cost of actual damages
2) Attorney fees and costs incurred by the debtor.
3) Additional damages of 1% of debtor's net worth, for a maximum of $500,000.