their pivotal role, often feeling at the mercy of other players. This is you. LENDERS. Lenders, and institutions lending money, adhere to rules that have been in place for more than 500 years—borrowing at low rates and lending the same money at higher rates. Becoming a professional borrower is essential to gaining respect and navigating the Funding Game successfully. CREDIT BUREAUS. Consumer reporting agencies, known as credit bureaus, collect and report borrower behavior, shaping their credit profiles over 90 years. Understanding their role is crucial to comprehending how your financial behavior is perceived. FICO. Fair Issac Corporation (FICO), also known as “the evaluator,” has been assessing borrower fundability for more than 70 years. FICO interprets and scores your credit data, influencing lenders’ decisions.
approval. Lenders prioritize credit behavior and performance data.
they will give you that money. Then, they keep an eye on how you use that money and even tell others about it. Your credit score is just a tiny part of the whole funding game. The most important thing is how you’re handling the money and whether your behavior indicates high risk or low risk. That’s what determines whether you get the money you need or not.
HOW THE GAME IS PLAYED
When you borrow money, it’s like playing a game with the bank. Here’s how it works: When you ask the bank for a loan or line of credit, they check your borrower behavior history using FICO risk assessment software. This software looks at your borrower behaviors at that moment, not just your score. Most people think the number they hear as their “credit score” is the most important thing, but that’s not true. Your credit score profile is actually the last priority after the software evaluates your identity profile, your financial profile, your banking profile and your credit behavior profile. What’s really wild is that in as little as 30 seconds, using something called Automatic Approvals, the bank can determine how you’re treating money today and how you’ve treated it in the past. It can determine if you’re a good lending risk or a bad one—just like that. If there’s something that seems even a little off, the bank software might decide the bank needs to take a closer look, which is called manual underwriting. This is when a person, not a computer, looks at your borrower profile. When that happens, your approval or denial is at the mercy of the banker. THE BIG SECRET Here’s the big secret: What the bank cares about most is not how high your credit is scored but rather how you behave with money. If the bank thinks you’re good with money, they’ll say yes, and
You can’t win the game if you don’t know the rules! •
MERRILL CHANDLER
Merrill Chandler, a personal and business credit pioneer and co-founder of Lexington Credit Repair Law Firm, became dissatisfied more than 30 years ago with the ineffective results of credit repair. He discovered that getting approved for personal or business credit did not rely on a credit score but, in fact, was the result of having “fundable” borrower behaviors. With the right strategies, a borrower can “optimize” their financial behaviors to become highly fundable, increasing the frequency and amount of their credit approvals. He co-founded Get Fundable! to help real estate and business entrepreneurs nationwide grow their businesses the way they want, resulting in his students and clients becoming more fundable and getting more than $250 million in funding. If you want to learn more, check out www.getfundable.com.
THE GAME
The Funding Game involves a dynamic interaction among the players. When a borrower applies, the lender seeks data and evaluation from the credit bureaus, incorporating FICO software to grade the borrower’s credit profile in real time. Contrary to common belief, there isn’t a single static credit score. Multiple scores exist based on the FICO software used for evaluation. Automatic underwriting, which takes 30 seconds to two minutes, follows. If your data align with lender guidelines, you are approved. Manual underwriting occurs if red flags are triggered. Your credit score, although important, is only one of many factors for
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