You can find out:

your credit
your loan options
specific lenders right for you
debt payoffs
Your Credit

You can get a copy of your credit report online. You can challenge errors on your credit report.

Making sure your credit report is accurate is a basic first step. It can take some work. There may be errors on your credit report that are unfairly lowering your credit. Every error can hurt your credit.

Lenders do not simply separate "good credit" from "bad credit" in determining what interest rates to offer. They rank people according to different credit baskets and offer them interest rates on that basis. For example, people with a mortgage rate of between 600 - 640 may be offered the same rate, and people between 500-540 may have the same rate offered.

Your Loan Options

Raising your credit score, such as increasing it from 540 to 580, may still help you in several ways. The better your credit rate the better your rate will be in general and the more loan options you will have. Lenders are generally willing to lend more to borrowers with higher credit. You may be only able to cash our during a refinance a certain level if your score is 540, but be able to cash out much more if your score is 580.

Specific Lenders

There are many lenders and mortgage brokers that work with people who have adverse credit. Some brokers or lender representatives may help you understand your credit report and point out additional steps you may take to help your credit score.

Some lenders have little or no options for bad credit borrowers. There are thousands of lenders, however, so there are still many loan options for people with bad credit.

Debt Payoffs

Some lenders will require some or all consumer debts to be paid off as part of a refinance.

For some borrowers this is fine, but for others this may not make sense. People may have bad debt on their credit report that is not really theirs. For example, they may have co-signed on a sibling's car loan that the sibling is not paying properly. These late payments on the car loan will show up on your credit report, and the lender may require that the car loan be paid off as part of your refinance (this happens!). You end up paying for your sibling's car, which may not be a lot of fun for some people.