Credit Bureaus and Mortgage Ratings
Credit reports can make or break your chances of getting financing. Yet, for most people, their single biggest account never gets reported on their bureau: their mortgage.
It's kind of illogical because your credit score is supposed to be an accurate rating of your willingness and ability to pay your bills. Yet, without your biggest bill on the bureau, credit scores are arguably incomplete.
As of today, very few lenders report to the bureaus according to Equifax. For example, BMO reports its mortgages to the bureaus but Scotia and RBC do not. Virtually no non-bank lenders report either. However, a number of credit unions do.
This will all likely change down the road. Scotiabank is one of a group of lenders who are considering reporting mortgages to the bureaus. Scotia's Ann DeRabbie says, "We are working with the industry on this and there is some testing going on, but nothing that would directly affect consumers at this point." DeRabbie says, "It is still [in the] very early days" of planning.
That said, despite most mortgages not being included in your score, don't think you can miss a payment without other lenders finding out. Mortgage lenders will sometimes contact your previous lender to get a "mortgage rating" on you--especially if your credit is not perfect. Your mortgage rating will tell them exactly how well you've made your mortgage payments.
Often, a bad mortgage rating can kill a deal. We've had more than one client tell us they make payments on time without fail, only to see a bad mortgage rating void their commitment at the last minute.
