Best Practices and common errors in the credit application
The applicant’s name and address should match what is shown on their credit bureau and title. That same information should match across the credit application, loan documents and the home improvement contract.
Full Name
- Ask the applicant to enter their name as it appears on their credit bureau.
- If the applicant is not sure how it appears on their credit bureau, you can confirm using their Driver’s License or State ID.
Phone Number
- An applicant's phone number should not contain “555” or “999".
Social Security Number
- Ask applicant to enter their social security number slowly to avoid typos.
- Common mistake: The applicant does not enter or have a valid SSN and inputs their ITIN, which we do not accept. An ITIN begins with a 9.
Date of Birth
- Applicant's date of birth must match the date of birth on their Driver's License.
Yearly Income
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Applicant should enter their total gross annual household income.
- They should not enter income from previous years of employment.
- If the primary applicant is applying with a co-applicant, each person should only list their individual income in the income field.
Common General Issues:
- Input error where the applicant has input a special character in one of the fields.
- The applicant has forgotten to opt in/opt out of text messages. There is sometimes an error where the radio buttons do not populate to select an option. Please advise that they pay close attention to this area.
