It's no secret that self-employed people have more hurdles to clear when applying for mortgages, car loans, credit cards, or other financing. In particular, mortgage application procedures have tightened since the mortgage crisis, and products such as low-documentation loans, which once enabled many self-employed freelancers to get mortgages, are no longer offered. In this economic climate, credit scores and credit ratings have become more important than ever, especially for mortgages for self-employed business owners.

Clean Up A Bad Credit Report

Manny credit reports are littered with small mistakes, with errors such as addresses where you've never lived and employers you've never heard of. This can be especially true for self-employed creatives who often spend time couch surfing when beginning careers in expensive cities, or who travel widely and use a friend's address for correspondence and bills. Unless there is negative information on a credit report, these small errors usually don't impact a credit score. But correct them anyway: Having accurate information on file prevents misunderstandings.

It's even more important to correct erroneous information such as a debt that doesn't exist or a legal judgment that never happened. These are the kinds of issues that can derail a credit application, and you'll need to write to each credit reporting company, and then you'll follow up to be the corrections have been made.