• Determine The Requirements: To start with, individuals should determine their needs, study membership requirements, assess the rates and fees for desired account type. Also, know about the minimum balance requirements.
• Collect Important Information: Next, start gathering information that is required by the credit union for proving your identity. This includes tax identification number or Social Security Number, physical address, valid identification (driver’s license or passport), and other eligibility documents.
• Establish The Membership: Before opening an account with a credit union, the customers are required to establish the membership with it. Membership eligibility requires individuals to be a part of a specific non-profit organization or working, worshipping or attending school in a specific community, state, or city.
• Make A Deposit: After establishing membership with a credit union, members are required to make an initial deposit in order to open an account. This is a nominal amount and is required to project the availability of funds in the account. Most credit unions require members to maintain a minimum balance in their accounts.
• Use your Account: The last step of this process is to understand the terms and conditions associated with using your account. You can ask your employer to set up direct deposit services, make payments electronically and maintain a record of transactions.

Before considering applying for a home loan, there are a few things that need to be understood to get the loan you want. Carefully thinking about what might adversely affect your home loan can save you from a lot of hassles like irregularities in payment of installments, unpaid balance on credit cards etc.  Applying for a loan for home can be very stressing and therefore, after carefully analyzing your financial position and credit history should one consider applying for a home loan. Below are some of the do's and don'ts that must be followed to make the home loan process smoother.

Dos

• All the loan and debt payments should be made on time to keep your credit history clean. Not adhering to this rule deliberately reduces the credit score. This credit score determines what amount of home loan you will get if you manage to get one.
• Credit card payments can be missed but payments of installments of other mortgages like auto loan should be prioritized. It shows that you pay installments on time. After looking at the performance of similar mortgage loans, the credit scoring system will assign you the score. Credit card payments can be made later as they have fluctuating balances.
• To avoid raising any red flag, your credit card transactions should be normal like before and should not be stopped immediately.
• Any inconsistencies, inaccuracy and missing information should be removed from the credit reports to make it clean of negative data.
• Unpaid balance in credit cards should be paid off to the point that  balance ratio becomes less than 30%.

Don'ts

• Loan approval process can be impacted by your job stability. If you are constantly changing jobs and changing positioning in a company it might hurt the approval of your home loan.
• Any major purchases like car, lines of credit for furniture, expensive gadgets should be avoided. This also impacts your credit score and hamper your chances to get your loan approved.
• Purchase of clothes for family should be limited. Instead of buying clothes at every occasion, they can be bought at one or two occasions.
• A new credit card should not be opened. New credit card adds additional inquiry into your credit score which kills chances of getting a home loan.
• Previous credit card accounts should not be closed either. It has a negative impact on your credit score.
• Some people get a new loan while applying for a home loan. It looks bad with the underwriters and must be avoided.

Home loans applications can be rejected if the borrower doesn't comply with some of the tips mentioned above. No change in number, accounts, address should be made to avoid getting the applications rejected.

We, at Greater Central Texas Federal Credit Union, offer home loans at very low interest rates. Interested individuals can contact us at (254)-690-2274 for more information or visit us at 3305 E. Elms Rd., Killeen, TX  76542.