Best Eco-Friendly Lightbulbs

For the best eco-friendly light bulb, consider how and where it will be used in your home.

Compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have improved dramatically and are getting even better. You can choose a light bulb that makes everything look as nature intended and still get energy savings.

The best LED bulbs can cost $10 to $70, but considering that they last for up to 25 years, they are a worthy investment.

When selecting a bulb, lighting expert Michael Hsu says considering how it will be used makes a big difference. His recommendations:

For Recessed lighting, Hsu uses the Sylvania Ultra Professional Series LED. It’s exceptionally good at highlighting colors when illuminating people, plants and furniture. It works well in track lighting ($33 to $70 at sylvania.com).

For a shaded floor lamp, the Phillips L Prize LED bulb sends light in all directions ($50 at usa.lighting.phillips.com). The GE Reveal CFL does the same and has very pleasing light (from $8 at gelighting.com).

For task lamps, which cast focused light, LED’s are a good match and don’t produce as much heat as incandescents. Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Hsu likes the Sylvania Ultra Professional Series PAR20 ($33 at sylvania.com), because it renders beautiful colors.

For mood lighting, the GE Energy Efficient Reveal Clear halogen is about 30 percent more efficient than an incandescent, and the light quality is crisp and white. It creates a cozy pool of light ($5 at gelighting.com) and has a standard light bulb base.

The halogen, a form of incandescent, is the least efficient, but its light closely resembles that of a traditional bulb and creates ambience.

The Complicated World of Credit Scores

Lenders use different credit scores for different purchases.

If you have successfully navigated a website that offers to sell you your credit score, you may think you have all the information you need in order to apply for a loan or new credit card.

Not necessarily. The score you received could be quite different from what a lender receives. Different scores are offered for mortgages, car loans, insurance and more.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act that took effect January 1, lenders must either tell those who apply for credit what score was used, or tell them how it was used if the applicant doesn’t receive the best terms available.

Here are some reasons why a credit score (a number between 300 and 850) still won’t tell you how a lender evaluates of you:

* Some lenders give the best rates to people with a score of 740, others may use 760 or higher. Some give credit to people with scores in the high 500s, but others require 620 or more.

* Credit scores don’t reflect whether you are making good financial decisions or poor ones.
If you refinance your home at a lower interest rate, inquiries could show up on your report. Inquiries lower a score.

* Late payments show up on your score for a couple of years, but paying down a high balance has an immediately beneficial impact.

* If you pay your credit card bill in full every month, you don’t get a zero balance on your credit report. The report shows the balance at the end of the billing period, before the payment.

* Rather than checking your score frequently, you are better off making sure the information on your report is correct. Make your payments on time and reduce monthly balances for a month or two before applying for a loan or mortgage.

Loan Pre-Approval and Turning Yourself Into a “Cash Buyer”

Being pre-approved for a loan puts you in a great position when buying a home. It puts you on equal footing with an all-cash buyer, in essence turning yourself into a cash buyer.

With a real pre-approval, the buyer is the next-best-thing to being a “cash buyer” because the seller can rest assured that the buyer will qualify for a loan.

A truly “all-cash buyer” does not have to worry about lender approvals, but will typically still be concerned with a property appraisal and an acceptable title report.

Being pre-approved for a loan puts a buyer in a better position with the seller of the property. It allows the buyer to understand the costs associated with the purchase as well as the monthly costs associated with the ongoing ownership.

The Pre-Approval Process
The pre-approval process simply means that a buyer is getting approved for a loan prior to reaching an agreement with a seller of a property. The buyer will provide the lender with current income, asset and credit documents and the lender will determine the loan amount for which the buyer will be able to borrower.

The pre-approval process can take anywhere from 2 – 30 days, depending on the variables surrounding the possible transaction (credit worthiness, location of assets, calculation of income, etc).

Once a loan amount and purchase price have been determined by the lender, the final approval will usually be subject to an acceptable purchase contract, property appraisal, title report and final interest rates.

While it will vary from borrower to borrower based in the individual characteristics, a lender will typically be able to pre-approve a buyer within 5 days of receiving all of the applicable income, asset and credit documents.