Obligor: Any person or entity who owes to a creditor. AKA: debtor or borrower

Obsolete Information: Outdated informationwhich may hurt you. The Fair Credit Reporting Act sets limits on how long specific information may remain on your credit report. It is usually 7 years for any delinquency such as a collection account or 30, 60, or 90 day lates and ten years for bankruptcies. See CreditFitness.net Guide to Improving Your Credit Scores for additional information.

Offer: A potential buyer’s written bid to purchase real estate. The Seller can accept this offer as it is written and it then becomes a legal contract.

Online Banking: Banking is over the Internet. It allows you to make payments, check account balances, transfer money between accounts, obtain your account history and more at any time, from any computer with Internet access.

Open 30-day account: A type of credit where a consumer promises to repay the full balances owed each month. American Express and Diner’s Club are examples of these accounts.

Open-End Lease: A lease that offers initially lower payments but has the feature of the residual value of the vehicle being substantially lower than the fair market value of the vehicle at lease end. Read and understand any contract that you sign!

Option: A right of first refusal to purchase real estate. This is typically best to be put in writing stating the address of the property, the purchase price if the option is exercised and the date the option expires.

Options: Those upgrades added to a vehicle above and beyond the basic model. These can be items such as a car stereo, DVD player, decorative features, rims, security system.

Origination: The practice of what a loan officer/broker actually does; the finding of clients who wish to make an application to borrow on real estate via purchase or refinance.

Origination Fee: That fee that a lender/loan officer charges to counsel the borrowers, negotiate rates and terms of the loan, find a suitable investor and to process the paperwork needed for closing. (Some of us are Super Heroes in our spare time!)

Over-Limit fee: A fee charged by a credit card company when a cardholder exceeds the credit limit on their credit card. This is charged even if the credit card company authorizes the charge. The issuer can charge as much as $35 for every month the balance exceeds the credit limit as well.