Fixing your credit score

So before you start shopping for a mortgage or refinance, you'll want to know your credit score. You can obtain it from any of the three major credit reporting agencies - Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Note that while you're entitled to obtain a free copy of your credit report from each of these every year, you'll normally have to pay to obtain your actual credit score.
When you get your credit score, you may be surprised to find it's higher than you expected. If you initially had to take out a subprime mortgage due to weak credit, your score should have improved considerably if you've stayed current on your payments for a year or two.
Once you have your score and credit report, check to see if there's anything you can do to bring it up, if your score is low. Many people are surprised to learn that they can improve their score dramatically within 30 days simply by paying off high-balance credit cards. If you have savings or other resources you can draw on to pay down revolving debts, it might make sense to do so if refinancing would provide a significant economic benefit for you.
This is one of the places where a mortgage broker or lender can be of assistance. They may be able to help you identify things you can do to bring your score up over the coming months or perhaps a year. Depending on how soon you need to refinance, this could be a better strategy than trying to refinance immediately - even if rates go up overall, the rate that you qualify for might be lower if you can improve your score.