Credit Score

[GGorman04]

I was looking to check my current credit score and was told that creditkarma.com was reliable. Has anyone used this site to check their score?
Any others that are recommended?
Thanks

 

[gathermewool]

www.annualcreditreport.com is free once/year. If my report looks good, then I don't worry about my score, although I've heard there is another site where your score can be obtained without having to sign up for anything...

IMO, constant credit score monitoring via paid sites is a waste of money.

 

[99Saturn]

I haven't used credit karma, but have read its pretty good for being free.

Why are you checking your score (if you don't mind putting that out there)? Credit Karma is free but not a "real" score. I've believe it is based on either their own algorithm or a variation of the Transunion version.

If it is vital for you to to know your score before you decide to apply for some type of credit, personally I'd spring for getting an actual score from either the agency or agencies your score will be pulled from. That said, as gathermewool said you can gain a lot of knowledge from annualcreditreports.com.

 

[GGorman04]

I agree that constant monitoring is not worth it.

 

[GGorman04]

Saturn, i am not applying for anything.
Just curious because I have not looked into it for awhile

 

[Donald]

First get your credit report and check for errors. PM me if you need suggestions on removing things that look bad.

Credit score, the only one that counts is a FICO score. You need to get that from myfico.com. Get the FICO for Experian.

Lots of credit report companies give a credit score. But lenders only use a FICO score. And there are slightly different ones a lender can get based upon if for a house or car, etc. There are close to a 100 FICO variations. The one you can get on your own is a general FICO, not the exact score a bank would get, but not far off. Forget all the non FICO scores. The others are irrelevant.

For a mortgage the bank will get credit reports from all 3 companies. Experian has by far the most info on you, so concentrate on it.

 

[99Saturn]

Originally Posted By: Donald
First get your credit report and check for errors. PM me if you need suggestions on removing things that look bad.

Credit score, the only one that counts is a FICO score. You need to get that from myfico.com. Get the FICO for Experian.

Lots of credit report companies give a credit score. But lenders only use a FICO score. And there are slightly different ones a lender can get based upon if for a house or car, etc. There are close to a 100 FICO variations. The one you can get on your own is a general FICO, not the exact score a bank would get, but not far off. Forget all the non FICO scores. The others are irrelevant.

For a mortgage the bank will get credit reports from all 3 companies. Experian has by far the most info on you, so concentrate on it.


^I'm a little confused by the above advice. Are you saying just get the Experian if you want to know your score because you are curious or that Experian is the most useful one?

IMO, if you need your score because you are going to apply for something, you really need to know which agencies the bank uses (and how) for the loan and find out all of the scores.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: 99Saturn
Originally Posted By: Donald
First get your credit report and check for errors. PM me if you need suggestions on removing things that look bad.

Credit score, the only one that counts is a FICO score. You need to get that from myfico.com. Get the FICO for Experian.

Lots of credit report companies give a credit score. But lenders only use a FICO score. And there are slightly different ones a lender can get based upon if for a house or car, etc. There are close to a 100 FICO variations. The one you can get on your own is a general FICO, not the exact score a bank would get, but not far off. Forget all the non FICO scores. The others are irrelevant.

For a mortgage the bank will get credit reports from all 3 companies. Experian has by far the most info on you, so concentrate on it.


^I'm a little confused by the above advice. Are you saying just get the Experian if you want to know your score because you are curious or that Experian is the most useful one?

IMO, if you need your score because you are going to apply for something, you really need to know which agencies the bank uses (and how) for the loan and find out all of the scores.



I was suggesting to get the Experian credit report and from MYFICO to get a credit score based upon Experian data.

Most lenders use Experian if they use only one. For a mortgage they will use all 3. For credit cards, they might use only one.

The credit score you get from Experian is useless.

Think of FICO as an algorithm that can be used on any of the 3 data sources.

 

[steveh]

I think Credit Karma is a nice free service. It give updates on your score and account balances every week.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: GGorman04
I was looking to check my current credit score and was told that creditkarma.com was reliable.

The only problem is that the credit score they use (FAKO) is not what the creditors use when checking your credit history.

Alas, for just basic monitoring of activity on your account, they are OK, I hear.

 

[GGorman04]

Would buying the three in one from equifax suffice? Again, I am not looking to do anything, just to see if I need to correct some errors. This report states it will also give a fico score from all three bureaus

 

[99Saturn]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: 99Saturn
Originally Posted By: Donald
First get your credit report and check for errors. PM me if you need suggestions on removing things that look bad.

Credit score, the only one that counts is a FICO score. You need to get that from myfico.com. Get the FICO for Experian.

Lots of credit report companies give a credit score. But lenders only use a FICO score. And there are slightly different ones a lender can get based upon if for a house or car, etc. There are close to a 100 FICO variations. The one you can get on your own is a general FICO, not the exact score a bank would get, but not far off. Forget all the non FICO scores. The others are irrelevant.

For a mortgage the bank will get credit reports from all 3 companies. Experian has by far the most info on you, so concentrate on it.


^I'm a little confused by the above advice. Are you saying just get the Experian if you want to know your score because you are curious or that Experian is the most useful one?

IMO, if you need your score because you are going to apply for something, you really need to know which agencies the bank uses (and how) for the loan and find out all of the scores.



I was suggesting to get the Experian credit report and from MYFICO to get a credit score based upon Experian data.

Most lenders use Experian if they use only one. For a mortgage they will use all 3. For credit cards, they might use only one.

The credit score you get from Experian is useless.

Think of FICO as an algorithm that can be used on any of the 3 data sources.


Forgive me if I'm over complicating this - I've never used myfico to pay for a score or prechecked my score before applying for anything, perhaps that is where my confusion is coming from.

As I understand it, if you use myfico, and pay for each of the three reports, you should see a different score (based on the FICO algorithm) for each of the three agencies. Is this wrong? It wouldn't be the exact scores that the lender might see from each agency depending on what you apply for, but it would be pretty close. The reason I brought it up is because I know your scores between the three agencies can vary greatly, which can be influenced by the details (or lack of details) that the agency has.

So, I would therefore think if you need to know your score, you would need to know your score for each of the three agencies data (unless you know the lender only uses one). If you just want to see details and correct errors, you can just use annualcreditreport.com.

Correct me if I'm way off base - not trying to spread something that is false.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: 99Saturn
Originally Posted By: Donald
Originally Posted By: 99Saturn
Originally Posted By: Donald
First get your credit report and check for errors. PM me if you need suggestions on removing things that look bad.

Credit score, the only one that counts is a FICO score. You need to get that from myfico.com. Get the FICO for Experian.

Lots of credit report companies give a credit score. But lenders only use a FICO score. And there are slightly different ones a lender can get based upon if for a house or car, etc. There are close to a 100 FICO variations. The one you can get on your own is a general FICO, not the exact score a bank would get, but not far off. Forget all the non FICO scores. The others are irrelevant.

For a mortgage the bank will get credit reports from all 3 companies. Experian has by far the most info on you, so concentrate on it.


^I'm a little confused by the above advice. Are you saying just get the Experian if you want to know your score because you are curious or that Experian is the most useful one?

IMO, if you need your score because you are going to apply for something, you really need to know which agencies the bank uses (and how) for the loan and find out all of the scores.



I was suggesting to get the Experian credit report and from MYFICO to get a credit score based upon Experian data.

Most lenders use Experian if they use only one. For a mortgage they will use all 3. For credit cards, they might use only one.

The credit score you get from Experian is useless.

Think of FICO as an algorithm that can be used on any of the 3 data sources.


Forgive me if I'm over complicating this - I've never used myfico to pay for a score or prechecked my score before applying for anything, perhaps that is where my confusion is coming from.

As I understand it, if you use myfico, and pay for each of the three reports, you should see a different score (based on the FICO algorithm) for each of the three agencies. Is this wrong? It wouldn't be the exact scores that the lender might see from each agency depending on what you apply for, but it would be pretty close. The reason I brought it up is because I know your scores between the three agencies can vary greatly, which can be influenced by the details (or lack of details) that the agency has.

So, I would therefore think if you need to know your score, you would need to know your score for each of the three agencies data (unless you know the lender only uses one). If you just want to see details and correct errors, you can just use annualcreditreport.com.

Correct me if I'm way off base - not trying to spread something that is false.


Pretty close. At least annually and several months before applying for credit, get credit reports (hopefully free) from a 3 credit bureaus. Verify everything negative and dispute all errors (online is best). Then before aplying for a mortgage pay for a credit score on MYFICO for at least Experian data, maybe all 3.

You requesting a copy of a credit report is called a soft pull(inquiry) and is not seen by a lender nor is it part of your credit score. A lender pulling a credit report is called a hard pull and will be seen by the next lender who pulls your credit report and may influence credit score.

Certainly negative things on your credit report influence your credit score, but other things you may not realize also effect credit score.

1) Too many hard credit pulls in a short time
2) High debt to credit ratio
3) Short credit history
4) Obtaining many new credit cards in a short time

Lenders like to see a few credit cards, installment like car loan and mortgage. Three different categories of credit.

Also its the balance reported from a credit card account to the credit bureau that matters, not whether you pay it off in full each month. Credit card companies report balance info once per month, if that balance is say 90% of your credit limit on the day they report it, thats bad even if you pay it in full on the due date. They like to see no more than 20% of the credit limit in use.

 

[Donald]

I just signed up for CREDITKARMA. It seems their info is based upon TransUnion information. They have about 1/4 of the information that Experian has and 99% of the time anything listed in TransUnion is also listed in Experian.

I will look a little more at CREDITKARMA but initially it looks like the value of the info provided is close to the price they charge, zero.

 

[99Saturn]

Creditkarma is Transunion info - if you look through the FAQs it references Transunion.

"Credit Karma provides users with their TransRisk New Account Score, VantageScore, and Auto Insurance Score as supplied by TransUnion."

Two things I would add to the above from Donald is:
1. Hard pulls within a certain window (30 days of the first hard pull) for the same type of loan should not impact the score individually. IE, each pull should not be a hit of a few points.
2. If paying for a score because you are concerned with rate, approval, etc. I'd ask the lender(s) what agencies they evaluate from before you pay for one or all. They should be able to tell you, if the loan officer can't, I think that is reason enough for pause. If they use all three, you should ask if they use the average, the median score, the lowest, highest, etc. I understand that Experian may have the most info but it doesn't matter much if that's not how you are being evaluated.

OP, you may want to check out the Score Watch option on myfico, it appears you can cancel in the first 10 days no charge.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: 99Saturn
Creditkarma is Transunion info - if you look through the FAQs it references Transunion.

"Credit Karma provides users with their TransRisk New Account Score, VantageScore, and Auto Insurance Score as supplied by TransUnion."

Two things I would add to the above from Donald is:
1. Hard pulls within a certain window (30 days of the first hard pull) for the same type of loan should not impact the score individually. IE, each pull should not be a hit of a few points.
2. If paying for a score because you are concerned with rate, approval, etc. I'd ask the lender(s) what agencies they evaluate from before you pay for one or all. They should be able to tell you, if the loan officer can't, I think that is reason enough for pause. If they use all three, you should ask if they use the average, the median score, the lowest, highest, etc. I understand that Experian may have the most info but it doesn't matter much if that's not how you are being evaluated.

OP, you may want to check out the Score Watch option on myfico, it appears you can cancel in the first 10 days no charge.


A slight correction for #1, the window is shorter, 10 days I believe.

 

[Donald]

If you have some negative info on your credit report that is valid, there may be ways to minimize the impact. Negative information from collection companies is the easiest to deal with if you have not paid it. And for heaven sakes DO NOT pay it until you get them to agree to expunge the entire entry, not just update that its paid. You have quite a bit of leverage if you have check in hand, ready to pay.

 

[99Saturn]

Originally Posted By: Donald
A slight correction for #1, the window is shorter, 10 days I believe.

I believe the 10 day (14 days, 10 business days?) is the old model. As I read it at least, different windows for old model & new model. Though I guess the next natural question should be which model is being used while you're speaking to a lender.

My comment around 30 days should have been in reference to while you're shopping rather than the look back on your overall score - which wasn't clear originally.

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/creditchecks.aspx
^#5&6
Quote:
Does the formula treat all credit inquiries the same?
No. Research has indicated that the FICO score is more predictive when it treats loans that commonly involve rate-shopping, such as mortgage, auto and student loans, in a different way. For these types of loans, the FICO score ignores inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So, if you find a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won't affect your score while you're rate shopping. In addition, the score looks on your credit report for rate-shopping inquiries older than 30 days. If it finds some, it counts those inquiries that fall in a typical shopping period as just one inquiry when determining your score. For FICO scores calculated from older versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 14 day span. For FICO scores calculated from the newest versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 45 day span. Each lender chooses which version of the FICO scoring formula it wants the credit reporting agency to use to calculate your FICO score.
What to know about "rate shopping."
Looking for a mortgage, auto or student loan may cause multiple lenders to request your credit report, even though you are only looking for one loan. To compensate for this, the score ignores mortgage, auto, and student loan inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So, if you find a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won't affect your score while you're rate shopping. In addition, the score looks on your credit report for mortgage, auto, and student loan inquiries older than 30 days. If it finds some, it counts those inquiries that fall in a typical shopping period as just one inquiry when determining your score. For FICO scores calculated from older versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 14 day span. For FICO scores calculated from the newest versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 45 day span. Each lender chooses which version of the FICO scoring formula it wants the credit reporting agency to use to calculate your FICO score.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: steveh
I think Credit Karma is a nice free service. It give updates on your score and account balances every week.


Maybe - but since CreditKarma is based upon TransUnion data and Transunion is missing 3 out of 4 credit entries for you, how valuable is it really?

If you decide to review your credit history for errors, start with Experian data.

 

[Donald]

Just to show how some unexpected things can effect your credit score, I just refinanced my mortgage and it reduced the avg. number of months I have had credit that is still open (different bank) and credit score went down.