Privacy- Many Here Worry About It. ( Credit Agencies )

[Wolf359]

As to the wider topic, there is no need for the government, neighbors, a political group or any one else to know what I own, what I do, what I buy, or most important what I think or who I support. It seems more and more there seems to be a group of people who want to "out" others, for some type of fleeting gain. And it seems some folks are all good with this. That should seem a little scary.

Credit agencies collection information from sources that give it to them. Like credit card companies, loan companies etc.

If you get your own credit report, they don't have as much information as you think. Normally to run credit, all I need is a name, address and SS#. In the history you can see their previous address and previous employers and basically credit history like credit cards and loans. That's about it. No idea about what you own, what you do (might have employer info), what you buy, what you think, or who you support.

I didn't either until I purchased a truck a few months back and like you I get this with my CC company and the three for free online.
FICO seems to be its own cat as it doesn't gel in my case with the other agencies. They claim to update more often etc.

FICO is a scoring model. Those 3 agencies collect information from various sources, not all sources report to all three so based on the data they have, they run your data through the scoring model and each one uses a different scoring model. Your CC company may be using a different scoring model.

Having to carry around $20,000 or $30,000 in your pocket when shopping for a car or keeping a few hundred thou in cash under the mattress for your life savings sounds great.

You don't actually have to carry cash around, you just run to the bank and get a bank check. Banks don't report to the credit agencies on what you have in your checking account. And what you stash in the stock market doesn't get reported either. Like I said earlier, lots of misinformation in this thread. You guys should get a copy of your credit report, the information they give you is what they have on you, that's it.

 

[Zee09]

FICO is a scoring model. Those 3 agencies collect information from various sources, not all sources report to all three so based on the data they have, they run your data through the scoring model and each one uses a different scoring model. Your CC company may be using a different scoring model.

True- that is the case.
Credit Karma in my experience is totally inaccurate- You did not mention it but someone else did.
Now CK lists every number on you. I looked at it yesterday to see if my login was active from back in 2016 and it was
and they reflected payments I made the day before. But their own credit score they offer is totally unrelated to the actual average score
from agencies. It's like they just make it up and CK is really promoting loans and other services and profiting from that.
That is what they are about. I guess it is good for some folks because they don't have to look around to figure how to reduce their debt.

 

[atikovi]

You don't actually have to carry cash around, you just run to the bank and get a bank check.

Sure but OP specifically said, If I could I'd live a "cash only" life.

 

[Wolf359]

Sure but OP specifically said, If I could I'd live a "cash only" life.

That's basically cash. We refer to it as paying cash when buying a house. Means you're not getting a loan. Cash can even be credit lines which is technically a loan, but because it's already approved, there's no worries about the loan getting denied. When I bought a car, I just told them I was paying cash and they knew I was bringing a bank check, I don't think they actually expected 10-20k in cash on their desk.

 

[Wolf359]

True- that is the case.
Credit Karma in my experience is totally inaccurate- You did not mention it but someone else did.
Now CK lists every number on you. I looked at it yesterday to see if my login was active from back in 2016 and it was
and they reflected payments I made the day before. But their own credit score they offer is totally unrelated to the actual average score
from agencies. It's like they just make it up and CK is really promoting loans and other services and profiting from that.
That is what they are about. I guess it is good for some folks because they don't have to look around to figure how to reduce their debt.

They may be using a Vantage score which is a different scoring model. The range may go up to 950. Most of the Fico models have scores in the 839-850 range. So when they see they have an 800 score, they think their fico is 800, but it's probably more like 700-740. Which is still a good score as anything over 740 gets you the best rate. I very rarely see any scores over 800, mostly in the 720-780 range. Renters can be in the 650-720 range as they sometimes have one or two lates. Lates are defined as being more than 30 days, 60, 90 or 120 late with a payment. So if you're two weeks late, it doesn't get reported, you just pay the late penalty unless you call and beg for them to waive it which they will normally do if it's just one per year.

 

[Pablo]

Credit agencies collection information from sources that give it to them. Like credit card companies, loan companies etc.

If you get your own credit report, they don't have as much information as you think. Normally to run credit, all I need is a name, address and SS#. In the history you can see their previous address and previous employers and basically credit history like credit cards and loans. That's about it. No idea about what you own, what you do (might have employer info), what you buy, what you think, or who you support.

Point = MISSED

The original thread title was: "

Privacy- Many Here Worry About It"​

Nothing at all about credit reports. I fully realize no such details are in the report if that is what you were thinking. Re-read my post and how I wrote it.

 

[Zee09]

Sure but OP specifically said, If I could I'd live a "cash only" life.

Yes I have done both but like they say if the amount owed gets to high a check works.
The Govt would hate it but I'd like to see the $1000. bill come back
I understand no $10,000. bill for various reasons but the $1000 bill could come in handy.

 

[Wolf359]

Point = MISSED

The original thread title was: "

Privacy- Many Here Worry About It"​

Nothing at all about credit reports. I fully realize no such details are in the report if that is what you were thinking. Re-read my post and how I wrote it.

Yeah, the title of the thread is now about credit agencies.

But think about the flip side of privacy. If you make it illegal to own that info, who's going to be searching around to see if you have illegal info?

In the real estate business, lots of people are annoyed that the registry of deeds is public and people know what you paid for your house. There's a bunch of reasons on the flip side why it's good for people to know. And for those that don't want people to know, you buy the property in a trust or LLC to hide it. Transparency also has value.

 

[atikovi]

We refer to it as paying cash when buying a house. Means you're not getting a loan.

Next time I buy a house, I want to bring a briefcase full of $500,000 in cash to the closing.

 

[Wolf359]

Next time I buy a house, I want to bring a briefcase full of $500,000 in cash to the closing.

That should weigh about 11 pounds. Ever see those movies where some guy is walking around in a briefcase full of cash and they say it's 10 million? It's 22 pounds per million in $100 bills plus the weight of the briefcase so over 220 pounds and they're walking around like it's just 10-20 pounds.

Anyway have had clients who wanted to bring cash to the closing. Attorney said no, only bank checks or wires.

And I usually get a free bank check, now they know me at the bank but in the past when you ask for a bank check for a large amount, they hit you with a fee and then I said, well just give it to me in cash then, then they waive the fee.

 

[atikovi]

Anyway have had clients who wanted to bring cash to the closing. Attorney said no, only bank checks or wires.

That seems unconstitutional. Cash is still legal tender in the U S of A.

 

[Zee09]

You see the Experian credit boost?
Up 12 points for coughing up your utility accounts to them.
Those will be next- Don't do it!

 

[Zee09]

That seems unconstitutional. Cash is still legal tender in the U S of A.

I paid for a flip house and they wouldn't accept it either.
I was a good customer so my bank waved the $40 wire fee.
My local car dealers don't want any cash at all.

 

[alarmguy]

I just checked my credit scores and what do the privacy hawks here think about what they do? ( Credit Agencies)
If I could I'd live a "cash only" life but that is about impossible these days especially if you run a business etc.

I’m not sure about the privacy question.
I have no problem with it. I suspect if you don’t pay your bills or live up to your obligations then it would bother you

 

[RDY4WAR]

Lots of bad info on the thread. You can check your credit report yourself for free each year. You just have to pay for the credit score. You don't actually need the credit score if your report is clean. You're basically looking for stuff that isn't yours when mistakes happen.

Annual Credit Report.com - Home Page

ACR Home Page

www.annualcreditreport.com

You need to have enough credit lines for a score, just one isn't enough. Usually at least 3. People without credit scores are known as ghosts. Those credit card monitoring scores use different scoring models. There's different ones for buying homes and cars. I use the one for homes and it's what I pull when doing rentals.

As for carrying a balance, typical report doesn't actually show whether you carry a credit card balance or not. Score going up could be something aging out. Soft pulls don't affect your credit because those are done by other vendors looking for people to market to and weren't initiated by the individual. Hard pulls are the ones that are initiated by the individual and can lower your score 3-5 points. But if you're looking for a loan, you can have multiple hard pulls in a 2 week period and that would only count as one hard pull.



People who say this don't really understand the point of credit. Credit is the ability to borrow money and pay it back in a timely fashion. Who wants to lend money to people who don't have a good history of paying it back? The point is that if you don't screw it up, you get good rates, if you screw it up, you don't get good rates. How is that unfair?

Nothing aged out on my credit report. I had a car loan from years ago that was paid off. I had student loans that were paid off. No hard pulls or collections or anything of that sort. The CC I'd had for 3.5 years at the time so there was no milestone for it or anything. I was watching my credit closely because I was getting ready to buy a house. When I started carrying a balance, my Fico 2, 4, and 5 scores all shot up over 30 points. My Fico 8 score didn't budge.


Let's use me as an example of credit nonsense... I had to go to the ER for something several years ago, and I had VA coverage. The VA covered it appropriately. However, for some reason, it didn't update in the hospital's system. They sent me to collections. The first time I heard of any balance in my name was when it showed up on my credit report and sank my score by 120 points. The VA confirmed that it was paid, but the hospital was claiming it wasn't. This took over a year to clear that clerical error mostly because the collection agency kept wanting their money on a debt that never existed. I'm just glad I didn't need to use my credit for anything in that time period. If I needed to apply for an apartment or something in that timeframe, I would've been screwed.

I had issues with my old car loan where they wouldn't update the bureaus for months at a time. I would look at the report and see 3-4 months of no history on the loan. It would say "on time" but last payment 4 months ago. On a couple occasions, it would start updating again at the current month leaving the gap of unknown in between, and I'd have to make multiple calls to get it cleared up.

 

[Wolf359]

That seems unconstitutional. Cash is still legal tender in the U S of A.

I'm sure the lawyers have some way around it. That's a good point though, I'll ask the next time I speak with them. Maybe it's the same way that some business say they don't take $100 or $50 bills.

 

[Wolf359]

Nothing aged out on my credit report. I had a car loan from years ago that was paid off. I had student loans that were paid off. No hard pulls or collections or anything of that sort. The CC I'd had for 3.5 years at the time so there was no milestone for it or anything. I was watching my credit closely because I was getting ready to buy a house. When I started carrying a balance, my Fico 2, 4, and 5 scores all shot up over 30 points. My Fico 8 score didn't budge.


Let's use me as an example of credit nonsense... I had to go to the ER for something several years ago, and I had VA coverage. The VA covered it appropriately. However, for some reason, it didn't update in the hospital's system. They sent me to collections. The first time I heard of any balance in my name was when it showed up on my credit report and sank my score by 120 points. The VA confirmed that it was paid, but the hospital was claiming it wasn't. This took over a year to clear that clerical error mostly because the collection agency kept wanting their money on a debt that never existed. I'm just glad I didn't need to use my credit for anything in that time period. If I needed to apply for an apartment or something in that timeframe, I would've been screwed.

I had issues with my old car loan where they wouldn't update the bureaus for months at a time. I would look at the report and see 3-4 months of no history on the loan. It would say "on time" but last payment 4 months ago. On a couple occasions, it would start updating again at the current month leaving the gap of unknown in between, and I'd have to make multiple calls to get it cleared up.

It's possible it's the other way around, you have good credit for a long enough period of time, the score goes up. If you read the credit report, it doesn't really tell you that you carry a balance. All it tells you is the current balance on the card and what the minimum payment is. It's possible that you paid it off and then didn't use so you had a lower utilization of available credit. I never carry a balance myself and my score is way up there.

 

[Zee09]

I’m not sure about the privacy question.
I have no problem with it. I suspect if you don’t pay your bills or live up to your obligations then it would bother you

The richer you get the more it bothers you that people are in your beeswax... If you have nothing you don't usually care.
Just another thought for you to consider. It's a personal preference like everything else eh?

 

[opus1]

I hadn't paid to check my credit score In years. You may not realize how much information these agencies collect on how much money you owe and how well you pay your debts. They collect information every month.

I'm getting free credit reports from one of my credit cards, so I've been monitoring it every month. One of the funny things that it says is that my credit score would be higher if I had a mortgage. No thanks, been there, done that!

It's good to check your score periodically to make sure nobody else has taken out credit in your name. When you see an anomaly report it right away.

I've had my credit reports say that 1) I have too many cards open and 2) I should open more card accounts. In the same report...

 

[Wolf359]

I've had my credit reports say that 1) I have too many cards open and 2) I should open more card accounts. In the same report...

They're always saying crazy stuff like that. I always get credit reports that say that even though the score is really good. It's like they have to spit out 2-3 recommendations regardless if they apply or not.