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OK, what about a Used auto loan? $7,200 at 35% interest.
oh my god thats insane.
to the people complaining about the scores and needing to use a credit card. that is the game. it isnt that difficult or complicated. if you want to borrow money, then you need to play their game. if you dont want to borrow money, then go ahead on dont use debt.
I think it's ridiculous that you need to use credit cards and have revolving credit to keep your score up. It doesn't mean you don't pay your bills. In fact, when you pay off all your debts, it's shows that you are responsible in most people's eyes. As far as the credit bureau, that's not the case. Smh I don't have a mortgage or car payment because they are paid off but luckily I still have a mid 800's score. I do have credit cards but only use one. When I look up my credit report, it tells me I need to have revolving credit to increase my score. Who the heck wants to pay interest and fees if you don't have to??
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You understand you can use use credit cards without interest and fees, right?
I'm glad that more folks are starting to recognize and call out the expensive scam that is, the FICO credit score. Where banks get to make massive money off Americans by charging them high interest on debt as long as their score is less than 700 or 720.
With that being said, it's a game we all have to play if we want a low rate mortgage. With cars you can buy it cash. With credit cards you can get a secured card.
It's the fact that if you want a decent house, you have to play this game. That's just the life we live in. Personally, I monitor my credit like a hawk through a subscription with MyFICO. If my credit changes even 1 point, I'm promptly notified through email of who, what, when, where, and why.
It's the fact that if you want a decent house, you have to play this game. That's just the life we live in. Personally, I monitor my credit like a hawk through a subscription with MyFICO. If my credit changes even 1 point, I'm promptly notified through email of who, what, when, where, and why.
Meh. I just want to see if anything funky is happening. Identity theft. Some error. CreditKarma is plenty good enough to track that. My credit cards all have credit reporting on their web portals. It's identical to the data I get out of CreditKarma. I'll be 60 next month. It's unlikely I'll ever borrow money again. It gives me no-fee credit cards. It helps a bit with insurance rates. Some future employer might look at it as part of pre-employment screening.
What interest and fees? Having a credit card.. As long as you're not carrying a balance, costs you nothing. Or, at least, shouldn't cost you anything. Get a card with no fees. Or several. I use credit cards decently often, but they're paid off every month.. I have $350 or so sitting in Cash Rewards right now that I need to cash in here at some point.
But.. I have 1 USAA credit card with a limit of $13k, a Home Depot with a limit of $3500, a Lowes card with a limit of $1800 and a Walmart card with a limit of $6300. so.. a credit limit of $24,600 and usage of $0
I've paid $0 in interest and $0 in fees for that. In fact, I've probably gotten a hundred dollars in rebates on the Walmart card and $350 on the USAA credit card.. so, i've been PAID $450 to have those cards.
Paying your bills, utility bills and the like.. Isn't reported to the credit agencies.. Unless you DON'T pay them and they go to collections. So, revolving credit like cards is the only way they can really track your credit worthiness, outside of home/auto/bank loans.
all that being said.. It took me until my late 30's before I'd have a credit card again. I got one in college and it didn't end well. I swore off them for quite some time just because I didn't have the responsibility to have them. took me a long time to get the right mindset that just because I had a $5000 limit didn't mean I had an extra $5000 I could spend. Honestly, having retirement accounts really helped me get in that right mindset. I've got an uncle who is going on 60 that is taking money out of his retirement all the time.. Paying it back, but.. I look at my 401k's once a year or so, just to see how they're doing. Otherwise.. I don't even consider that money mine. I was able to take that and apply it to credit cards and it's worked well for me.
I was speaking of revolving credit such as a car loan or mortgage. Those carry interest and fees. I do know about know about no fee credit cards and 0%. That's what I've got now.
I wanted to cosign for my just-graduated-from-college grandson. He hailed down a job as a teacher. No credit, himself. My credit is high 700's.
They said no. We own our home. We own 2 others that we rent. We own the cars. We have enough money in the bank to pay for that car 3 times over.
But they said, No, because I have not borrowed any money in over 10 years.
I didn't really care, since The Kid had someone else who could sign, but I was surprised. It never occurred to me that they would reject me.
Nice to know, though. Having your own money has sort of a price to pay.
This is all fascinating to me. This thread inspired me to check my creditKarma account, and its still 820 and 821. For the past five years, my only credit activity has been through one credit card, which in the US I used to consolidate all my utility bills and pay balance down to zero every month, and every year put a $1,000 plane ticket on it. Now, almost a year ago, I moved to Philippines, use that card maybe once or twice a month for online or POS, and so far my credit score has not taken any kind of a hit. I guess if you don't rattle their cage or generate static, it takes a while for the shoe to fall.
Meh. I just want to see if anything funky is happening. Identity theft. Some error. CreditKarma is plenty good enough to track that. My credit cards all have credit reporting on their web portals. It's identical to the data I get out of CreditKarma. I'll be 60 next month. It's unlikely I'll ever borrow money again. It gives me no-fee credit cards. It helps a bit with insurance rates. Some future employer might look at it as part of pre-employment screening.
Can't argue there. I'm simply monitoring my credit as I'll be in the market for a house in couple years. Credit Karma is fine for folks who aren't planning to borrow any money, otherwise, it only provides the transunion score and not the other 2 bureaus.
True, credit card companies also provide credit scores on their site. What myFICO gives me is not just the my full credit history report and score of all 3 bureaus, but also the other FICO scores (there are multiple FICO scores, I believe FICO score 8 is most often used). For me atleast, the thorough picture of it is worth the price.
I was speaking of revolving credit such as a car loan or mortgage. Those carry interest and fees. I do know about know about no fee credit cards and 0%. That's what I've got now.
Ah.. Well.. Yeah.. Borrowing money, whether it's on credit cards or car loans or mortgage.. It doesn't make sense for someone to loan you money for free.. Not exactly a sustainable business model there.
The perks that I get on credit cards.. I'm under no illusion that those are 'free'.. They're just free to me. I'm profiting off some goober who does NOT pay their balance and accumulates late fees and interest charges. I was on the other side of that coin in my younger days. I've made it to the top of the great credit ponzi scheme.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocko20
Can't argue there. I'm simply monitoring my credit as I'll be in the market for a house in couple years. Credit Karma is fine for folks who aren't planning to borrow any money, otherwise, it only provides the transunion score and not the other 2 bureaus.
True, credit card companies also provide credit scores on their site. What myFICO gives me is not just the my full credit history report and score of all 3 bureaus, but also the other FICO scores (there are multiple FICO scores, I believe FICO score 8 is most often used). For me atleast, the thorough picture of it is worth the price.
My creditkarma score was actually LOWER than whatever score the car dealerships use. I can't ever remember the names, they even said the name of the scoring model at the dealership, but.. Honestly, I could care less. It was higher than the 828 score at CK.
CreditKarma gives you a decent ballpark number. Is it perfect? No. But it's good enough in most cases. Especially for the price.
And CK gives you scores based off transunion and experian I believe. It's certainly two and I think those are the two. In my experience, at least.. The higher your score, the less difference there is between various models. If someone is down towards the 700 range.. The difference may be magnified more. And significantly more the lower you go. All I can speak towards is my experience.. So, certainly, YMMV.
Just reading the first page of responses, I see I did not provide a clear enough picture. I regularly check my scores with all three agencies, Last time I checked was about the first of the year. We each scored about 815 that day. I understand it changes frequently. Having applied for the HELOC, I checked with the company that bank was going to look at. I was surprised to see it was only 770. That was two or three weeks ago. Now it's 672.
Just got an invite from another bank to see my Transunion score. I'm 740 with them as of today. Don't know about the third company. And while I use only one card in order to get a 2% return on purchases, my other cards still active have low five figures available lines.
And for the nasty comments re deadbeat, cut me some slack. A moment of thought, please. It's hyperbole. Okay?
A score drop that was so significant in such a short time period is likely indicative of some major error on your credit report, or a judgment/foreclosure/bankruptcy level issue.
Different bureaus use slightly different methods of calculation, but they should never vary that much. Pull another credit report from each bureau, and that low one should have some justification for it. No one can really help until it's known what caused the drop.
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We own our home. We own 2 others that we rent. We own the cars. We have enough money in the bank to pay for that car 3 times over.
