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Old 02-25-2013, 02:05 PM
 
21 posts, read 35,276 times
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Welcome back mandasand! Glad the condo is going to work for you, I am hoping to get just as lucky in finding something when I go out there in April. .

Yep, I had thought to maybe get my free annual report before I head out there in April. If nothing else, for my own peace of mind and to have it handy to show any potential landlord.

But I thought the free one only tells you what's on your credit report, not the actual score (unless this has changed since I last requested it a few years ago?).

Anyway, thx for the tips guys! And thank you ER for the direct link, book-marked for now to use before I leave.

Sent from my GT-N8013 using Tapatalk HD
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Old 02-25-2013, 02:11 PM
 
Location: San Diego, CA
1,665 posts, read 2,964,809 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bimmerz2CA View Post
But I thought the free one only tells you what's on your credit report, not the actual score (unless this has changed since I last requested it a few years ago?).
You don't get the actual score, but you do see things that are wrong which should be fixed. For example, mine had two addresses that I've never lived at on there. And two phone numbers which were inaccurate.

So let's say I didn't correct that and let's say the person with the same name as me who lived at those places goes and runs up some bills he doesn't pay. Now that get associated with me.

Say I didn't know about this, and wanted to rent a place. They pull a credit report, and that person now has trashed my credit.
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Old 02-25-2013, 02:38 PM
 
21 posts, read 35,276 times
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Thx tonyinsd, that's what I thought. But as you pointed out, just checking it to ensure that the info is correct, is enough of a good reason to pull a report. I may go ahead and pay for all 3, in order to get the scores too, since I am pulling one anyway.

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Old 02-25-2013, 02:48 PM
 
Location: Santaluz - San Diego, CA
4,498 posts, read 9,353,886 times
Reputation: 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyinsd View Post
You don't get the actual score, but you do see things that are wrong which should be fixed. For example, mine had two addresses that I've never lived at on there. And two phone numbers which were inaccurate.

So let's say I didn't correct that and let's say the person with the same name as me who lived at those places goes and runs up some bills he doesn't pay. Now that get associated with me.

Say I didn't know about this, and wanted to rent a place. They pull a credit report, and that person now has trashed my credit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bimmerz2CA View Post
Thx tonyinsd, that's what I thought. But as you pointed out, just checking it to ensure that the info is correct, is enough of a good reason to pull a report. I may go ahead and pay for all 3, in order to get the scores too, since I am pulling one anyway.

Well, if you want the FICO score you need to buy it. But a good trick is to go on Free Credit Score - Free Credit Report Card - Credit Cards - Loans | Credit.com It's not the FICO score but it's very close. For example, my FICO score is 809 but on that Credit.com site it says 807. It's not too far off the FICO score in most cases. My wife's score on both is also less than 10 points difference.

On the Credit.com you can get a free report and score every 30 days. I believe Experian owns the website so the score is from Experian.



Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyinsd View Post
You don't get the actual score, but you do see things that are wrong which should be fixed. For example, mine had two addresses that I've never lived at on there. And two phone numbers which were inaccurate.

So let's say I didn't correct that and let's say the person with the same name as me who lived at those places goes and runs up some bills he doesn't pay. Now that get associated with me.

Say I didn't know about this, and wanted to rent a place. They pull a credit report, and that person now has trashed my credit.
Yep. It's always important to take a good look to make sure the correct information is reporting. I've also had different phone numbers and addresses I've never had show up but honestly those don't affect your FICO score at all.

Several years ago when I lived outside of the USA, someone used my SSN and it was a pain dealing with that. Since then, I've always used a credit monitoring service. A great one is CreditCheckTotal which checks all 3 bureaus and immediately emails you anytime someone tries to apply for credit, there is a change in your score, inquiries, etc. Only $10 a month. They also include all 3 scores. It's not the actual FICO scores but they are pretty close. Again, mine are less than 9 points difference from the actual FICO scores from the 3 agencies.
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Old 02-25-2013, 11:19 PM
 
21 posts, read 35,276 times
Reputation: 12
Quote:
Originally Posted by earlyretirement View Post
Well, if you want the FICO score you need to buy it. But a good trick is to go on Free Credit Score - Free Credit Report Card - Credit Cards - Loans | Credit.com It's not the FICO score but it's very close. For example, my FICO score is 809 but on that Credit.com site it says 807. It's not too far off the FICO score in most cases. My wife's score on both is also less than 10 points difference.

On the Credit.com you can get a free report and score every 30 days. I believe Experian owns the website so the score is from Experian.
Great tip, thank you!
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Old 02-26-2013, 08:48 AM
 
192 posts, read 250,109 times
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I had to pay for mine because I already used my free credit report last year...plus it didn't give me my score. Of course free is the way to go but that wasn't an option for me.
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Old 02-26-2013, 09:55 AM
 
Location: San Diego, CA
1,665 posts, read 2,964,809 times
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You get one free report from each one of the reporting companies per year.

And no, you don't get your score, but people really need to stop obsessing about that number. Look at the data that it's derived from. If you've got years and years of nothing but on time payments, no accounts in collection, and no liens, you're going to have a good score.

If you have lots of delinquent accounts and a collection account or two, your credit is going to stink.

You may not have an exact number, but you'll see the information that that number's derived and you can get an idea of what it's going to be like.
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Old 02-26-2013, 01:08 PM
 
Location: Santaluz - San Diego, CA
4,498 posts, read 9,353,886 times
Reputation: 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by tonyinsd View Post
And no, you don't get your score, but people really need to stop obsessing about that number. Look at the data that it's derived from. If you've got years and years of nothing but on time payments, no accounts in collection, and no liens, you're going to have a good score.

Actually not exactly true. It's strange how FICO works. One of my client's works for one of the major bureaus and it's interesting how your score is made up of.

Just because you pay your bills on time for many years doesn't exactly mean you will have a good FICO score.

-Payment History does make up 35% of your FICO score.

-Debt Usage is 30% of your Score.

- Credit Age is 15% of your Score

- Account Mix is 10% of your Score

- Inquiries are 10% of your Score



So yeah, if you pay your bills on time for many years and don't have collections your score should be decent. But not necessarily great. You have to be careful not to use too much of your available credit on your credit lines/cards. Even if you pay all your bills on time but your debt to credit ratio is high this will drastically bring down your score. It does NOT matter if you pay your bills on time and never miss a bill.

Also, never cancel old cards (assuming they don't charge any annual fee). Many times people cancel old cards and this actually hurts them. Having a mature credit history is important to keep your FICO score up.

It's also important to have a variety of credit. For example, the bureaus want to see at least 2 or 3 different major credit cards (AMEX, Mastercard, Visa). Also, it helps if you have student loans, car loans, mortgage, etc.

Having too many inquiries can also reduce your score. So you have to be careful with this.

So there are a lot of scenarios where you can pay all your bills on time for many years, never get in default or collections yet have a HORRIBLE FICO score. So you have to really think about all of these things above.

My buddy explained it all to me a few years ago as I had no clue. And some things are interesting. For example, although I had massive student loans when I graduated college, I've had mortgages in the past as well as car payments.... it has been many years since I had those things. They recently dropped off my record and my FICO score actually went down! LOL.

Funny because I haven't had any debt for many many years. I long since paid off my student loans, I pay cash for my cars and my house is paid off. So you have to think about all of this. Just because you have no debt doesn't mean you will have a good FICO score. Just because you have a lot of assets doesn't mean you will have a high FICO score.

So even if you want to pay cash for a car it's wise to at least get a loan and pay it off in a few months so you have that on your report to improve it. Having a high FICO score isn't something to obsess over but it's something that is important.

Also, the different bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian) might have different information on when they drop things off. For example an old mortgage I had that was paid off in 2003 still shows up on TransUnion and Equifax but doesn't on Experian. Same thing with student loans that were paid off back in the late 90's. So all of them aren't the same or have the same rules when things drop off. It's good to monitor your report at least once per year.
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Old 04-08-2013, 06:01 PM
 
21 posts, read 35,276 times
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Just wanted to chime in with an update... I found an adorable little studio in Hillcrest - with ALL utilities included and a garage, for $995 per/month (I just put the deposit down on it today). I love the area, and I'm very excited to move here in a couple of weeks - thanks for all your help/input, love this forum!
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Old 04-08-2013, 08:36 PM
 
Location: Santaluz - San Diego, CA
4,498 posts, read 9,353,886 times
Reputation: 2015
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bimmerz2CA View Post
Just wanted to chime in with an update... I found an adorable little studio in Hillcrest - with ALL utilities included and a garage, for $995 per/month (I just put the deposit down on it today). I love the area, and I'm very excited to move here in a couple of weeks - thanks for all your help/input, love this forum!
Great! Congrats. That sounds like a really nice place in a nice area. Welcome to San Diego!
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