posted
So, I've been curious as to what my credit was. It wasn't too bad when we bought the house and we pay the bills on time, but you are constantly bombarded by ads, and financial types saying that you need to check it because of identity theft so I've been wondering.
I knew this new law got passed saying that you are entitled to one free credit report per year. I was trying to figure out how you obtained said free credit report. I was thinking it might be worth paying the $25 to have them check all three for you if it was going to take forever calling around and requesting these things.
All 3 of the major credit report places, Experian Equifax and Trans Union have linked together to create the site. Probably cause they don't want to get pounded for postage costs.
They are rolling it out by geographic region, currently only the "West" qualifies, but by the end of the year everyone will be able to inquire.
Since people are thinking about taxes and finances right now it might be useful for other people too. Though you have to pay extra (and it isn't clear how much) to get your "credit score". I guess because the score algorithms are proprietary.
posted
Hey if you do it can you tell me how much "extra" they are charging for the credit score itself? It doesn't appear that you find out until you are actually in the system.
posted
Yeah I'm guessing the credit score from the joint system is different or combined or something. I could see them charging $5 per score per company.
Through my Sallie Mae student loan, I signed up for a free no obligation 30 day trial through, Experian, and already got a free credit report from them (though not the score) I've got to cancel it unless I pay the $25. And I am tempted to pay the $25 because if I go individually through each service it would add up to about the same.
posted
Yeah but you are given on opportunity to get a credit score once you get your 3 free reports, and I wonder how much they are charging from that system and if it is different than the "Regular" price.
With the experian program i signed up for (and will call and cancel when the 30 days are up) it is 24.95 if you want to see the other two credit bureau reports, which is about as much as each charge separately and then another $5 each for each credit score, though the experian credit score is free.
posted
Yeah, you're not saving a lot. I think I have paid about twenty bucks for my actual score and reports, so...
Experian is five bucks, by the way. It's not a big savings, but at least you can get your report for free and fix any discrepancies. I think that's more important.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
the 3 in one report at Trans Union is 29.95 plus an additional $9.95 for the other two companies credit scores. So that is $40 in round numbers. Their own Trans Union Report, plus their Credit score is $15
Equifax's similar services are $40 and $15 as well.
Experian is $34.95 (3 credit reports and experian credit score +$10 for the other two scores) so actually $45 (though through my introductory offer it is cheaper) and $15 for Experian only stuff.
posted
The one thing that I noticed in my Experian report, is that it doesn't have down that I am employed. I remember Steve had some problem with his Credit Card company all of a sudden lowering his credit limit because they thought he was still a starving college student. Once they realized he was employed in a lucrative profession he didn't have anymore problems.
I'm not sure if this is a big enough deal for me to change though.
As far as purchasing them, I clicked on the google link at the bottom and this product is $45 for everything with a few interesting bells and whistles.
posted
Hey, cool. I'm very disppointed at how inaccurate my reports have been. You're supposed to use credit so you can have credit, but whenever I try to use credit I just get bad credit, and it's not even really my fault.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
*hugs* I'm sorry, but hey at least you know now, before it has festered for even more years.
Mine Experian report had lots of long annoying stuff on it, basically because I consolidated my student loans. But I don't think there were any inaccuracies though now I need to go over it with a fine tooth comb.
posted
There are inaccuracies in mine that are unrelated to the mom thing. I will be disputing them all. Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I've wondered what credit bracket I'm in partially from the *loads* of credit card applications I get. Though I know they take advantage of people with good credit as well as bad and we are now technically homeowners. We've bought a shredder though as a result of all of the stupid apps, cause some have info we wouldn't want stolen (though I guess they obtained it legally from my credit report)
posted
Experian was the worst, only because of the one thing. They were even on every other score, I'm guessing because my payments weren't reported, not that they weren't documented by the credit report companies.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
1. That is downright scary how much information was on there. Nice to see, though.
2. Good grief, I have 9 open credit cards from various stores that I used once for the discount and then tossed. Do I need to close all those accounts?
Posts: 1163 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Yes, you should close them cause otherwise someone could steal your identity and use those cards. And they could be sending you replacement cards periodically to addresses where you no longer live...
posted
Kat you are in TX, and that wasn't one of the states avaliable yet. Do they still have you down as living in Utah??? That would also be a problem.
posted
Open accounts, even if not in use, also impact the ratio of how much credit you currently could max out on to how much credit it is reasonable to have available.
That is, even if you don't use those accounts, the fact that you could max out those accounts and get deeper in debt makes you a worse credit risk, when you are being evaluated for taking on another account (e.g., a car loan).
posted
I just wanted to praise Congress for forcing the Credit Reporting Bureaus to do this. It's been a long time coming. I helped lobby Congress about this when I noticed that my credit report contained a bunch of errors and the darned places (all three) took forever to fix them.
And then the errors came back later!
They have a lot of bad data in those systems.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Question before I enter all the info in and use up the report this year:
My printer is not working. Can I save the file on my computer to go over or do I need to print it out immediately?
Posts: 3495 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
One allows you to access it for thirty days.
I would get a printer first. Wait...I DID get a printer first. I waited until I got my new printer to get my credit reports.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I am named after my dad, and we have all sorts of problems because of it. I had really bad credit a few years ago, and it kept showing up on his, even though I don;t even know his SSN. I don;t want to know, this way he knows that if a mistake happens it isn't my fault!
So I went to look at cars, and they ran my report for free....and it was OK, a lot better than it had been a few years ago. So I get home and there are already 2 calls from the sales guy (whom we know outside of the dealership), saying "Why didn;t you tell me about the two care loans you payed off, adn the house that you paid off?".
One problem...only one of the cars was me, and I have never owned a house...
So I called my dad and told him, and he said "Well, I just had a credit check done, and I have a (read really high score here), so I guess you can keep it on your record, I don't really need it."
posted
Update: I wanted to cancel my "trial" service that I got the free credit report through, so that I didn't get monthly fees. I went ahead and bought the 3-way report with the info and credit scores from all 3 credit bureaus.
For me at least, it verified that I *didn't* have any major errors on the report or have me confused with anyone else. The thing that was most interesting was the variation in credit PLUS scores based on which bureau they used to calculate the score. Experian had the most data on each account I had ever opened or closed. Equifax secondmost, and Trans Union the least. The local gas company, for some reason, reports our on time payments to only Trans Union. *shrug* That was the biggest difference across the three.
It looks like in the future, if I want to buy a single report and the actual score I will use Experian. It has the most information and correllated with the lowest credit score, and the lowest score is really the one that matters the most.
FYI for comparison since I don't care because it is basically exactly average, the Experian score was 687, the Equifax score was 695 and the TransUnion was 704, a 17 point range.
Apparently the thing that is holding me lower is that most of my accounts don't have a 3 year history on them. Considering that I refinanced my student loans, and have only been fully employed for 2 years, and we've only owned our own home for a year and a half, that is understandable.
They also said that two of my accounts were close to their credit limit. One of which is our Home Equity Line of Credit, which is going down, but very slowly as it is actually wrapped up in our house payment. The second was my credit card. However if you look at my maximum limit on my credit card, it is an extremely low limit. I do have a tendency to run it close to that limit, but don't want to raise it just to improve my credit score either...
This has just opened up in the Midwest. The first two worked great, but the “security question” that TransUnion was asking involved my street address when I lived in the following cities – and it kept telling me my answer for my current address was wrong. Finally it said I’d exceeded the allowable attempts and would have to call or write to get my report. And of course the first thing the computerized phone message did was ask me to confirm my current mailing address, which they had as the street address for my student apartment from ten years ago combined with my current city, state, and zip. There isn’t even a street by that name in this town! Idjiots.
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And of course the first thing the computerized phone message did was ask me to confirm my current mailing address, which they had as the street address for my student apartment from ten years ago combined with my current city, state, and zip. There isn’t even a street by that name in this town! Idjiots.
