posted
Free credit reports finally made it to my part of the country, so I checked my Equifax report today and was honestly surprised it's utterly clean. Got my mortgage on it, and nothing else.
Wow.
Granted, I don't use credit cards, but my bankruptcy is gone and there are no annoying alerts or collection agencies still waiting for a late Blockbuster payment from 1983. It feels amazingly good.
I still want to check the other two credit report companies -- you can only check each one once a year, I may stagger the three companies out to make the most of it -- and I want to check my wife's credit to see what happens there, but I'm all cheered up now.
If you want to check your own credit for free, head to http://www.annualcreditreport.com. Watch what you click on, the companies will still try and sell you more specific information (like your credit rating number) and you'll have to decide if you want to pay for it.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I checked mine a while ago, and it's utterly blank. Almost makes me want to get a credit card or something, just so I'll have a history. Plus my husband (I'm pretty sure, haven't checked his yet but I know some of his history) has awful credit, so at least one of us is going to have to have decent credit if we're ever going to get a house someday.
Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Mine had some weird stuff on it, but nothing too major. I'm sure it will take months or years to fix, though. Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Mine has a nice mess on it due to my mother. But it'll cost more to try and clear up than the debts are worth, so I get to play hide and seek with collections guys for a few more years. *sigh*
We checked Nathan's, and his is just Totally Blank.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Even if the debts are more than the cost to clean it up, the monetary damage caused by those debts is almost certainly greater.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I have a large number credit cards, all with nothing owed on them and all with a credit limit of $400 or less. I obviously fell for the "10% off if you apply today!" *sigh*
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If you fill in the information, do they pass along your current address/phone information to past creditors?
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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What a wonderful feeling, Chris! Congratulations. One day, we hope to join you. We are getting there. Slowly.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Katie: You should call those companies up and ask for a higher limit. It should improve your credit score if you have a lot of available credit and low usage.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I think that would be more trouble than it's worth. My credit is pretty good right now, so it's fine. Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Well, okay, I went ahead and got mine from Equifax. Just because it has been so long since my last (bad) relationship that I wanted to see if my credit was still ruined or what.
Actually it looks pretty good -- because I have paid everything on time and as agreed for the last almost 10 years.
But one part worried me -- it has "former address" and lists an address in Missouri that I have never lived it. I have a good idea of who DOES live there (an ex of mine) because he moved to Missouri when we split up. But it should not ever show as an address of mine because I never lived there.
I wonder if that is important enough to get taken off?
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An account is listed as open and 180 days past due that we closed in Dec., and that the CC company told us was closed in Dec. Grrrr.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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And yes, Farmgirl, I would report it. You need to clearly demarcate your credit vs. his credit. If you don't, yours could be affected if he ever files bankruptcy or anything, and it will be a lot more trouble to clean up then than now.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Mack, my father in law, who sells pre-paid legal(oh, don;t get me started on that topic...) said that most fraud is committed by family members. And I thought of you. And felt sad and mad.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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We ran ours last week and the mortgage from the condo I owned in the early 90's is still on the Transunion report. I disputed it 2 years ago -- the lender doesn't even have a record of the loan anymore, as I got out of the loan well over 7 years ago -- but it's still sitting fat and happy on the report. *sigh*
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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YAY! I finally figured out why I have a creditor after me for $90...Aparently, I managed to go to a hospital in North Carolina while I was at college in Idaho. Yeah. That's getting disputed.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I just got mine this morning and found that a debt that was paid and challenged last year is still there. Sigh. Here we go again..... At least I get the report free now!
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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After checking mine, I found that even things my name are on don't show up on my report, since they're primarily in my husband's. Also, the medical bill that was supposed to be paid by Medicaid from my pregnancy that got turned over to a collection agency because of a accounting error is still on there. I disputed that. Sheesh.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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So does anyone know how long it takes for inquiries to "clear" from consideration in the FICO score? When we took out our mortgage three inquiries were made, and of course the score got a little lower each time this happened. I thought someone said it was 90 days at the time.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I was pleasantly surprised to discover that within two years of marriage to Christy, our credit scores were both in the 700s. So was my little brother, unfortunately, who whined at me until I cosigned on his car.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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You can get one free report from each of the companies each year, Chris. Also, if you are denied credit for any reason you are entitled to one as well from any company they used to determine eligibility.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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pooka, it is 90 days, but multiple inquiries within two weeks of each other (I think) are considered one inquiry, at least for mortgages. I had to deal with this when I was selling mortgages up north.
If you are planning on looking at houses, it pays to do it all within the time period for that very reason...you only get the hit on your credit report once that way.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I had one thing that I knew was out there. But it was from Chase Bank, and I tried calling them to take care of it. They'd sold it, and couldn't give me any more information than that.
Meanwhile, it wasn't showing up on my credit reports, but I knew it was lurking out there somewhere. No one contacted me. So I did my best to make sure everything else was clean.
Finally, I got a thing from a collection agency. Can you imagine being relieved by something like that? The problem was, I didn't have the money to deal with it. So I waited four months, and just two days ago, closed it.
Please God, I should be completely out of the woods now. All I have left is to work at paying down and killing off the cards that still have balances.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Mine looks good, but I have a question. Is it bad to have a credit card active that is never used? I have 2 cards on the report: One of them I use, the other is a store-specific card that I got for the 1-time purchase discount and have never used for anything else. There's no fees to leave it open and it shows on the credit report as "Pays As Agreed."
I'd guess that having the extra account showing Pays as Agreed is a good thing, but does the number of open credit cards count against you in any way?
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I'm afraid to check mine. Because when I cancelled my Sprint bill, they apparently claimed that I still owed them a bunch of money (I wasn't under contract anymore) and started sending collection letters to my parents' house...and my mother hid them from me until December, when I found them while looking through the file my dad has on me.
posted
The problem you get into when you have cards you never use is if you have a huge amount of available credit showing on your report. If you have 3 cards with $10,000 each available on them and you go to get a loan for a house or car, they can look at your report and consider you a higher risk because of the available credit. Even if you're not owing anything on the cards now you could go out the day after they give you the loan and max them out and be suddenly in debt up to your eyeballs. It won't have a huge effect on the rate you would get, but it will certainly be considered.
One store card with a low limit probably doesn't affect you in any way. But it also wouldn't hurt you to close it out if you don't use it. And if you get more store cards for similar reasons in the future, I would definitely say to close one out for every one you open.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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I have one major credit card and one store card, both with very low limits. But the store card's limit was just raised, which actually makes me feel better. I want the other card's limit raised just because I want to have enough credit available to get out of the city in a hurry if I need to. But they don't love me.
I wish it counted toward my credit to own property.
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Maybe I could spend an afternoon on a credit card closing spree. I think the hard part is that since I have never used the cards and certainly didn't keep them, I don't have the numbers to call to close them. THe only way to get a list of the cards i have is to get my credit report, I think.
But probably a good thing to do. It goes on the list. *enters it dramatically at spot #79 on list of things that must be done before August*
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote:Katie: You should call those companies up and ask for a higher limit. It should improve your credit score if you have a lot of available credit and low usage.
It will, but not as much as if you have a running balance that you pay on time and NOT in full.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Sadly, by that standard, I have FANTASTIC credit. I keep thinking that the last $400 will be done next month, but then something (usually a plane ticket) happens and it just isn't.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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Beware closing too many cards... Start closing accounts, and it can hurt your credit as well. No credit is barely better than bad credit, a lot of times.
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I'm not worried about the loss of a half a dozen department store cards.
I am slightly worried about T_Smith - he needs to get his own credit. Since his record is blank, this is great. There's nothing bad on there. I'd get a card, use it for clothes, and keep a balance of less than a hundred dollars on it while making payments every month.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I got a card and I use it exclusively for gas. Thus, I keep a pretty low balance and I pay it off every month.
The whole credit industry is a racket, IMHO. I have to pay to see a number that's manipulated without my consent and tremendously affects my life? Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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My father in law has committed fraud at least 8 times in the past 7 years using my husband's social. We discovered most of it recently and are in the process of getting it cleaned up, but the only way to stop it in the future is for him to go to jail or for my husband to change his name. Unfortunately, law inforcement doesn't seem to want to 'waste' time on white collar crime.
Posts: 77 | Registered: Feb 2005
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Yeah you do. You can get your credit report for free, but not your credit score. At least, that's what I've seen.
Posts: 221 | Registered: Mar 2003
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They want me to pay $6 to see my credit score (ie, the number). I can see the report for free, but the report doesn't tell me where I stand in relation to good credit or bad credit.
But heck, I mean, it's only $6. I'll probably pay to see the number next year.
If only I could devise a system where lots of people needed to pay me $6 for something... Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Katie: You should call those companies up and ask for a higher limit. It should improve your credit score if you have a lot of available credit and low usage.
It will, but not as much as if you have a running balance that you pay on time and NOT in full.
'
You get two HUGE hits on your credit score due to credit limits, and both of them happen regardless of payment history...and they happen over and over again for each time you get close to your limit, even if it is only because you limit is very low.
It is far better to have a $10,000 credit limit and use $4000 if it than it is to use $350 of a $400 limit, even if you pay it off each month.
Even though the first situation means you have a higher overall debt level, the credit companies use a weighted system to gage scores....and you get a hit each time you use 50% of your available limit...and a even bigger hit at 75%.
EACH TIME YOU HIT THOSE LIMITS!
Also, if you pay each card off each month, without carrying at least a small balance over, you get no benefit from using the credit at all. That helps a ton, although NOT as much as simply raising the credit limits a bit.
Whatever you do don't EVER hit more than half of your actual credit limit on any particular card; and even more avoid the 75% mark like the plague. THAT is the one that hurts the most, at least for most people.
Enig, having an unused card is not good at all, but isn't a horrible hit against you. If you don't use it at least occasionally you get no benefit from having it listed at all,and it can hurt you (although that is rare).
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Also, a bit of your score is due to longevity of credit....how long you have had credit. THAT is why closing cards can hurt your score, even if you only close the high rate ones. If one of the cards you close is your oldest card you have just lowered you score.
It is a small part of the score, something like 10% of it, but still an important one.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Pay it on time, and then ask them to rais eit after 6 months. They probably will in that case. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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They do take into account items like whether you are employed and how often you change addresses. Which is why I'm very frustrated that my husband got an extra address into the circulation when we moved. We were supposed to stay at my Dad's but wound up staying at my brothers. He wasn't allowed to take his PDA into his workplace so he put the address he saw everyday instead of the one we had carefully and specifically planned to use.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Also, the medical bill that was supposed to be paid by Medicaid from my pregnancy that got turned over to a collection agency because of a accounting error is still on there. I disputed that. Sheesh.
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Visa, why won't you love me?
