Best place to obtain ones credit Score???

14 years ago

Ok, we are possibly going to refinance our Condo, then rent it out, and then buy a house in Spring 2010. Which internet site is the best place for one to obtain their actual credit score? I realize one can check the 3 main companies once a yr for free, but they do not provide you the actual #. I see Myfico.com, Would their "Score watch" be worthwhile?? of course one would have to double the $$ if one wanted to have ur spouses credit score as well! Any recommendations would be great. thanks

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Comments (10)

dave_donhoff
14 years ago
Hi AFG,
As non-tech, non-automated as it is... the CHEAPEST way is to get your Pre-Approval done by a loan pro. Specify that you want to pay up front for your full joint trimerge report with scores (the industry gets them much cheaper than the public.) Ought to be under $30 for all 3 scores for both of you, PLUS your full liability and public records report.

Cheers,
Dave Donhoff
Leverage Planner
airforceguy
Original Author
14 years ago
Once again, you rock Dave, ty
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Here is my 'guess' and it is just that...a guess. Concerning 2 and 3. refinanced my mortgage early in 2005 to a very good rate. This now shows as a 'new' loan, and it has not been paid down much in one year, by their way of thinking. I have about $160K in untapped equity (no HELOC or anything), in what remains If I understand you correctly, you have equity in your home, but have not applied for a HELOC on it. Right? They don't have any idea really then that you have that equity...right? Now this is just a 'thought' but you might want to pay off the car loan with some of that equity in your home, and then concentrate all your efforts toward paying off the HELOC. I imagine there will be some who will say 'NO' to doing that though. I applied and was approved for a HELOC a few years ago, but have never tapped into it. I 'thought' I might want/need it to get the driveway paved, but found another way that was interest free for a year and that was all I needed. I might add that I have no loans 'open' at this time and no revolving credit 'owed', as CC are paid off each month. My guess is that once the car loan is paid, that your score will improve significantly. In the meantime your score is a high B, which is still miles above the norm. Sue
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Hi breenthumb, Rumour has it that there are other insurance companies. Granted, there are fewer than there used to be, as they, like most corporations, hate competition on their own level and will go to great lengths to get rid of competitors. Some time ago I had a personal tax-deferred retirement account with a stockbrokerage, which had incurred no administration cost for years, as it had been grandfathered that way when that company took over another company. When I came to the age where I had to reverse it from an account into which I paid in, into one into which I could no longer pay in, but must withdraw a certain percentage annually, which increases from about 7% at age 71 to 20% at age 90 and beyond, a problem arose. They said that there would be an annual administration fee, and my claim that it was a continuation/reversal of a fee-free account that I'd had with them for years fell on quite deaf ears. So ... I did some checking with some other agencies, and came back to report that, since such and such a company and so and so company would agree to carry my account without an administration fee, I was considereing transferring my account ... they seemed to have a change of heart, for it appeared that they, too, could carry that account without an admin. fee. Which they've done for about 10 years, now: nice to have a little skill and effort save one well over $1,000., on occasion, right? I didn't feel it necessary to include in my report the fact that I would be somewhat less inclined to use the other companies than the one that I had been with for years ... as Grandma used to say, "One should tell the truth ... but there's no reason that one should blab and tell all that one knows". So ... ... if you don't, or haven't owed money for several recent years in several locations/circumstances ... ... they figure that your trustworthiness is suspect, do they? As I've lived in over 20 locations in my 79 years (as I discovered when they asked over on KT in how many places one had lived), I've never owned a home ... ... so never had a mortgage. As I live fairly frugally, I've had few loans. Which situation is aided by the fact that I tend to buy old cars and drive them into the ground, which usually takes 5 - 7 years ... which enables me to buy them for cash (having added a bit to emergency funds from time to time, and drawing on it to make those smallish purchases). When I have substantial debt and must pay quite a lot of interest every month, it seems to me that, since much of our debt is usually non-deductible, if I have to pay $100. monthly in interest, and make $10.00 per hour, after-tax income ... that means that I work 10 hours/month for someone else, the holder of my loan(s). I'd rather wait until I can afford to pay cash ... and pay myself, instead. Learning how money works is an interesting hobby ... that pays well ... and I hope that you're developing increasing shrewdness at managiong your income and assets effectively: to benefit you rather than the other guys (with the exception of worthy charities). Hope you're part way into a happy weekend. One nice thing about retirement is ... that every day is weekend. A nice benefit of learning skillful management of money may well be/quite likely will be ... early retirement (at your choice, not because your company downsizes when you're about 50 ... leaving you out in the cold). ole joyful P.S. I could qualify, as I've had a Line of Credit, usually unused, for about 10 years, and have had a credit (actually "debt") card for several years, which I use infrequently. I recently took on another, which offered 1.9% on transferred balances for most of this year, figuring that I'd buy some stock using the original card, then transfer the balance, as the bank, which had usually charged me bank prime on my loans (fully secured), they recently said that prime was 3.5% ... but they needed a 1.5% surcharge, to total 5%. Now, however, they say that the interest on my Line of Credit will be 2.25% ... so I'll take that, instead of jockeying on credit cards - not a good idea to shift from one horse to another while crossing a stream, I figure. Most cards charge full rate (often 18% on mainline cards: 28% or so on store-issued cards) from the date of the advance until it is paid in full, and I'd not be sure how long it would take to transfer to the second card. o j
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Hi Sweeby, The "they" you are referring to are the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and Transunion,) and they do not own the credit scoring algorithms, a firm named Fair Isaac and Company (FICO) does. FICO has designed different scoring algorithms for the different risk-measurement concerns of various industries. Car financing companies place different importance on certain historical behaviours than insurance companies, and different from mortgage companies. FICO sells access to the selected algorithm as a subscription with a "per incident" charge. These charges are not cheap, and the bureaus can make more profit if they sell the unwitting general public a "MyScore" number instead, which they generate with a roughly estimated formula carefully designed to NOT be too close to match actual FICO (else the FICO "trade secret" attorneys come a'stormin.) Even if you go to MyFICO.com, the consumer sales site for Fair Isaac, the free version is fairly meaningless as a yardstick for actual credit application qualifications... PLUS the actual lending and insuring companies won't do business with a report they didin't directly pull (to prevent the likelihood of credit fraud.) STILL... base knowledge is always good. So watching your own credit for self-management is certainly a good thing! Cheers, Dave Donhoff Strategic Equity & Leverage Planner
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lillianaaa
14 years ago
If you are pretty sure your credit is good then you can get it from your lender when they pre approve you.

The article attached explains how to get it free from the credit bureaus.

You might think about paying for monitoring until after you buy your condo so your aren't surprised by something between now and then

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Get Your Free Credit Report
bushleague
14 years ago
Dave is off here unfortunately a lender score query is a 'hard' inquiry, which places a dent in your fico score of approximately 10 points. Myfico has a good deal, just cancel prior to the end of the free trial.
jakkom
14 years ago
You are entitled to get your credit reports free from all 3 major credit bureaus once a year. But they do not have to give you a free credit score, which is different. I believe they estimate the credit score, which is usually close to, but not identical to the Fair-Isaac scoring. FI is what most lenders use. myfico.com is the consumer website run by Fair-Isaac.

Remember your credit score is constantly being updated, so it will always change from month to month.
rada
14 years ago
The FTC recommends annualcreditreport.com. They even have a video ad for it on the FTC YouTube channel that you can view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GC9dobzEKc.
loralee_2007
14 years ago
airforceguy,
If you already have a mortgage, your mortgage holder can tell you what your credit score is - free of charge.

The only reason to pull your actual credit reports, is to prevent identity theft and ensure any problems are thereby dealt with.

Having said that, depending on the nature of your relationship with your mortgage holder, you might negotiate directly with them that any negative hits are brought to your attention.
airforceguy
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks all. Our mortgage dude got gave us our # and a copy of the report. All is great. Now only if he communicated better,lol is it really that difficult after telling him 4 times not to call my wifes cell phone during the day, but to contact us via this #?? lol He just isn't a detail guy,lol Thanks
dave_donhoff
14 years ago
Hi Bushleague,

My advice is and was completely accurate. Further, although a hard mortgage inquiry can be a 3-7 point hit to scores (not 10) all hard mortgage inquiries taken within a 45 day rolling window are calculated for scoring purposes as only a single inquiry.

Further, although MyFico offers a "free trial" you get nothing more than you pay for, unfortunately. They *ONLY* provide your Experian FICO score. Mortgage underwriting qualifies you on the score that ranks in the middle from all 3 bureaus; Experian, Equifax, and Transunion.

Knowing just one of them (even if for free) doesn't do you much good.

Airforceguy,

lol He just isn't a detail guy,lol

Uhhh... you're putting an assumedly large financial transaction in the trust of someone who's not a detail guy? What was it on the upside that had you decide he was a good financial advisor?
Good luck there pal!

Dave Donhoff
Leverage Planner
airforceguy
Original Author
14 years ago
We contacted MANY banks and tried comparing apples to apples, some made it easy, some did not! My wife is very very thorough, asks a zillion questions and takes notes, so she is more in the know with refinancing than I am! The bank we are going with (same one that has our current mortgage)gave us the best deal. And maybe I'm just over reacting ,but I don't like to waste peoples time, not do i like wasting there's. Have told him 4 times--3 on the phone and 1 in an email, Do NOT cal my wifes cell phone during the day, as she leaves it in the car, please contact us at this # instead. But hey, keeps calling the cell,lol He leaves a msg on my cell phone yesterday for some info he needs, ok, cool, he isn't calling my wife anymore (find out thats not true, as he had left a msg earlier on in the day on her cell,lol) So I email him with the information. On the subject line I say please reply to me so I know you got the message! He doesn't reply to me, so I have to cal him and ask, and yep, he saw my email! So instead of saying thanks dude via email, have to call him up! oh well! I have the old estimate sheet from our last refinancing a few yrs back and it all looks good! I'm really an easy going guy, and don't expect a whole lot of attention from others. Oh well as long as it closes Nov 16th. Already have his bosses phone # and have kept a log of all the stuff that has gone a little slow. Home appraisal was today, so hopefully it went well!! Thanks dave

Best place to obtain ones credit Score???

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