Check your credit reports

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Tommie Hu$tle

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I had a host of errors that were on my reports. From getting them checked out my FICO score jumped 80 points. Not saying that yours will but, if you have credit you want to check it out. Some stuff was just nuts like my date of birth was wrong. I had a CLK on my credit report all sorts of silly stuff.
 
Joe said:
there's no way to check for free right?
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From what I hear, you are allowed one free check every year or two (I forget which). This may be just in NY, however, or I may have misunderstood things entirely, but I recall hearing something to this effect a couple of years back.


I think it's absolutely RIDICULOUS that you're not allowed to see your own credit rating without being penalized-- what sort of justification is given for that? Any credit experts out there? All I've heard is some (illogical, to me) speculation that "if you're checking your credit rating, chances are you aren't confident in your credit, which makes you gain points". Umm, sure. Or we can just be curious about a little number which has a profound effect on our lives in many areas.


So what gives? What sort of reasons do CC companies and credit bureaus usually give for this? Very curious.
 
if you just want to check your report and dont care about REAL scores, signup for the privacyguard.com free trial and you get 2 months of access for $1.
 
Loki said:
From what I hear, you are allowed one free check every year or two (I forget which). This may be just in NY, however, or I may have misunderstood things entirely, but I recall hearing something to this effect a couple of years back.


I think it's absolutely RIDICULOUS that you're not allowed to see your own credit rating without being penalized-- what sort of justification is given for that? Any credit experts out there? All I've heard is some (illogical, to me) speculation that "if you're checking your credit rating, chances are you aren't confident in your credit, which makes you gain points". Umm, sure. Or we can just be curious about a little number which has a profound effect on our lives in many areas.


So what gives? What sort of reasons do CC companies and credit bureaus usually give for this? Very curious.
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they are the embodiment of evil and greed. what more do you need? :)
 
Some states allow for you to get it for free twice a year Cali and Maine I think. As much as some of you hate the left coast CA is pretty good on consumer protection.
 
AirBrian, thanks for that link-- very informative. But that makes it sound like there is never a penalty for checking your rating, which is exactly the opposite of what I've heard over the years. So which is it? Are you allowed to check your rating without penalty? If so, is it limited to a set # of times per year, or is it unlimited? :)


Tom, that sounds similar to what I heard.


EDIT: Whoa, I always read your name as "AirBrain" for some reason. Whoops-- fixed. :P
 
Slick_Advanced said:
Some states allow for you to get it for free twice a year Cali and Maine I think. As much as some of you hate the left coast CA is pretty good on consumer protection.
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I'm pretty sure Cali isn't one of the states that lets you check for free. From what I remember it was 3-5 east coast states that did. Anyways thats all gonna change soon. Congress passed a law earlier this year that will let the west coast get a free credit report from the big three once a year starting this December. The fly over states will get free credit reports Spring 05 and the east coast Summer 05.
 
From what I understand, only voluntary inquiries from the last 12 months are listed on your report. So technically, if you request a report once a year, you should be fine as single inquiries alone do not have an effect on your score. However, if you request a report shortly after applying for a loan (house, car, student) or credit card, then it could damage your score because now you have multiple inquiries within a 12 month span.

Also, I've heard that if you are shopping around for the same type of loan (not credit card), like a house or a car, you will not be penalized for multiple inquiries of the same type.

EDIT: Ah, missed one of your questions. You've heard right, you can be penalized for requesting mulitple credit reports per year. The safe bet is once every 18 months or so to ensure the last inquiry has cleared from your credit history. Sometimes the agencies are slow. :|
 
This is a subject I've learned a great deal about in the last 6 months. Inquiries are broken up into two categories; soft and hard.

A soft inquiry is when you pull you credit. It does NOT have any effect on your score and IS NOT viewed by others. You can pull your own credit 1 time a year or 365, it doesn't matter.

A hard inquiry is when you apply for credit for a car, mortgage, HELOC, etc and DOES have an impact on your and can be seen by others. Each inquiry can take roughly 2-3 points of your score for the first year. The second year, it is listed on your report, but has very little impact. Besides the score effect, it also hurts to have many over a short amount of time (you shouldnt have more then 4-5 per 6 month period, the lower the better), because a lender does not know whether you are "shopping" for the best offer, or if you are desperately trying to get credit because of financial trouble.
 
My report once showed that I filed for bankruptcy in 1987.

Only problem is, I was 10 in 1987. So theoretically, you can argue your way out of any black marks on your record...
 
bjork said:
My report once showed that I filed for bankruptcy in 1987.

Only problem is, I was 10 in 1987. So theoretically, you can argue your way out of any black marks on your record...
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On something like that, all you have to do is dispute it and (most of the time on the first, sometimes the CRA are idiots and it will take a second or third dispute) it will be dropped off your report.
 
Megat0n said:
If your going to order a report, do a 3-in-1 with Score power from Myfico.com
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Smart man. I check mine constantly, can't be too careful nowadays!
 
I disagree with the 3-in-1. They often mask errors from the different agenices.

A single report is based on ONE agencies reporting. Companies don't usually buy a 3-in-1 when the do a request on you. They usually pull from one agency so if one agency is missing information or is not up to date you get penalized. You want to make sure that everyone is on the same page.


One agency had a 2001 CLK on my report, another had my birthdate and my my dad's birthyear as my DOB, and another had my dad SSN as my SSN. A three in one won't pick that up.
 
When you do a 3-in-1 report with score power from Myfico.com, they are pulling a report DIRECTLY FROM EACH BUREAU and not a simply comparison of what each report lists.
 
Slick_Advanced said:
You don't say. How do you go about correcting error with myfico?
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When you order, you are given a confirmation # for each bureau and you then dispute it with the credit reporting agency (equifax, transunion, experian) that is reporting the incorrect information..
 
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