majik

yup, good 'ol bankrupt Dave.

When I switched from my parent's Sprint account to one for my wife and I, my wife's credit score wasn't good enough so they asked her to put a deposit down on the account. They then ran my credit, and waived the deposit.

When I bought my recent car, and called insurance to add it, they told me my rates had just dropped (nearly 10%) because they re-evaluate your credit every three years to determine what adjustments should be made.

If your credit score is high and you're old enough, you don't have to worry about maintaining revolving accounts, loans, credit cards, etc. BUT, as I stated, my mom is a realtor, and she's seen tons of people denied for loans because of their credit score, regardless of their income.

I just ran my Experian score, and it's 770.

Percentage of credit currently available 72.84%
Satisfactory accounts 18
Now delinquent/derogatory accounts 0
Was delinquent/derogatory accounts 0
Public records 0
Number of inquiries 1 (refinancing last year)

I have OPEN:
5 Revolving accounts (credit cards, one opened 2003, 2 in 2006, 2 in 2007)
2 Educational Loans
1 Auto Loan
1 Mortgage

I have CLOSED:
7 Educational Loans (consolidation)
1 Credit Card
1 Mortgage (refinanced)

UrS0NvS

you know, i dont know who this Ramsey guy is, and could care less. Jon, it doesnt really bother me if i cant afford some of the things you can just because you have a higher credit score. credit scores to me are a bunch of bullshit truthfully.

yes, everything in this gawd dayum world relies on them but i am still a very much a person when a man's good word and a handshake are all you need.

yes, i have used a handshake to buy my first house, a handshake to buy all my vehicles, and will use a handshake to buy my next house which i will have a low, fixed interest rate.

all this without credit cards, cell phone , ETC. in my name.

done with this thread, OT threads to me are a bunch of wasted time in a car forum.

majik

I think you're taking this a little too personal. YOU are able to make it work, but for the majority of this site under the age of 25, or even 20, they might be screwed until they establish credit. It's becoming a bigger part of our lives. When you were younger, 15 years ago, I'm sure credit wasn't playing as big of a role.

A 20 year old making decent money can't buy an affordable home unless he has decent credit. I have those friends, I know it's reality. That's why we're trying to inform people. If you can't establish credit with credit cards, find another way.

Jon wasn't saying he could buy more because he had credit cards, he was saying you could save more and get lower rates by building your credit.

Sparticus

unfortunately my credit is in the crapper. I don't know my exact score, but I know it can't be good.

GMAC "wrote off" $500 because i was late paying a deductible when my 01 Tiburon got totaled. i took out a bank loan to pay off & close 3 credit cards (closing the cards was part of the term in the loan). That loan has since been closed in good standing. I had a Providian (which has since become Washington Mutual) card reach a debt collector. I was paying the collectors until they were tryin to force me to pay 2½ times more than the original aggreement. I just ignore them now.

I currently have 2 credit cards. a Sears MasterCard (Citi Card) with a $1300 limit (which i just brought to a zero dollar balance thanks to tax returns) and a Capital One card with a $1000 limit (current balance of $780 but will be dropping dramatically soon).

I'm doin my best to take care of these cards. my biggest issue is my student loan debt ($13000). I've been deferring those payments ever since i left college (3 years now) and my latest deferrment will end in April i believe. I'm gonna try to start paying those as opposed to putting them off. My deferrment is for personal reasons, so its still accruing interest.

some of my biggest issues i have is paying bills in a timely fasion. I tend to wait 2-3 months to pay my cell phone and dsl bill. i know it can't look good.... but they haven't been shut off on me ever, so i guess that's good?

If I were able to change my credit habits i would in a heartbeat. I opened a Old Navy and American Eagle credit card YEARS ago and they haven't been touched in at least 4 years. My guess is that those are closed.

I'm a little afraid to check my credit score to be honest. lol

edit: I just checked my credit report. although there are some negative reports on there that i knew, i was able to clear one up and it should be resolved. I opened a store credit card but never received it in the mail. all this time it was accruing interest/late fees. my balance ended up becoming 3 times more than what the original purchase was. I was able to get ahold of the issuing bank, they waived all the late fees, all the finance charges and will update my credit report of negative feedback....

the reason for this mix-up: some minimum wage worker typed my zip code in wrong in her computer and the bills/statements were never getting to me

thanks for this thread. otherwise i would have missed that.

i wasn't able to pull an actual credit score from my free report because getting the score costs like $6 @ Experian.... and honestly i don't wanna pay for that. lol. any way to get it for free? lol

majik

www.freecreditreport.com will give you a free score, and all the details. It's Experian

Sparticus

i honestly don't want to deal with signing up for Triple Advantage and then canceling it and all the crap that goes with it. if its free, you shouldn't have to provide a card number.

lilo shark

i think after i pay it off i'm going to look for a credit card that i'm more aware of and won't screw me on charges and interest.

majik

It's free, just call and cancel within 30 days and they won't charge you. I didn't sign up for Triple Advantage, just used the card to get the free account.

I did it for both my wife and myself, twice (last year and this year). I've never had any problems, and they didn't charge my card UNTIL I let them. I'm paying $13/mo. I think so that I can watch my score. Usually I wouldn't, since it doesn't really change from month to month, but I'm worried about some doctor bills screwing me over, so I'm watching it to make sure they don't put bad marks on my credit for no reason.

I know Jon has had problems with TransUnion (truecredit?) charging him after his membership. That's in the other thread though, in the Ask majik forums. I've used Experian's www.freecreditreport.com several times with no problem. I also like it because they give you a score for free, along with all the details.

JonGTR

Just remember that those scores are NOT Fico scores. They are not scores that banks use in lending. Notice the fine print at the bottom of the page that says "These are not to be confused with Fico scores. .....estimate.....our own scoring model.....we use 200-968 scoring....300-900...blah blah..." Fico is 300-850.

True Fico scores can only be had by your local bank or MyFico.com

http://www.myfico.com/Default.aspx

I'm using Myfico.com and they're charging me like $11 a month or so for my Equifax Fico scores. It gives you a report and true Fico score, then updates you every time your score changes. It's a good service for your true scores, but not for monitoring your reports.

For my reports, I use Credit Secure from my Amex card. It's $11 a month and let's me bump my EQ and TU hards. See Majiks forum for "bump" or "bumping" your hards. wink1.gif

The best monitoring layout was TU's truecredit.com Although they caught on to bumping, so I got rid of them. lol They also changed to once a month updates to EQ and EX reports, so it just isn't worth it anymore. What's the point in updating only once a month. That's NOT often enough to monitor well.

majik

I financed my car through Nissan, and they let me pick one of the 2 for my score to determine my rate (they said the 3rd was used more for housing). And when I refinanced my home, they pulled the 3 scores.

I wasn't aware there was a difference from FICO to the Big 3? What are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion for? What is FICO for?