Checking your credit report

golgi said:

I want to find out my credit report and visited bankrate.com to get some info. They said that the only way to get your credit report from each of the three agencies is only through www.annualcreditreport.com. I just wanted to double check that this was a legit site before putting my info in it to get my credit report. Is this what you guys went through to get your credit report?
Thanks!

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Hi Golgi, I'm actually in the process of "spring cleaning" my credit history and I actually went directly to the 3 credit bureaus online (www.equifax.com, www.transunion.com, www.experian.com) and ordered my free reports. 2 of them came immediately, but transunion slow footed mine to me.

To get my score, however, I invested in Suze Orman's Fico Kit (www.myfico.com - $49) and I believe it was worth the cost. The biggest benefit I've enjoyed so far are the custom dispute letters, which the kit writes up in less than 10 minutes. As it turns out, I ended up using the letters as a guide to actually dispute to all 3 bureaus online (saving postage and time)...a free process once you've ordered your reports and receive your confirmation numbers.

Hope this helps,

I agree... myfico.com is the easiest way to go, because you also get your credit SCORE, which is what actually determines what interest rate a lender will offer you. Depending on where you live though, you're entitled to a free credit report at annualcreditreport.com. It'll save you some cash, but it won't tell you your score. But its good enough if you're just checking to make sure there's nothing negative on your reports.

golgi said:

I want to find out my credit report and visited bankrate.com to get some info. They said that the only way to get your credit report from each of the three agencies is only through www.annualcreditreport.com. I just wanted to double check that this was a legit site before putting my info in it to get my credit report. Is this what you guys went through to get your credit report?
Thanks!

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Just remember though that every time you check your credit report, your credit score goes down. I'm not sure how the myfico.com website works, but I wouldn't go to all three sites and pull your report x3. I checked my report after college and it was ***definitely*** worth it. For some reason, the social security number on my account was wrong and it was basically my credit history with a couple of open loans from someone who had that SS# in Chicago. Correcting wasn't a problem, a couple of strongly worded letter to each of the agencies fixed the problem in about 5 days.

This is incorrect information. Checking your own credit score is known as a soft inquiry and thus does not negatively affect your credit score. It is a good idea to check your credit score once a year, especially when you have an income and are planning things like buying a house, etc. This myth has been going around for a long time, but it doesn't hold water. When you have a hard inquiry on your credit, ie by a mortgage lender, landlord, credit card company, etc...then your credit takes a slight dip, but it is not a profound dip. Just avoid hard inquiries 6months-1year before you are applying for a mortgage. In addition, multiple hard inquiries made within a 2 week period are counted as only one inquiry, allowing an individual to shop around for mortgage rates, credit, etc.

Don't pass on uneducated info. Do the research yourself, you will see.

Worriedwell

MS05' said:

Just remember though that every time you check your credit report, your credit score goes down. I'm not sure how the myfico.com website works, but I wouldn't go to all three sites and pull your report x3. I checked my report after college and it was ***definitely*** worth it. For some reason, the social security number on my account was wrong and it was basically my credit history with a couple of open loans from someone who had that SS# in Chicago. Correcting wasn't a problem, a couple of strongly worded letter to each of the agencies fixed the problem in about 5 days.

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Worriedwell is correct...checking your own credit absolutely does NOT impact your credit score. Most people unfortunately don't know much about how credit scoring works, and although there is indeed a bit of a "black box" element to it, there are a number of fundamentals everyone should know.

Some things that negatively impact your credit score are:

(1) delinquencies or collections - if you're late with your credit card payments or your payments don't meet the minimum amount, this can lower your score, depending on how late you are, how often you've been late, and how recent your lateness occurs. And of course, if your account has ever been turned over to a collection agency, even if it was a few years ago, this will hurt your score. Even if you've been on time for the past few years or your collection has been paid off and resolved, these items unfortunately remain on your report and lower your score for about 7 years (I think this is the number; correct me if I'm wrong on this).

(2) having a short credit history - this is why it's good to get a credit card as soon as possible, and one reason why it can be really bad to close older credit accounts. Just keep your old cards and use them once a year or so, to keep showing a credit history. You aren't liable for fraudalent purchases with Visa or Mastercards anyway, so it shouldn't hurt to keep these extra accounts.

(3) having a high balance to credit ratio - if you only have a total credit line of $500 and you're consistently racking up a balance of $450, this can hurt your score. This is why it's often good to increase your credit line, as long as it's not going to require a "hard inquiry," which may negatively impact your score. Most credit companies seem to regularly offer credit line increases without doing an inquiry, so it's often good to take advantage of this. Also, know that even if you pay off your balance in full each month, if you're racking it up close to your total credit line then your score can still be hurt by this, because depending on when a credit check is done this balance may still show up, even if you've already paid it. This is why it's a good idea to lay off the credit card use in the month or so before looking for a mortgage.

(4) having multiple "hard inquiries," which are credit checks by lenders, potential credit card companies, etc. These stay on your report for months to years - I can't remember the exact figure offhand - so this is why it's a bad idea to keep applying for new credit cards all the time.

I'm not 100% sure on a few of the specific details, so please feel free to correct me, but I think this helps give you the basic idea of what things can impact your credit score.

I checked my credit recently and my bank accounts (i.e. checking and savings) didn’t appear on the report. Does this type of accounts count toward my credit?

J.opt said:

I checked my credit recently and my bank accounts (i.e. checking and savings) didn’t appear on the report. Does this type of accounts count toward my credit?

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No. Only secured lines of credit (HELOC), unsecured lines of credit (credit cards), unsecured loans (personal signature loan), and secured loans (mortgage, auto loans, loans against personal assets, etc.) show up on your credit report.

The best way to increase your credit report is NOT paying bills on time. Paying bills on time doesn't really increase the FICO all that much, but missing payments will damage it severely.

I have found the best way to increase the score is to reduce your utilization; that is, the used amount of your lines of credit versus the credit limit. Maxing out your cards is a bad, bad idea. Try to keep your debt to 30% or lower on each credit card you have. Having a lot of cards isn't necessarily a bad thing, but using them too much is.

www.creditboards.com is a wealth of information. Check it out.

www.annualcreditreport.com is indeed legit. It's an FTC site.

But anyway, I also go through myfico. In fact, they just sent me this on my email:

FICO® Deluxe is your complete credit picture – All three credit scores and reports from TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. Includes the FICO® Score Simlulator, which analyzes your personal credit information and answers questions like, "What happens to my score if I pay off a credit card or open a new account?"
Instant online access for [$44.85] (this was crossed out) $38.12
(Enter promo code spring15 when prompted at purchase)

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It's good through May 20, 2005.

Just thought I'd pass it on.

worriedwell said:

This is incorrect information. Checking your own credit score is known as a soft inquiry and thus does not negatively affect your credit score. It is a good idea to check your credit score once a year, especially when you have an income and are planning things like buying a house, etc. This myth has been going around for a long time, but it doesn't hold water. When you have a hard inquiry on your credit, ie by a mortgage lender, landlord, credit card company, etc...then your credit takes a slight dip, but it is not a profound dip. Just avoid hard inquiries 6months-1year before you are applying for a mortgage. In addition, multiple hard inquiries made within a 2 week period are counted as only one inquiry, allowing an individual to shop around for mortgage rates, credit, etc.

Don't pass on uneducated info. Do the research yourself, you will see.

Worriedwell

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Okay okay, sorry about that. I can't remember where I heard/read it, but it seemed to sound right at the time. Anyway, the jist of my message was to make sure you do check your report because they do sometime hold inaccurate information.

does anyone know how long it takes after entering the country to get a credit history? Is 6 months of paying bills enough or does it take closer to 12?

Retinamark said:

does anyone know how long it takes after entering the country to get a credit history? Is 6 months of paying bills enough or does it take closer to 12?

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It will usually happen about 2 months after you open an account that gets reported to the credit bureau. Credit card companies tend to report the fastest and if you are just starting to establish credit, getting the Discover card is the easiest. Good luck!

www.annualcreditreport.com is the OFFICIAL site that was put into place after the legislation requiring access to credit reports (I don't know the exact legislation and am too lazy to check at the moment). If you go to the three major credit agency websites you will find each one links to annualcreditreport.com. You are entitled 1 credit report from each of the three agencies per year, that means (to the best of my potentially erroneous knowledge), you are allowed 3 credit reports per year -- one from equifax, one from experian, one from transunion. You can get them all at one time, or have them spread out 1 every 4 months. This is specifically addressed on the FAQ page of annualcreditreport.com. The advantage to the former option is that you can compare each report to the other two. The advantage of the latter option is that you better monitor your credit for signs of fraud. Of course, there are better ways to monitor your credit which has been stated in this thread already, however, all those options cost $$$. annualcreditreport.com is free!

Code Brown said:

...getting the Discover card is the easiest. Good luck!

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I got denied by Discover twice before Citi aproved my first credit card. Just my 2 cents.

J.opt said:

I got denied by Discover twice before Citi aproved my first credit card. Just my 2 cents.

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Another random tidbit that might be helpful. If you're denied credit you're thereby entitled to a free credit report. This is a separate issue from the annualcreditreport.com thing, and was in place before this website was created. I believe the report would come from the bureau that was consulted by whatever bank or other such entity declined you for credit, but I'm not 100% sure on how it works.

If you are denied credit then they must provide you with the name(s) and address(es) of the credit agency or agencies they used. That applies to any company that uses credit reporting agencies to give out money. I was denied a private student loan and they sent me the name of the credit reporting agency.

-X

TommyGunn04 said:

Another random tidbit that might be helpful. If you're denied credit you're thereby entitled to a free credit report. This is a separate issue from the annualcreditreport.com thing, and was in place before this website was created. I believe the report would come from the bureau that was consulted by whatever bank or other such entity declined you for credit, but I'm not 100% sure on how it works.

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Retinamark said:

does anyone know how long it takes after entering the country to get a credit history? Is 6 months of paying bills enough or does it take closer to 12?

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To actually have a credit history? It depends on what you're looking to do with it. If you have a utility company that reports to a credit bureau (which some do) and a credit card. There are 2 tradelines. You might have a high score after 6 months but depending on what type of credit you are after, you still have a "lack" of credit. Usually for your avg loan/mortgage they look for at least 4-5 active tradelines open 12-24 months. KEYWORD IS ACTIVE. If you have a credit card and don't use it or if you have closed a credit line or paid off a loan. Its NOT active. But it will be a positive reflection of history on your report which does help your score.

Credit scoring is a really complicated process which is why the scores fluctuate between 3 agencies. Also, not all creditors report to all 3 agencies as well.