ok - let's get personal - what's your FICO score?

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

recently i had some nitwit snag my Amex CC# off the Internet - who/how/when/why - i have no clue, but I've cancelled my card and have placed a fraud alert on my credit file (YIKES!)

as a smart trooper, i also ran a free credit report on myself (as everyone should) from http://annualcreditreport.com and I got my report, which was all clear and found out that I'm still classified as SUPER PRIME (thank God!)

I figured, what the hell - i'll pay for my score - which is now rated on a scale of 550-990 from Experian... I have a 980

yah, so i feel good about my score - but want everyone to be aware of the free credit check and also that you should check it 3x a year (once per credit system) because IT'S FREE!

That is not a FICO score. The Fair Issac scoring model runs from 300-850. Experian uses VantageScore, which rates differently on a 550-990 scale.

Congrats!

I actually check all mine annually at the same time, but I haven't been scored in a while. Mine took a hit doing some major purchasing and consolidating in 2004 and 2005 right after buying the home in 3Q2003. I'm waiting until next year for the dust to settle (24 months since last new account or inquiry) to buy my score.

Originally posted by ZoomZoom Diva:
That is not a FICO score. The Fair Issac scoring model runs from 300-850. Experian uses VantageScore, which rates differently on a 550-990 scale.

Congrats!

I actually check all mine annually at the same time, but I haven't been scored in a while. Mine took a hit doing some major purchasing and consolidating in 2004 and 2005 right after buying the home in 3Q2003. I'm waiting until next year for the dust to settle (24 months since last new account or inquiry) to buy my score.

yah, i was surprised by the Experian rating system - i was like WTF? LOL

Credit since age 18 (currently 21)+ all balances paid in full on monthly basis=765 average across three reporting agencies
I have no major financial obligations except for 40k+ in student loans pending(yikes)

Very proud of my credit and very parinoid of identity theft. I enrolled in privacy guard. It is free for the first year and full of usefull tools. They provide you with on the spot summaries of all beuros as well as an itemized list of inquirys and flags from various creditors. e sure to ditch it before the trail year is up as it costs nearly 100$ to enroll for another.

Experian must have changed its scale since I last checked.

I have to check fo rthis year but last year when I checked with experian I was around a 740 or so, 2 gas cards and 2 credit cards, canceled one that I received but never used and I am paying off about a 20k college loan at this time, not bad if I say so ...

now my father on the other hand, not sure what it is but he and my mother where going to co-sign the loan for their new mustang to get the bast rate but his score was so high that he signed it himself and got the lowest, ie best rate possible no questions asked

Not as good as it used to be.

You are right, everyone should monitor their credit report periodically, but I believe they only have to give you 1 FREE report a year. (State laws may vary) So 3 times per year might cost you a bit. I'm not saying it might not be worth it, just pointing out that it may not be free that often.

I think it was like 750 or so before we bought the house.
I noticed they still had some of my college loans on there that I paid off, so I've been meaning to check it again and dispute that.
I think they might have also listed Mike's college debt twice. weird.

Originally posted by frenchblueC2:
I think it was like 750 or so before we bought the house.
I noticed they still had some of my college loans on there that I paid off, so I've been meaning to check it again and dispute that.
I think they might have also listed Mike's college debt twice. weird.

If he consolidated his loans, his previous loans will still show on the report. They'll just show as either Paid-and-Closed or Consolidated, depending on the reporting agency you're going through. It does affect your score negatively because they still are counted as Open Fixed Installment Accounts (and there can be a lot of individual loans over 4-years of college) and detract from your score, albeit a simple count of the loans doesn't affect it very much. No idea why they do it that way, and I've tried to have them removed to no avail.

Originally posted by Ex-Mean'Tour:
Not as good as it used to be.

You are right, everyone should monitor their credit report periodically, but I believe they only have to give you 1 FREE report a year. (State laws may vary) So 3 times per year might cost you a bit. I'm not saying it might not be worth it, just pointing out that it may not be free that often.

once per reporting service is included in the 'free'

Ok, I'm hankering to know how I'm doing on my credit, number wise. My report looks pretty good, everything's accounted for, 6 open accounts, and about 8 g's in debt. But, I've only been building credit for 3 years(currently 21) Should I go with a FICO score, or the Experian score?

Originally posted by PlatoSVT:
Ok, I'm hankering to know how I'm doing on my credit, number wise. My report looks pretty good, everything's accounted for, 6 open accounts, and about 8 g's in debt. But, I've only been building credit for 3 years(currently 21) Should I go with a FICO score, or the Experian score?

If you want to know exactly what any other lender is going to see, FICO is going to be more universally accepted. Chances are that's what a lender is going to see. And, in my experience it tends to read a bit more conservatively (i.e. lower) so you've got less chance of being surprised when a lender pulls up a different score than you thought you had.

But, really any one of them will work. It's kinda like using a Dyno -- yeah, it'll vary a little depending on which one you go to, but as long as you always measure yourself against the same one, you'll be able to see any improvements made.

So I'm gathering that I should be happy with a score of 788 at age 21?

Originally posted by deftoned989:
So I'm gathering that I should be happy with a score of 788 at age 21?

Um. Yeah. Very.

Thanks for the help sigma. I went with Experian, but the site keeps timing out when I submit my payment information. I've tried twice now. Should I be worried, or just try again later? I know NOTHING about online fraud and what have you.

Originally posted by PlatoSVT:
Thanks for the help sigma. I went with Experian, but the site keeps timing out when I submit my payment information. I've tried twice now. Should I be worried, or just try again later? I know NOTHING about online fraud and what have you.

I personally use Experian myself. I use their CreditExpert program though, where I pay $10/month for them to constantly monitor my credit report for any changes. It's pretty cool in that they immediately notify me of any changes; I can open a new account at a store and there'll be an email when I get home notifying me that someone opened an account. And I get to pull my credit report as often as I'd like. Not a bad deal for a measly $120/year. I was spending $60/year just pulling the credit reports myself once a quarter, so now I can do it whenever I want, and the extra $60 is a small price to pay for the peace of mind of the monitoring thing.

But, anyways, I just pulled my credit report using their site directly. And something does appear to be up with their site. While I am able to look at my report, all the historical stuff isn't being displayed nor any of the statistics (total credit, used credit, etc). I'd say that something is up with their site. But nothing to be worried about, that's for sure.

If you're accessing that score through a free service it's possible that whatever server error that Experian is having is effecting that service from being able to retrieve the data they need.

[I enrolled in privacy guard. It is free for the first year and full of usefull tools. They provide you with on the spot summaries of all beuros as well as an itemized list of inquirys and flags from various creditors. e sure to ditch it before the trail year is up as it costs nearly 100$ to enroll for another.]

Why pay for one when you can get the whole lot for free as I stated above?

Meh, I'm not worried about all that enough to spend $120 a year on it. Once a year is good enough for me.

Under normal situations I'd agree. But I've been doing a lot of work the past 3 years on improving my score and it's useful to see the direct impact that the actions have on the score. And the monitoring has proven useful on several occassions; I'm dealing with one now where the creditor claimed that I was 30-days late even though I had a $0 balance. They admit they were wrong, but getting it removed from the various bureaus reports is difficult. The whole process would be significantly more difficult if it hadn't been caught right when it occurred.

Originally posted by sigma:
I personally use Experian myself. I use their CreditExpert program though, where I pay $10/month for them to constantly monitor my credit report for any changes. It's pretty cool in that they immediately notify me of any changes; I can open a new account at a store and there'll be an email when I get home notifying me that someone opened an account. And I get to pull my credit report as often as I'd like. Not a bad deal for a measly $120/year. I was spending $60/year just pulling the credit reports myself once a quarter, so now I can do it whenever I want, and the extra $60 is a small price to pay for the peace of mind of the monitoring thing.

I recently signed up for their credit monitoring, through PayPal, who were offering the service for free. I don't know if it's as in-depth as the CreditExpert service, but it notifies me every time any one of my credit lines increases by more than a specified amount or percentage, as well as every time there is an inquiry on my credit history. I figure it's worth the free service for identity theft monitoring.