You guys are awesome. What a great site and discussion board. I am just beginning the cleanup process. What is the best online tools to give me instant access to me and my wife's credit report and scores from EXP\EQU\TU for the least amout of $$? I am reading everything I can get my hands on in preparation for the war of disputes. I have many questions though. Thanks for your feedback. Koinonia Starting my journey: Me/Wife (Score from last years mortage rejection) EXP - 580/581 (4/28/01) EQU - 540/538 (4/28/01) TU - 530/510 (4/28/01)
Welcome to the board! As far as viewing your credit reports, there are: Creditwatch for Equifax. With Creditwatch you get a free 30 day trial, then it is (I believe) $79 per year, unlimited access, unlimited score (your real FICO) score BTW. Creditexpert for Experian. With Creditexpert you get a free 30 day trial, then it is (I believe) $69 per year, unlimited access, unlimited score. The rates for each may be different if they are running any type of promotion. As far as Transunion goes, I'm not sure of any service that is worth it. Maybe someone else on the board can recommend one for you. However, one trick that folks do is just go to www.transunion.com and order your report by saying you were denied credit within the past 60 days, and it everything matches up you get instant online access for a week, plus score.
Koinonia, You couldn't get a loan with those scores? I know someone with worse and got one. He paid high%, but compared to 10-15 years ago it wasn't bad. Charlie
I was offered a "deal" for 30% down with 14% fixed interest. In my mind I was rejected. I only tried it with one mortgage broker last year. For 30% down on a $100k home I could settle with all of my debt, if I had the 30% to begin with. I did not want to shop around and have one of my creditors see the inquiries and freak out.
Make certain you read everything you can before you contact any of the CRA's...don't just go off willy-nilly and start disputing . read through the how to set up your files (in the library section) and how to track your responses, and then go from there. I wish I had known about this board before I started the process. I hurt my chances of having some items totally deleted because I gave too much information or the wrong information when I contacted the CRA's. Just do a little, follow the advice of the Experts, and you'll be on your way. I just can't caution you enough to make it a process, and focus on the journey...how you get there can have a huge impact on the final result. By the way, I subscribe to the Experian and the Equifax credit report tracking services and have found them to be very useful in the process of cleaning up my reports. Best of luck,
