To summarize, based on all this info., if I were starting my credit repair this is what I would do: - Buy your TransUnion score from the MyFico.com website. It's cheaper there (only $12.95) and you have the option to dispute it online through MyFico.com. - Buy your Equifax report w/ score directly from Equifax Personal Solutions. That way you can start your dispute online. The price is still $12.95. - Buy your Experian report from the Experian website. Pay NO attention to the score they give you, only look at the information on the credit report and dispute (online) the things that aren't accurate. - When your Experian report is as clean as it's gonna get, go to the MyFico.com website and purchase a credit report w/ score for $12.95. This way you'll get all three of your FICO scores and still preserve your ability to dispute the information online.
The one thing that I forgot to mention in my earlier posts is that the impact of certain baddies is actually even greater than some of us may have thought. For example, suppose you have a completely clean credit record with 10 yrs. of history. Just take a look at the effect of a 60-day late or a judgment hitting your account. Not only do you get the negative factor that you were more than 30-days late on an account but you'll also lose the positive effect you had from never being late AND you'll lose the positive effect of your credit history (because it no longer matters now that you're late). Bummer, eh?
You can actually now buy the Experian FICO at MYFICO.com now. I did it the other day. Although they don't have some of the nifty other things for it like the score simulator. There was also a way to get the scores for a buck and change cheaper, which I'm trying to remember if I used a NAR ID number or what the hell I did.
Re: Re: here's a FICO puzzle... Correction. ANY FICO report you get at myFICO.com can be had for $11.65 by using the promo. code "REP110". If you opt to buy your EQ FICO at myFICO.com and are willing to pay for 6 at a time, you can get them for $7.49 a pop by purchasing myFICO's Credit Advantage with the promo. code "MYFICOVIP" (Thanks to Psychdoc for that tip) !
Re: Re: here's a FICO puzzle... Here's some anecdotal info re: EXP scores. With respect to the EXP Creditexpert FAKO score, some lenders who pull EXP directly DO GET THIS SCORE. Last summer we tested this with our bank. The results were interesting. One one report, we had two 3-year-old paid tax liens. The other report was completely clean. On the clean report, the bank's score matched identically the Creditexpert FAKO. On the report with the liens, the bank's score was about 60 points lower. (Based on the relative scores, it appears the FAKO score was no longer considering the liens, but the bank's score DID take them into account.) The clean report was pulled again about 6 months later and was still identical to the EXP FAKO. Currently, the EXP FAKO for the clean report is 794. The FICO is 715. The EXP FAKO for the report with the liens is 774. The FICO is 684. Last month, the FICOs were the scores pulled when a lender pulled a tri-merge for a mortgage. Days prior, the FAKOs were the scores pulled by two CC companies for business cards. (I discussed with the credit analysts and they confirmed the scores.) So, both scores in the EXP case CAN be of value depending on your purpose. Our problem has been that the scoring algorithms are so different for EXP and for FICO that maximizing one has always seemed to hurt the other. DemPooches
Re: Re: here's a FICO puzzle... wow, this thread really should be saved, there's loads of useful stuff now. thanks for the myfico.com code, didn't know about that one.
