New to these boards and enjoying learning all kinds of new stuff. First question: I know a few ways to get a free credit report (ConsumerInfo, etc), but it seems like some people here are checking their score quite frequently. Do you keep signing up for these free offers so you can get your report for free? Or is there another way to do it? How did you get your TU score for free?? I just disputed 6 things on my TU report - 3 of them were removed - and by removed I mean my Sears account with a few lates on it from several years ago was completely deleted from my report.... and so were the other 2 items that I disputed... gone from my report. *Poof* The other 3 items I disputed were left alone - no changes made at all....not even the date verified! But my score went down 13 point?? I did have 2 mortgage refi inquiries, and my cc balance stayed about the same.. within about $40. Did not apply for any credit cards... just the refi. I'm trying to find out how my score can go down by getting nasty stuff taken off of it?? I was sure it would go up! Also - does anyone know what type of minimum scores you need to get a credit card (i.e. Discover, AT&T)? I keep getting offers in the mail saying 'pre approved' but I'm scared to apply since I don't want my score screwed up any more. My spouse and I have 3 cards with $500-$600 balances ($1000 cl) and I was thinking it would be better to have 1 card with like a $2000+ cl... or would it be wiser to call and ask for limit increases on our existing cards?? (we haven't been late on any of these cards or anything else for over 3 years). The rates on these cards are pretty good - 9-10%. Any insights? Thanks, Ozzy.
Welcome to the board Ozzy. You can get your report free several ways. For instance: 1) www.creditexpert.com will give you unlimited views of your report for $80/year. There is a 30 day free trial, so you can get unlimited views of your Experian report for free for 30 days. Some say it is worth the $80...I cancelled but it was a great resource for the 30 day trial. 2) www.Worthknowing.com will give you your free TU report. But some say this is really worth-nothing.com because the report may have inacuracies and the score is worthless. 3) TU now offers their report online and will give you your report free online if you have been denied credit or for other reasons...goto their website and check it out www.transunion.com 4) Equifax report can be obtained for free at www.Privista.com Again for a free trial and then you must cancel or pay a yearly fee. 5) If you have disputed or have a hard copy report you can go to the CRA's website and check the status using the report confirmation# which will give you unlimited views of that report. I know this works on Experian, I think it may work similarly on the others. Your score can remain the same or even go down after removing negatives in many ways. Most commonly if your dispute results in the deletion of an older account whose age was actually a positive to your score and now your credit history is more recent and shorter in length. In addition to removing positive values, there may be more negative factors influencing your score than the ones removed, and the only way to get your score to go up is by removing those as well. Keep chugging away. As far as score minimums for cards I am not a good resource, but I can tell you recently people with moderately ok scores have been able to get the Citi AA Silver/Gold cards simultaneously with pretty good limits and rates and have them converted to Platinum Select...do a search on Citi. Good Luck. -Peace, Dave
Hey Nave...possibly a dumb question here, but where on the CreditExpert site is the "cancel trial" option? My 30 days is almost up and I want to bail before they charge my card. Sorry if I'm overlooking the obvious. Thanks!!
I have not been a member for some time but if they haven't changed the interface drastically here is how I did it... JudyPuty explains how, click here! I ended up canceling successfully using the online method that Judy describes, even though the rest of the thread goes on to explain how it did not work. They have since fixed the online cancelation method. If they have changed the interface you should call CreditExpert. -Dave
Good luck finding out-You have as much chance as a fried snowball. The only thing you can be sure of is you can't be sure of anything about F I C O ! Fico will screw up your score no mtter what you do or don't do.
Hi all... thanks for taking the time to field my questions. I was still wonderin' though.... is it better to have 3 cards with a $1000 limit on each or 1 card with a higher limit... or does it not matter? Ozzy.
I'm going to take a shot. It really depends on the age of the accounts. Actually, there's a number of factors that affect your fico score. When you get your credit reports, Equifax will tell you what top 3 factors that are affecting your credit score. Have you tried to get a credit line increase?
