Online Credit Scores

[m80dvt]

How accurate are these free credit score websites? I signed up for a free trial on freescoreonline.com and my scores were Trans 706, EX 619, & EQ 630. Well, I was feeling pretty good about my scores, so I applied for a Barclay's card and was denied, they had my Trans score at 585.

Are these free sites inflating scores or is it that Barclay is using old information? I just got my first CC a few weeks ago, & that has already showed up on my credit report, so looks like they are updating my file. I filed in Oct 2010 and was discharged in May 2011.

[ValleYum]

Creditkarma.com is TU's freebie site. It may give you a good idea of what is reporting - I find it very comparable in information with what my paid subscription (due to a security breach with a creditor) at Equifax provides.

[keepsmiling]

Sorry to hijack, but Valley (or anyone)-- Credit Karma has me down for 3 hard pulls.... I certainly haven't applied for anything... any thoughts?

[ValleYum]

Can you see who pulled your report? I can see the one hard pull (from a realtor for rental property no less!) on both my CreditKarma and Equifax report. My concern would be for some a creditor being shady and trying to see if you have $$...

[jetsfan2010]

i found that the "free" report sites are good, but the scores varied. about a year ago I signed up for myfico.com as well as ordering my score from 2 of the "free" sites. Well, myfico gave me a score that was 14 points lower than the free sites.

[df04527]

Any scores from a third party are not your real "lending" scores that lenders use. They use their own and the only way to find them out is by doing what you did. Lenders put their own spin on the scores to calculate their risk to them personally. All use FICO as the base to start. These third party scores are very well known to be off by as much as 100 points.

[HHM]

Okay, let me give my periodic speech...

Don't worry about your score. You actually have very little control over it. The passage of time is the MAIN factor that will increase your score.

I personally, don't advise subscribing to "paid" monitoring services, I view them as a waste of money. Credit Karma is free, but it is a data mining operation to push you products.

Post bankruptcy, there are three things, and only these three things, that will improve your score.

1. Make sure everything is reported properly. All accounts should reflect a zero balance, the comments should say Included in Bankruptcy, (or some variation) and there should be no payment history updates after the date of filing the petition. You can get a free credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com about 2-3 months after discharge and start verifying.
2. Passage of time. (nothing active you need to do, just let time pass)
3. Re-establish credit usage. Nothing active you need to really do, most people start getting credit card offers fairly soon after BK (months), if not, go back to step 1. Get ONE sub prime card, charge $50, and pay it off each month. After about a year of doing that, you should start getting offers for prime cards, get TWO of those cards, and do the same thing, charge a very minor sum, and pay it off each month. If your first card has an annual fee, try to get it waived, if not, then do close it and get a 3rd prime card.

None of those tasks requires credit monitoring and none require you to pull a score. You need to free yourself from credit score hysteria (addiction). Let me put it this way, would you really put on your tombstone. Here lies John Smith, Died with a 767 credit score...is that how you want to be remembered. Somehow, I doubt it. So, stop sweating it and live your life.

Save and invest, don't borrow and spend.

[keepsmiling]

Can you see who pulled your report? I can see the one hard pull (from a realtor for rental property no less!) on both my CreditKarma and Equifax report. My concern would be for some a creditor being shady and trying to see if you have $$...

If that info is there, I don't know where to look for it

[SPalin]

If that info is there, I don't know where to look for it

It's usually near the bottom of your report in the "Inquiry" section.

[Logan]

HHM is pretty much dead on.
The most important thing you can do is pay your bills on time. It's actually pretty simple.

Logan