Genuine FREE Credit Reports!

How to order your FREE credit report once a year:

Online: www.annualcreditreport.com (or download a mail-in form)
By phone: 877-322-8228
By mail: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348

NEVER order a credit report from a site that asks you for a credit card number before giving you your 'free report'. Several firms have been convicted of secretly charging yearly credit monitoring fees.

The best known good consumer site is www.myfico.com which is the Fair Isaac Company site (they invented credit scoring). This site has some useful credit comparison tools showing how credit scores affect interest rates which in turn affects your payments. A Tri-Merge (3 bureau) report costs about $50.00. If you check your own credit, it does not affect your FICO score.

Be aware, you do not need to sign up for regular credit check services unless you are concerned that someone has been abusing your identitiy. If you have experienced identity theft and you are concerned that your are still at risk, you can  first make a police report, then send than information to all three Bureaus and they will 'lock' your file with a PIN code so no-one can attempt to check your credit without your code and permission.

When a lender pulls your credit, it can deduct up to 3 points from your FICO score, one for each bureau. Loan shopping beyond a 10 day period can impact your score significantly by going outside the 'de-duping period', so try to confine the number of lenders you allow to pull your credit within 2 weeks. Online lending firms have been known to 'shop out' your report to several agents (who each pull your score). The last 90 day period on your report shows the credit checks that were made and by whom. A responsible mortgage broker will only submit your loan application to a qualified lender they know can fund your loan given your specific requirements. Online shopping exposes you to agents seeking 'easy targets'.

Note: Free consumer reports may not show your FICO Score. You can opt to pay a fee for that information, which lenders require. The free reports are offered once a year. I charge the actual cost of approximately $20 for a Tri-Merge report in conjunction with a loan application, which shows your score. We give you a copy and discuss any issues to be aware of. 80% of credit reoports have errors on them!!

What's a good score?  300-850 is the score range, with 850 being perfect, 720 is excellent, 620 is the baseline with under 600 being considered poor. If you have applied for a mortgage your lender should provide you with a copy of your report which may or may not show your score (ours do).

If you are planning to get a mortgage within 3-6 months, it's a great idea to check your report to be sure everything is in order. Credit repair can be time consuming--even with sufficient proof.

Happy scoring! Loannetter
© copyright 2005 susan templeton loannetter

Popular posts from this blog

What's Your FICO Score Really Worth?

In today's market, personal credit scores are being skewed by a decline in average FICO ® scores. Why should you care? Well, if you are intending to get into debt responsibly in the coming year your FICO score is still the number one criteria your lender will use to determine your likelihood of paying them back. It's also one of the chief pricing factors to getting the best interest rate. That said, things are changing at a rapid pace. The newly minted FICO models are supposedly taking less consideration for small things like parking tickets but the really big defaults for big items like mortgages and car loans will weigh even more heavily as a result.  All defaults have less effect on your score as time goes on . With improved history that is! So it stands to reason that if more homeowners take the 'walkaway' option the impact will be figured into the score models for that particular historical period of consumer behavior. Essentially scoring mod...
Read more

Good Credit Scores=Good Behavior

Remember, your credit scores are based on your financial behavior, so good behavior is key to maintaining good credit scores as well as improving your current position. The List below is a quick review of how responsible borrowers behave . Always pay all of your bills on time. This proves your reliability and demonstrates consistent behavior and responsibility. Check your credit reports regularly and correct inaccuracies. Verify that the information reported about you is correct. Dispute anything incorrect with each of the credit bureaus immediately. Some disputes may require contact with financial institutions too. While it is best to document your disputes in writing, to all three bureaus simultaneously. Some bureaus provide customer service by telephone with instructions on how to register for a fraud alert. Monitor your accounts closely for signs of identity theft. Simply review each statement and verify that all bills are authorized, accurate, and your own. Guard PINs and acco...
Read more

Stop Your FICO From Becoming a Fido!

Online Mortgage Shopping Impacts FICO Scores If you've considered checking out an online mortgage site: think again. What they don't tell you is that their network may comprise multiple agents. Each may pull your credit report (separately) over a course of hours or days while they review your loan options. While all this is going on, your FICO score is taking a nosedive. Each mortgage inquiry can negatively impact your score 3 points. Each time. So if 10 brokers pull your credit in one 90 day period you could be 30 points worse off. And here's the scary part: each of those 10 brokers could actually submit your application to another 10 banks who also check your credit and that little exercise just cost you 30 points per broker...so the potential for damage is exponential. Because banks and lenders have strict FICO score requirements, a lower FICO Score can affect your qualifying for the loan you want. So much for convenience... What is a FICO Score? Invented by the ...
Read more