FICO SCORE

[Tenngal]

I was surprised that my fico score has dropped about 30 points in the last few years. The best I can figure out is that I am not making enough payments on enough debt. Mortgage has been paid off for years. Car has been paid off several years. Do we have to stay in debt to keep a high score? Any ideas?

[kib]

I've signed up for credit karma, they give me my score monthly for free and there's also an explanation of what and why. How much of your credit line you consistently utilize, the average age of your credit cards, how often you have a "hard pull" - the kind of inquiry a company might make before issuing a card or loan, for example, how often you've paid anything late, 'derogatory marks' - bankruptcies, foreclosures etc., and the total number of open and closed accounts you have can all have an impact on the score. If you create an account with Credit Karma they will tell you your score and why you received the marks you did for these things. I don't think they will go into the past, but they can tell you why your score is what it is in the present, and keep track of motion in your score. I trust them, never had a problem.

[catherine]

Yeah, I think you keep your max score by using your credit cards, but not too much, like under 30% of your available credit. I've heard DR say that with his no-credit-card plan, you eventually wind up with a credit score of 0, but I don't believe that. I think you're either a friend or an enemy in the credit world.

[iris lilies]

I see my score fluctuate a bit. The credit rating is not an exact science and it seeme to me that a flucituation of 30 points is nothing to be concerned about. That's 3% of my total score, big deal. Thirty points probably isnt enough to throw you into a different category.

i will say that I ve never seen my score at 800 or above, it hovers in the 760's to 780's. I was briefly annoyed by that but then learned that my friend, who pays three mortgages and is leveraged to the hilt, has a rating over 800. If thats what Ive got to do to get to 800 I will pass.

[kib]

I hover around 825 and it remains within five points or so, so I must have hit the sweet spot - lots of available credit that I don't use (my monthly bill is about 2% of my available credit and I always pay it off), plus no bad marks, plus spotless payment record, plus some cards that go back over 20 years. We also have a small mortgage that's being paid down quickly, and I think that has, ironically, increased my score. I have heard that having too much available credit can be bad for your score, but that really doesn't appear to be the case. Maybe it's only bad if you want to apply for more, not for the score itself. The only thing I don't score well on is how often there's a hard pull on my account, I apply for whatever card is going to give me the best deal, whether they're going to pull a report or not.

[ToomuchStuff]

Yeah, I think you keep your max score by using your credit cards, but not too much, like under 30% of your available credit. I've heard DR say that with his no-credit-card plan, you eventually wind up with a credit score of 0, but I don't believe that. I think you're either a friend or an enemy in the credit world.

Personally, I am pretty sure that he is correct, but I am not sure of his time frame (heard him guess on that). My reason for believing it, is I got a CC before I bought my house. After I bought my house (couple years in), my Credit Union changed associations, with the card suppliers and they informed people whose card expired in a couple of months (mine did), to get in touch with them, as they were sure they were going to miss people. I didn't and decided to go without for several years, until one day Sears offered me a card, and ok'd me because I had no credit rating. (my home was owner financed, so it didn't show)

[freshstart]

I hover around 825 and it remains within five points or so, so I must have hit the sweet spot - lots of available credit that I don't use (my monthly bill is about 2% of my available credit and I always pay it off), plus no bad marks, plus spotless payment record, plus some cards that go back over 20 years. I have heard that having too much available credit can be bad for your score, but that really doesn't appear to be the case.

this is me and I hover between 830-850. I panicked when I went on disability, I got a letter that one card was lowering my limit because of my change in income. I called them and they ended up upping my credit line by 10k, lol, senseless. I already have quite a few cards but was afraid this was going to start happening with all of them, it never did and my score went up after I got a few more cards (I always look to have one card that is 15 mos no interest and cancel it when the 15 mos is up, good for an emergency) and asked my established cards for a higher limit. So credit scores make no sense to me but whatever I'm doing, it's working. Have no car payment or mortgage.

[JaneV2.0]

I wonder where Credit Karma gets their money. exactly. When I bought my car a few years back, my FICO was 805, which allowed me to qualify for the lowest rate. I paid the car off in a year and a half. I'm vaguely curious as to what my score is now, but I'm wary of turning my SS# over to an unknown entity.

[kib]

Well, they have a service for finding good credit card offers, and they refer to the companies that offer the cards as "our partners". I'm guessing they get well paid to promote certain offers. This is the disclosure:

Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from which Credit Karma receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). It is this compensation that enables Credit Karma to provide you with services like free access to your credit scores and free monitoring of your credit and financial accounts at no charge. Credit Karma strives to provide a wide array of offers for our members, but our offers do not represent all financial services companies or products.

I understand your reluctance, I have heard that they are safe but can only vouch for my own experience, which has been entirely untroubling so far.

ETA: I have not received any unsolicited offers for credit cards or other loans either through mail or email. I don't think they're selling my info to their partners. You can also get a free credit report from the federally approved site - one per year from each of the "big three" - and for an extra $5 (IIR), they'll throw in your score. https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

[shadowmoss]

I've used Credit Karma for maybe 10 years? I know one of the things they ding me a bit on is that I don't have enough credit accounts, but it says that it is low impact. Two of my credit cards now also offer my FICO score as a free service, Chase and CitiBank. They are not the same, and when I traded cars recently (no financing used) they checked and the score was lower than what any of the other services were using. At the time it didn't really matter as I wasn't financing, but I was surprised.