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Re: FICO score
Old 01-14-2007, 09:12 AM   #21
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Re: FICO score

Quote:
Originally Posted by LOL!
How so? Someone can still steal your ID even with credit report monitoring.
With free credit reports available why pay for it? If you are married, you can get 6 free credit reports per year. You get one in Jan, May, Sep. Your spouse gets one in Mar, July, Nov. That's one every two months. It costs nothing.
Time is of the essence. The service will notify me by e-mail if anyone is looking into my credit report. In my case three department store credit cards were issued fraudulently before I noticed anything was wrong. They charged a total of $4000......

Your credit can easily be ruined way before you get your free credit report.
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Re: FICO score
Old 01-14-2007, 11:41 AM   #22
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Re: FICO score

Quote:
Originally Posted by Corporateburnout
Time is of the essence. The service will notify me by e-mail if anyone is looking into my credit report. In my case three department store credit cards were issued fraudulently before I noticed anything was wrong. They charged a total of $4000......

Your credit can easily be ruined way before you get your free credit report.
I totally agree, Corporateburnout, and we do the same thing. It costs about $80 per year for both of us, after discounts, for the FICO/credit monitoring service, but it is well worth it. Identity theft is rampant and until it happens you have no idea of what a hassle it can be. It happened to a friend of ours and it was a nightmare!
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Re: FICO score
Old 01-14-2007, 11:55 AM   #23
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Re: FICO score

A late 30 day is a big deal, even once, even with a good excuse. By the way, all you can do is put a "consumer statement" into your file to explain the late. Believe it or not, in some cases a consumer statement can cause problems of their own, as this suddenly introduces interpretations by people reading the report. Anyone can see the consumer statement that can get your credit report, so choose your wording wisely. Some creditors view a consumer statement around an unresolved credit problem to mean that the consumer may be "high maintenance" or "troublesome". In any case, it will not change the credit score #.

Score number is a function of length of credit, lack of 'events', percentage of debt to available credit, and the some other interesting tidbits. Therefore, closing old credit cards out may make your score worse. Closing unused credit sources may reduce your available credit and therefor increase the debt to credit ratio, lowering your score. Some folks have determined that an optimum credit score can be achieved by holding exactly three credit cards, two major and one gas. Having department score credit cards appears to lower your credit score. Hard inquiries or excessive soft inquiries may have an effect on your score.

There is also a time factor. Making major changes to your credit may take months or even years to fully take effect and can have a short term negative effect.

Filing a dispute may not be the best course of action. Call the credit entity that is issuing the 30 day late, explain what happened and ask if they can remove that from your credit report. It'll help if you had a good record with them before and have a good record since. Many are hardasses about it and wont change it.

Some tips: http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducatio...YourScore.aspx
http://www.fool.com/ccc/check/check05.htm
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Re: FICO score
Old 01-14-2007, 12:18 PM   #24
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Re: FICO score

another point, OP, you can maximize your credit profile by lowering % credit utilization (that I assume is the point of folks telling you to get a credit increase)...I would avoid any hard credit inquires from a credit increase before a mortgage application....probably wont matter, but might have to go to the bother of explaining....you can lower credit utilization by paying down your balance before statement closing date (when most cards report balances)....and try to keep your utilization to 30-50% and not max out cards....

probably too late to do anything about the late payment this late in the game...I would just wait for it to fall off your reports in a couple of years...
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Re: FICO score
Old 01-14-2007, 01:01 PM   #25
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Re: FICO score

I also have Equifax Credit Monitoring basic service. Enough to notify me anytime there's any inquiries or changes to my report, as well as any significant balance changes (as defined by me) to my credit cards.

I did it after I had a "scare" several years back when my Maxim subscription stopped arriving, and I logged into the online account to see it was going to Maryland instead! I checked everything through and through, and fortunately that was the only change so I didn't worry about my cards/accounts.

My Monitoring also comes with a free credit report 3 times per year where I check my FICO score. I almost never check though because my score keeps going up and up. Last time I checked when looking to purchase a home, the lowest score from an agency was 770 and my highest was 800.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Corporateburnout
Ditto, I pay to have my credit report monitored. As much as I hate to pay for the service, it insures that I won't fall pray to ID theft again.
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Re: FICO score
Old 01-14-2007, 01:03 PM   #26
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Re: FICO score

Well, I might have messed up. I filed an online dispute with two of the reporting agencies then realized the 30 day late is going to fall off the radar in two months. I hope I didn't reset a clock. I'm guessing I didn't.

I'm at least a year out on a mortgage so I think I will up the credit limit on my VISA or get a new MasterCard. I really hate having too many accounts so I'm leaning toward upping the limit on the existing Visa.
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