Credit Scores

[Car-Guy]

Just curious, do you know and/or care what your credit score is?

 

[Lakewood90712]

If you have a discover credit card, it is reported to you on every bill.

Your credit score not only affects interest rate or approval of a loan / credit line, but affects insurance underwriting , and even job prospects sometimes for those still looking for work.

 

[heeyy_joe]

Yes & Yes.

 

[Goonie]

Yes & Yes.

+1

I've checked and kept an eye on mine for years.

 

[Walt34]

We know what is was as of last November when we bought a car. The dealer wouldn't "do the deal" unless we financed through them. Okay. I made one payment, and the following month paid off the loan.

Next time I won't bother making the one payment. I wasted $40 on interest.

 

[rodi]

I don't obsess about it - but I know what it is... I check it every few months, just to make sure I'm not dinged wrongly.

My credit score went down when I paid off my mortgage - that was kind of annoying.

 

[scrabbler1]

When I got a BofA CC last year, they told me my credit score. My reaction to that was, "Oh, that's interesting." (yawn)

 

[donheff]

I assume it is good but I haven't seen it in years and don't worry about it. I have frozen my credit for about eight years.

 

[frank]

what is the purpose and upside to freezing your credit? just curious as I was reading an article that said that some people should in defense from identity theft.

 

[donheff]

what is the purpose and upside to freezing your credit? just curious as I was reading an article that said that some people should in defense from identity theft.

No one can steal your identity and open up a line of credit. That is the real PITA scenario that can disrupt your life. Someone getting a hold of your credit card number and buying stuff is no big deal. The CC company covers you and you get a new card. Proving you are not the culprit who got three new CCs at some address you never heard of is a bigger pain. The only downside of a freeze is that if you need to open up a new line (e.g. if you have to finance a car) you have to temporarily unfreeze at all three agencies. I did it once to get a good deal on a new CC.

 

[Senator]

I care about mine. It is a number that banks, insurance companies, apartment leasing companies, etc. use.

As a landlord, I know personal behaviors can be predicted fairly accurately with a credit score. All of my domestic abusers have been low credit score people, or no score. The only reason I ever let them in is due to their partners stellar credit. Of course, payments can also be predicted.

Do not ever let your score go below ~620, or you will be in a class of people that you do not want to be. I have seen as low as 390, and have rented to people over 800. The average renter credit score, nationwide, is ~658.

Mine is over 800...

 

[Car-Guy]

We know what is was as of last November when we bought a car. The dealer wouldn't "do the deal" unless we financed through them. Okay. I made one payment, and the following month paid off the loan.

Next time I won't bother making the one payment. I wasted $40 on interest.

I had a car dealer pull that on me once. I wanted to pay cash but they wanted me to finance the car thru them. They even told me I could pay it off in full as soon as I received the payment book. They were so insistent, that I finally walked out and they lost a sale. I went to a competitor about 20 mins away and they were more than happy to take my cash.

 

[athena53]

Last time I checked was when a bank with which I did business had a security breach and they provided free credit monitoring for a year. My score was 777.

I don't worry about it at all. I know that when I want credit, I get it at a reasonable rate. I do check my credit card statements meticulously and run a credit report on myself periodically to make sure all is well.

I had a car dealer pull that on me once. I wanted to pay cash but they wanted me to finance the car thru them. They even told me I could pay it off in full as soon as I received the payment book. They were so insistent, that I finally walked out and they lost a sale. I went to a competitor about 20 mins away and they were more than happy to take my cash.

Good decision. I once financed through a Toyota dealer and they said they couldn't do a 3-year loan, it had to be 5 years. No problem, I figured. I'd just make bigger payments and pay it off faster. When I got to the point that it should have been paid off, I called and found that the way the contract was written, the finance charge was calculated at the beginning of the loan as if it would be paid off in 5 years and DID NOT CHANGE if I paid it off faster (unless I did it as a lump sum). I was livid. I have never bought another Toyota and never will.

I wouldn't trust the "you can just pay it off right away" statement. You never know how the loan is written although Walt34 seems to have done OK that way. We financed our last 2 cars through a HELOC at 2.75%, paying off the first one years before we bought the second one. We also bought off-rental. No BS at all.

 

[rbmrtn]

I've looked at it on creditKarma occasionally, but I don't really care anymore. It's always been on the high end, but I don'tdo anything to try an "improve it". I think one time it recommended I needed more accounts to improve my score I think I'll pass.

There is another scoring system they use call vantage ( it's available on creditkarma ) How Credit Scores Work | Your VantageScore

 

[purplesky]

Just curious, do you know and/or care what your credit score is?

I use credit karma.com. Its free and a great tool to get a great estimate of your credit scores.

They also provide a snapshot of your credit report.

Many banks and credit cards these days are giving customers access to their credit score for free.

Ignoring your credit score is not a good idea.

My credit report card on credit karma gives me an A. Thats a good thing.

 

[braumeister]

When I login to my accounts at PenFed, I can see my credit score with one click from the home page.

 

[athena53]

I've looked at it on creditKarma occasionally, but I don't really care anymore. It's always been on the high end, but I don'tdo anything to try an "improve it". I think one time it recommended I needed more accounts to improve my score I think I'll pass.

I've never figured out how that works (and I know they deliberately keep the details secret). You can get dinged for having too many recently-opened accounts. Or for being close to maxed out on your accounts. Or for having too much credit line available (because then you COULD go and max out your accounts). So, I keep the credit cards I want and close down the ones I'm done with.

 

[youbet]

I know what my credit score is. I'm not particularly concerned. At 67 and FIRE'd for over 8 years, the chances of me participating in a transaction which is dependent on my credit score are pretty small.

OTOH, it's been a year or so since I looked at my credit score/report and I suppose I should do so. What's the best way to do it these days?

 

[mn54]

When I login to my accounts at PenFed, I can see my credit score with one click from the home page.

noticed that they are using fico nextgen scores rather than the traditional fico scores. the nextgen has a top score of 950 rather than 850.

 

[athena53]

I know what my credit score is. I'm not particularly concerned. At 67 and FIRE'd for over 8 years, the chances of me participating in a transaction which is dependent on my credit score are pretty small.

OTOH, it's been a year or so since I looked at my credit score/report and I suppose I should do so. What's the best way to do it these days?

Your credit score can affect the cost of your car insurance (depends on whether the state allows it, but there's a clear correlation, with people with higher credit scores having lower claims potential). So, it's not just for borrowing.

I use annualcreditreport.com. It lets you select one of the 3 major bureaus and run a report. That means you can run one of the bureau reports every 4 months for free. There will be plenty of places where you can order enhanced, paid reporting services, but if you just keep ignoring them you'll get to a report that costs nothing.

 

[youbet]

Your credit score can affect the cost of your car insurance (depends on whether the state allows it, but there's a clear correlation, with people with higher credit scores having lower claims potential). So, it's not just for borrowing.

Yeah, I've heard that. We've been with the same insurance company for many years (decades actually) but do comparison shop if our rates change. My agent would let me know if I was being re-categorized due to a sharp shift in my credit score. At least I think so........

We're conservative people. We LBYM, always pay our bills on time, have had no debt other than routine CC use for many years and had good credit scores the last time I looked some time ago. We were advised if we wanted a higher credit score, we need to use more credit. If our score dropped significantly, it would be because of a mistake or fraud. The possibility of mistake or fraud is why I likely should be more diligent about checking the score periodically.

I use annualcreditreport.com. It lets you select one of the 3 major bureaus and run a report. That means you can run one of the bureau reports every 4 months for free. There will be plenty of places where you can order enhanced, paid reporting services, but if you just keep ignoring them you'll get to a report that costs nothing.

Thanks, I'll try them.

 

[imoldernu]

Haven't had reason to use "Credit" except as a free 30 day convenience. Been using credit cards since 1958 (Sears Revolving Charge)... and except for one time ( a very long time ago...1970's) never missed a payment.

Now we get at least one or two solicitations a month for other cards...
Including the "Black Card" for only a $395/year membership fee.
OMG... what the heck is concierge service?

 

[FireBug]

Just curious, do you know and/or care what your credit score is?

No/No

 

[Car-Guy]

I know what my credit score is. I'm not particularly concerned. At 67 and FIRE'd for over 8 years, the chances of me participating in a transaction which is dependent on my credit score are pretty small.

OTOH, it's been a year or so since I looked at my credit score/report and I suppose I should do so. What's the best way to do it these days?

I've never checked mine so I'm not sure what is the best way to check it but I suspect others will have an opinion.

I'm retired and in my 60's too, and while I expect to make significant purchases in the future, (houses/cars/etc) those will all be done in cash. I do use credit cards for smaller items and convenience, but I pay those off each month. I don't have any plans to rent anything of any significance, my insurance is already cheaper than I expected (except health ins), etc etc, etc. So I was curious about responses to this question to understand if in my case "maybe I was missing something" and my credit score would be important to me.

After this thread dies out, I'll probably check mine just for grins, unless I find a real reason to care about it.

 

[W2R]

Other than my one and only credit card, which I got in May, I have been completely debt free for years. My credit was OK the last time I checked, but if instead my credit was lousy, yes, my insurance rates will be higher. What would I do about it? Run out and borrow a bunch of money so that I could pay interest instead of higher insurance? They get you coming and going, as the saying goes.