"Bryan" <bmaddex[at]gmail.com> wrote
- quote -

This depends on how one has one's credit score checked.

- quote -

[Fact:] You can check your own score as many times as you want without
impacting your score, said Sjoblad, but make sure you do so via the bureaus
or a legitimate score seller like MyFICO.com rather than, say, at a car
dealership.

- quote -

"If you want to minimize the damage from credit inquiries, make sure that
when you shop for a mortgage you do so in a fairly short period of time. The
FICO score treats multiple inquiries [from lenders, landlords, insurers,
etc.] in a 14-day period as just one inquiry and ignores all inquiries made
within 30 days prior to the day the score is computed. For most people, one
inquiry will generally knock no more than 5 points off a score (and scores
typically run from 300 to 850, so that's not a big percentage)."

For more citations, google for {credit card score checking myth}.

"Bryan" <bmaddex[at]gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1119576479.825669.60490[at]g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

As long as the inquiries are of a similar nature, and during a limited time
frame, there is no negative change. Of course, if you shop every month for a
mortgage, credit card, car loan, boat loan and unsecured line of credit,
over and over, that'll ding ya. =)

- quote -

You can check YOUR credit records as much as you want.

Brent D. Gardner, ChFC
Chartered Financial Consultant
http://www.brentdgardner.com/

Serving America since 1922, the world since 1969.

The source account for this message is not monitored.

Your credit score varies everyday based on how much you owe on that day
to your credit cards, loans etc. amongst a bunch of other things. So +/-
15 point drop can be caused by just owing 500$ more to your credit card
on some days. I realized that based on my credit score that I get free
from Providian.

On Tue, 2005-06-21 at 20:50 +0000, rwilson290[at]hotmail.com wrote:
- quote -


======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
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"Will Trice" <wwtrice[at]paragondynamics.com> wrote
snip
- quote -

I learned the hard way last year: I was applying for one of those great
credit card balance transfer deals last year and was rejected. So I checked
my credit reports. It turned out I had a big black mark on my credit rating
because someone stole my identity about two years before and charged up a
$500+ phone bill in my name. Everything turned out okay (since the
particular phone company had become notorious for not checking people's
background and so ate the bill within weeks of my objection). But this
erroneous black mark was on my record for a couple of years. Fortunately I
rarely take out any kind of loan these days.

I can say that the representatives at Experian, Equifax, and Transunion (the
three credit bureaus who collect data on consumers for the purposes of
credit reporting) were pretty efficient, competent, professional, and
non-judgmental (even sympathetic) through all this.

So to anyone worried about one's credit score or ID theft, I advocate
getting the reports, which I believe are now free if ordered no more than
annually.

Elle wrote:
- quote -

I haven't obtained my free credit reports out of laziness. My wife
decided to check hers and found a major mistake on it (an unpaid debt
that we don't have). Maybe I'll start getting these free reports...

-Will

"Bryan" <bmaddex[at]gmail.com> wrote
- quote -

Isn't credit a for-profit business? So in fact the only "science" involved
here is that of economics: Credit card companies will try to make as much
money as possible? They love people who take on a lot of debt; they even
love people whose credit scores are low, because low scores justify charging
higher interest rates. The formula for credit score is about how much money
a lender can get out of a client, just as the formula for the selling price
of a used car price is about how much money the dealership can get out of
the buyer.

- quote -

Doesn't this make you suspicious?

Do you realize the error rate for credit scores or inaccuracies on credit
reports is absurdly high, typically over 25%, and these errors are often not
minor but impact on a consumer in financially significant ways?

http://www.consumerfed.org/releases2...tscorereport.t
xt (2002)

http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/17/pf/d...ex.htm?cnn=yes
(2004)

http://www.creditaccuracy.com/ (2005)

That Congress passed a law requiring the three credit bureaus (Experian,
Equifax, and TransUnion) to provide free credit reports to consumers every
so often, IF a consumer requests one, is great. But it's going to be a long
time before sanity, and so economic fairness to the consumer, returns.

Also, are you using a broker or working directly with a lender? A
broker might be shopping your mortgage around and that could be causing
more inquiries.

I have also heard that although checking your own credit or credit
score does not hurt your credit, doing so excessively can cause a
change.

My advise also would be to relax. Credit is not an exact science that
you can change easily or understand easily. I would venture to say
that not even many people at each credit reporting agency know exact
parts of the formula that make up your credit.


Bryan Maddex
AmSouth Bank - 407.322.1387
Branch Manager, Assistant Vice President


2.5% Money Market Rates for $20,000+ Personal and Business
Prime -.5% HELOC Promo for the life of your line. (FL)
Free BusinessRelationship Plus Accounts


bgardner20 wrote:
- quote -


======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
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<rwilson290[at]hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1119385532.599964.262780[at]o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
- quote -

Stop worrying so much. Watching FICO scores is like watching paint dry.
Relax. Keep paying your bills on time.

Brent D. Gardner, ChFC
Chartered Financial Consultant
http://www.brentdgardner.com/

Serving America since 1922, the world since 1969.

The source account for this message is not monitored.

In mid-May I applied for an "approval" letter on a mortgage. My credit
scores were 729,726,and 709 at the time. I got a approved.

Now, a month later, the mortgage application is going into the
underwriting process and my credit scores are 719, 713, and 703.
Between the time of my "approval" letter, there have been ZERO changes
in

-credit inquiries
-additional debt
-late payments

There was a slight dip in the scores due to the mortgage company's
inquiry as you can see, but now I check again and the scores have
dropped some more with no adverse changes whatsoever. I'm baffled as
to why my scores have taken this pattern during 3 credit checks that
I've made in the past month as follows....

Exper: 729 (before 'approve')-> 719 (after 'approval' inquiry)-> 719(now)
Equi : 726 (before 'approve')-> 714 (after 'approval' inquiry)-> 703(now)
Trans: 709 (before 'approve')-> 709 (after 'approval' inquiry)-> 713(now)

I'm curious, will this be an issue during the underwriting process? In
any case, I shall find out in the next 48 hours, but would like some
peace of mind. Any underwriters here? Are the credit reports pulled
*again* during the underwriting process, and if so, to what extent
would this type of drop be of significance?

Thanks in advance.