Hit 702 for the first time since bankruptcy

[NC84]

My transunion hit 702 for the first time since my discharge in 2015. Do they cap you on a certain score limit until it comes off the report for good? I heard stories of it only going to about 735 max. I have a total of 45k , 5 revolving credit cards, car loan and bunch of store cards paid all 100% on time. I have a hefty amount of inquiries but i am getting the itch to go for a few perk cards. Should I focus on my score or just go for it? 

[medicgrrl]

Congrats on reaching 700! How many inquiries do you have in the last 12 months?

[NC84]

I dont know about 12 months but for credit Karma's 24 months its ... Transunion 12, Equifax 18, Experian 18. I guess I will just garden for a while and see what happens. I prob will apply for a car loan but not for another 2-3 years possibly. I think Karma is fake anyway becuase my barclay fico says transunion is only 661 and my penfed fico says 670. 

[medicgrrl]

CK doesn't provide FICO scores. You can obtain all 3 FICO 8 scores from Credit Check Total for $1 on a one week trial membership. Just make sure to cancel the trial membership within the first week

[nomadicpixie]

Congrats on the 700! That has to feel good. I would definitely garden until some inquires fall off. Then hopefully you will be set for the BK friendly primes.

[Anonymous]

My CK scores average about 725. How I wish they were real. LOL.

[NC84]

So should i just stop using ck? Credit wise is showing the same score of 702.

[medicgrrl]

Credit Wise and CK both use Vantage scores, which can be much different than your FICO scores. CK is good for watching changes to your actual report, but the score's are pretty useless because lender's don't use Vantage scores.

[tmacar]

This late, I have no idea what your score is now   But this might be helpful to some people.

You should consider two things.  First, the FICO score is what t lenders, both banks and others, including for credit cards and installment loans, use,   And none of the free score places give you a FICO score.  Their scores can be useful in seeing if your score is going up or down, but you cannot tell from them what your FICO score is.  Those free scores are invariably higher than your FICO scores. When you hit 702 for TU at Credit Karma, I can guarantee that your TU FICO score was still somewhere in the 600s.These alternative "credit scores" are so misleading that the Consumer Protectin Agency sued Equifax and Transunion for promotng the Vantage score  as a "real" score, and they settled for millions and millions in consumer refunds and fines.   The only reason none of the free score places have been hit is because they aren't charging people anything.

Second, your Experian based FICO score is what most every creditor, whether a bank, a retail place, whatever, will look at for any kind of credit, from a loan to a credit card.  Equifax is the next most used, and just about nobody even looks at Transunion unless they're pulling all 3, like for a mortgage.  Worse, most people's Transunion FICO score will be higher, often quite a bit higher, than their Equifax or Experian scores. which makesc them thnk they have a higher score than they really do when the creditor pulls their credit.

If you're using your score to decide when you will apply for something, you MUST make sure it's your actual FICO score.  And while the one the creditor will most likely pull is Experian, some will tell you exasctly which one they're going to use if you ask them before actually applying.  Once you know that, you can find out exactly what score number the creditor is going to see.

[Anonymous]

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@tmacar wrote:

This late, I have no idea what your score is now   But this might be helpful to some people.

You should consider two things.  First, the FICO score is what t lenders, both banks and others, including for credit cards and installment loans, use,   And none of the free score places give you a FICO score.  Their scores can be useful in seeing if your score is going up or down, but you cannot tell from them what your FICO score is.  Those free scores are invariably higher than your FICO scores. When you hit 702 for TU at Credit Karma, I can guarantee that your TU FICO score was still somewhere in the 600s.These alternative "credit scores" are so misleading that the Consumer Protectin Agency sued Equifax and Transunion for promotng the Vantage score  as a "real" score, and they settled for millions and millions in consumer refunds and fines.   The only reason none of the free score places have been hit is because they aren't charging people anything.

Second, your Experian based FICO score is what most every creditor, whether a bank, a retail place, whatever, will look at for any kind of credit, from a loan to a credit card.  Equifax is the next most used, and just about nobody even looks at Transunion unless they're pulling all 3, like for a mortgage.  Worse, most people's Transunion FICO score will be higher, often quite a bit higher, than their Equifax or Experian scores. which makesc them thnk they have a higher score than they really do when the creditor pulls their credit.

If you're using your score to decide when you will apply for something, you MUST make sure it's your actual FICO score.  And while the one the creditor will most likely pull is Experian, some will tell you exasctly which one they're going to use if you ask them before actually applying.  Once you know that, you can find out exactly what score number the creditor is going to see.

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As far as free places not giving FICO scores, that's not quite correct. Discover Scorecard gives Experian and Lenny Credit gives Equifax. I'm not sure if there's one for Transunion but just about everyone gives Transunion if you're a member so it doesn't matter that much.

As to Transunion vis-a-vis Experian for pulls, that's not quite correct either, I'm afraid. Capital One, Synchrony and Apple FCU have all pulled TransUnion in the last six months for credit applications, Discover pulled Experian (I think) and Penfed has pulled Equifax. And my TU FICO score is, at least for now, actually measurably lower than my EQ and EX FICO's (see my sig); this may be in large part due to a recently-corrected inaccuracy on my TU report, though, so I'm hoping for my TU scores to come more into conformity with EQ and EX in coming months. In my own experience so far, at least, TU is actually very frequently used by lenders.