I understand your frustration. We all go through it when we are new to learning about credit scores.
Are you familiar with algorithms? If you are, you will know that the math formula weighs different things differently looking at the same data. This is why a Google search might well return different first page results than a Yahoo search or a Bing search. The data is the same but the model is different.
You will save yourself a lot of frustration if you absolutely ignore any score that does not say "FICO." These are the real scores used by lenders. Now there are multiple versions of FICO based on the year the score was introduced and whether it is being used for auto loans or credit cards or mortgages.
FICO scores make low cost borrowing possible. Without them, the cost of analyzing individual credit profiles would be prohibitive and your loan rates would be much higher. FICO also eliminates racial and gender bias as well as bias based on your economic situation (rich, middle class or poor).
It is important to realize that FICO was not designed to help you. It was designed to help 90% of lenders make quick approval decisions based on a proven mathematical model. Is it always correct? Absolutely not. But on average it will be correct over a wide swath of consumers. So someone with an 850 score could in fact file for bankruptcy and someone with a 475 FICO score could pay off a large loan perfectly, but on average, FICO will correctly predict the result.
Once you learn to understand FICO -- and there are only five major categories to learn about.
Do you want to be approved for credit?
1. Always pay your bills on time. One 30 day late payment can cost you 100 points.
2. Keep your utilization of revolving credit low -- somewhere between 1% and 10% of available credit. Try to get high credit limits so if you spend a
few thousand dollars on your cards your score won't take for high utilizatioon. Have at least 6 to 12 months' gross income as revolving limits.
3. Have a good mix of credit, based on what you can get. So 3 to 5 (or more) credit cards, an installment loan and a mortgage loan if you can get
one.
4 Allow your accounts to age. Keep them open. Only add one or two new accounts each year if you see some you want. Do not close the rest.
5. Don't apply for accounts that will cause more than 2 inquiries per year on each credit bureau. Look up on Credit Pulls who pulls which CB.
6. Go out and enjoy life, spending what you can afford, paying off your accounts each month (with a small amount reporting on one card)
I know lots of people with scores between 800 and 850. Not one of them EVER thinks about their credit score. This is because they automatically do these things. It's just the way they live.
If you want to mess up your scores, get late payments, collections, public records; run up balances on your credit cards and don't pay them off each month. Once you have established 5 or so good accounts for the long term, don't open more cards unless there is some special reason (like 100,000 mileage points or to save 20% on a $50,000 purchase).
Credit scores can literally drive you crazy. If you don't like looking at them, just do the things stated above. Then once or twice a year pull your REAL FICO scores from this website (or another if it gives REAL FICO scores) and review them. Your scores should be increasing every time you pull new reports every 6 to 12 months.
