I'm smart, why doesn't this make sense???

[Anonymous]

Okay, I'm smart.  Or at least I THOUGHT I was until I started trying to clean up my credit.  Here's my story:

About 8 months ago, I woke up one morning and ALL OF A SUDDEN, I really CARED about my credit...maybe it was the fact that I was turning 40 in a few months, or maybe the fact that I wanted to purchase an RV, I don't know, I don't care - all I DO know is that I hit the ground running that morning with the sole purpose of the day being "rebuild my credit".

My scores were TERRIBLE (see my signature below for details) - so I scoured the internet for credit repair agencies.  I found was that I felt comfortable with and I signed a contract...to date, they've delivered on every "promise" that they made and ultimately I've been very happy.  My scores have skyrocketed for the most part - or at least I THOUGHT they had.  The different scoring systems/mechanisms/names have me confused BEYOND BELIEF!  WHY hasn't Congress laid down laws designed to HELP the consumers by making these uniform?!  Maybe I'll lobby them to do so, but that's for later - right now, I need HELP!

Please see my scores below my signature - can ANYONE out there please explain why these numbers are SO CONFUSING!  Take for instance my Experian score (highlighted in RED).  After I started the credit repair, the numbers seemed to be climbing (on a mortgage enhanced report), BUT, TU's TrueCredit shows lower scores (even AFTER more baddies dropped), and today I pulled the ONLY number I can get directly from Experian (Vantage Score), and it's TERRIBLE...this is AMAZING - especially since I've had 2 baddies (CO) and an old account (w/lates that they couldn't/wouldn't verify) deleted SINCE the 04/01/09 numbers were pulled!  HOW could my score go DOWN with these removals - or better yet, WHICH NUMBERS SHOULD I PAY ATTENTION TO?  A person could go down right CRAZY monitoring all this every day.

And finally - what SHOULD I be monitoring and how often?  Is my TrueCredit membership worthless?  What's the BEST program out there that I could monitor ALL 3 say on a monthly basis?

My goal is to secure a loan for an RV (around $15K), WITHOUT my husband's help, and without getting gouged on the interest rate.

800FICOwannabe
************************
04/22/09 - Experian Vantage Score (FAKO):  EX - 595
04/21/09 - FICO scores:  EQ - 711, TU - 642
04/01/09 - TU's TrueCredit (FAKOs):  EQ - 605, EX - 643, TU - 632
02/28/09 - updated Tri-Merge Morgtage Enhanced:  EQ - 699, EX - 651, TU - 571
08/01/08 - starting scores (Tri-Merge Morgtage Enhanced):  EQ - 607, EX - 556, TU - 534

[Anonymous]

You may have been negatively impacted because the baddies were hurting you less than the age of the account was helping. As baddies age, they hurt you less and less. When you disputed the accounts and they subsequently were deleted, it might have hurt your AAOA bringing your score down. Just a guess?

Your TrueCredit membership might not be worthless, but the scores are. Only the FICO scores you get here, or the scores a mortgage lender gives you hold any water. Otherwise, you're just paying for a snapshot of your credit file. It may be that TrueCredit provides FICO scores, I'm not sure and will let someone else comment on that. 

If you want to keep an up-to-date eye on your credit report, I recommend Credit Check Total. You can pull your reports (yes, all three) every day. You don't have to wait for "alerts" to see what's changing on your report. But it's important to remember, the scores therein aren't to be relied on. My Equifax score, for example, is WAY off what my true FICO score is. 

Hope this helps!

[Junejer]

Mays is right. The scores that you get at those CMS, such as TC and CCT are what we call FAKOs and are thus, worthless. You can only get your true FICOs from this site, your EQ FICO at equifax.com and your TU FICO at transunioncs.com (notice the cs). You can't get your EX FICO anyway as of 2/14/09. So, of the scores that you post in your siggy, only the tri-merged reports from your mortgage broker and the scores that you got here are worth anything.

I have been round and round with TC over several years, but I have finally dropped them for good. I reluctantly rejoined CCT recently, and can pull my CRs daily.

[Anonymous]

I have a question for you, on the credit reports from CCT, are those pretty comprehensive credit reports, or are they just 2-year snapshots?  I know that the credit reports you get thru here and other third parties (freecreditreport.com, etc) are not the complete report like you would get directly from the CRA's, they only show the last 2-4 years history.

Another question, I cannot seem to find out how much their service will be after the free trial.

Thanks,

[Imhotrodcrazy]

Hi Brydman,   Can you tell  me what CCT stands for?   thanks

[Junejer]

It's not a full report. You can only get full reports directly from the CRAs. They give you two years worth of data.

---

aaron800 wrote:

I have a question for you, on the credit reports from CCT, are those pretty comprehensive credit reports, or are they just 2-year snapshots?  I know that the credit reports you get thru here and other third parties (freecreditreport.com, etc) are not the complete report like you would get directly from the CRA's, they only show the last 2-4 years history.

Another question, I cannot seem to find out how much their service will be after the free trial.

Thanks,

---

[Junejer]

CCT=Credit Check Total

---

Imhotrodcrazy wrote:
Hi Brydman,   Can you tell  me what CCT stands for?   thanks

---

[Imhotrodcrazy]

Hi Byrdman,  thanks for the info. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Byrdman for the info - I'll take to heart and consider dropping the TrueCredit in exchange for the CCT you mentioned.

************************
800FICOwannabe
************************
04/21/09 - FICO scores: EQ - 711, TU - 642
02/28/09 - updated Tri-Merge: EQ - 699, EX - 651, TU - 571
08//01/08 - starting scores (Tri-Merge Morgtage Enhanced): EQ - 607, EX - 556, TU - 534

[Anonymous]

Okay, just so that I understand - the tri-merge mortgage enhanced report is a good one to actually judge my "credit worthiness"?  I can pull this report for $29.00 and it will give me all three reports and scores.  How do the Tri-Merge numbers compare with the FICO scores?  My Tri-Merge numbers continue to rise and then my FICO scores are either roughly the same or higher...Should I do this each month or so (until I'm finished with my credit re-build) or should I simply stay tuned to TrueCredit and purchase the reports and FICOs from TU and EQ each month?  I'm so confused on which monitoring package is the best out there for the money...

************************
800FICOwannabe
************************
04/21/09 - FICO scores: EQ - 711, TU - 642
02/28/09 - updated Tri-Merge: EQ - 699, EX - 651, TU - 571
08//01/08 - starting scores (Tri-Merge Morgtage Enhanced): EQ - 607, EX - 556, TU - 534