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@Kwao wrote:...I felt good about it until I read this thread.
Will continue to work on building up my credit as much as I can.
Don't get too discouraged. Having exactly the right score only matters if you know exactly what score a lender uses, and what their requirements are. Otherwise, it's a shot in the dark anyway.
I personally focus more on the basics; managing my utilization, eliminating baddies, and keeping a good mix of credit. I know doing those right things will get me the best score possible under any model. I do use the USAA monitoring FAKO's as a bar with which to measure my own progress, even though the chance of a lender seeing exactly the same number is pretty slim. It's more for my own satisfaction than anything else that I look at the number.
@Anonymous wrote:
I requested a pre-qual from Chase for a mortgage and they pulled my Equifax score at 684 in May. I have checked my own scores at the end of august, and they are substanially higher. This site is reporting it at 762. How can there be such a dramtic difference?
A lot can happen in 3 months. Were any accounts removed? Any added? Were any debt paid down since then?
@Anonymous wrote:
I requested a pre-qual from Chase for a mortgage and they pulled my Equifax score at 684 in May. I have checked my own scores at the end of august, and they are substanially higher. This site is reporting it at 762. How can there be such a dramtic difference?
Something is not right here. A Mortgage application will pull all three scores and qualify you based on the middle score. The EQ FICO will be exactly the EQ FICO sold here.
What paperwork do you have from the mortgage application? Look at your EQ FICO from here. The score for EQ should match.
I am wondering how you could have an EQ FICO of 762 since you refer to some negatives and seem to indicate not having a long history. I suppose it is possible that "bad credit card debt" means just high debt without any late payments. Are you looking at your EQ FICO report? 762 is really good.
That definitely sounds like your EQ FICO. The lates must be very minor and/or so old that they don't matter much. It would be interesting to know the items helping and hurting your score from page 2&3 but that isn't relevant to your question.
Very, very few mortgages use anything else other than that EQ FICO plus the equivalent FICO 04 based Classic scores from TU and EX.
Next step would be to get the info on the score that Chase pulled. I suppose it is possible that they only pulled one but it would still be strange to use a score that wouldn't be used for the final mortgage application. I've heard of some lenders using a score that costs them less for a prequalification but that seems unlikely. Is it possible they confused Equifax with Experian?
@Anonymous wrote:
I added a credit card. I reduced my credit card debt a couple hundred dollars but nothing substantial. I had bad credit card debt that i incured in college and paid off in 2006. I just submitted a dispute about something. I am afraid to have my credit pulled by anyone because of that score for fear of that causing it to go down farther.
While overall balances play a small part, utilization is significant. If your credit limits are low, paying off $200 can bump your scores up.
If any of your debt paydown included adding $0 balances, then that can help your FICO in most situations.
Adding a credit card isn't always the best, but if your mix of credit improved as a result of the added CC, then you could see some score gains.
If you disputed that bad credit card, and the dispute is still showing, know that FICO would be ignoring your payment history. That can artifially increase your scores as long as that comment remains.
Combine everything together and a gain that large is very possible.
Pulling your own FICO score won't hurt your credit. Having a lender pull it could hurt.
If the account was a charge-off, then it's 7-7.5 years from the date of first delinquency of the debt. This is the date you first went late and never recovered. Your EQ report will show DOFD. If you purchased EX, it'll show a drop off date. The individual lates will drop by 7 years from that late.