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In other words, while it's still POSSIBLE to know what Experian is actually telling lenders, there are a whole lot of hoops that consumers must jump through to find out what it is (have a lender do it for you...which can itself IMPACT your credit score) or join-a-Pennsylvania-credit-union-and-open-a-checking-account-with-them.
I certainly hope Fair Isaac and MyFico fight like crazy to prevent TU and EQ from doing the VERY same thing...pulling out of "public access" to their ACTUAL FICO scores!!! Another way for big business to keep consumers in the dark at a very time when consumers need to be BETTER INFORMED!
LOL!!! I had mentioned having a lender pull it for you, though, so maybe you thought that would be redundant...LOL!
Everyone always mentions getting it from your lender, but they generally leave out the critical part: the only lender who is required to tell you your score is your mortgage lender. Some sources will tell you, but not many, and they're not supposed to.
So if you really, really want to know that EX score, and you don't want to spend $20 to qualify to join PSECU, you'll need to apply for a mortgage. The good news, I guess, is that you'll also probably find out your TU 04 FICO score.
@haulingthescoreup wrote:Everyone always mentions getting it from your lender, but they generally leave out the critical part: the only lender who is required to tell you your score is your mortgage lender. Some sources will tell you, but not many, and they're not supposed to.
So if you really, really want to know that EX score, and you don't want to spend $20 to qualify to join PSECU, you'll need to apply for a mortgage. The good news, I guess, is that you'll also probably find out your TU 04 FICO score.
If I knew that before I guess I had forgotten it. Thanks for the update.
When I got my car loan last December they pulled EX and the LO was more than happy to tell me. I didn't realize they weren't supposed to. Another good reason to join a local, friendly CU.
Yes, it seems to be CU's that are more likely to let you know. Not that any of mine have ever told me anything!
Although actually, I do remember now that when USAA gave me the HELOC, the LO asked (on the phone), "You do realize that your Beacon [Equifax] score is just 651, don't you? That's really not very good."
But USAA wouldn't tell my son his score when they approved his auto loan.
Yes indeed, a nice bonus on the side for us recently. What I have noticed is that the correlation for our scores for mortgage FICOs, for Equifax Credit Scores and for Amex CreditSecure Plus scores is straightforward. As such I can reasonably well tell what out EX FICOs might be. It's not ideal or exact, but close enough that I'm losing neither sleep nor money over it.
Well, since I'm nowhere near applying for a mortgage, and I'm pretty darned curious, I didn't mind paying $20.
The parks (and rec!) in Pennsylvania presumably benefit, and as someone pointed out elsewhere, it's a one-time charge to view my score every month as long as they continue the program. We can't really say the same about most score pulls.
Anyway, I didn't really want to start that up again, but all you recent re-fi and new mortgage people have the advantage of the rest of us. I'm pretty sure that most people were pretty curious, too, until they got their numbers from the lenders. Some, in fact, are downright antsy!
Does anyone else feel any outrage about this??? If the credit bureaus and lenders are the only ones who know your "real" credit score, how on earth are you to protect yourself against unscrupulous lenders (and after the past couple of years, there surely cannot be any doubt there are a LOT of them out there!) who will take advantage of that knowledge...and as consumers we're getting less and less ammunition with which to fight back. Even worse, most folks have no CLUE they're NOT getting their FICO when they're pulling their SCORE.
Heaven help us if TU and EQ pull out of MyFICO too!
The $20 fee is fine by me. But by putting $500 in the required checking account rather prepaying my mortgage, it could be another $500 in the interest over the lifespan of the loan. Still, if they offered TU 04 too, I might be okay with it. And I guess I could swallow handing over the tax returns of my great-grandparents and the birth certificate of my mortgage broker.
@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:The $20 fee is fine by me. But by putting $500 in the required checking account rather prepaying my mortgage, it could be another $500 in the interest over the lifespan of the loan. Still, if they offered TU 04 too, I might be okay with it. And I guess I could swallow handing over the tax returns of my great-grandparents and the birth certificate of my mortgage broker.
Wow, you must really want that TU04 score!
As soon as I can get my auto loan payment switched over to PSECU, that $500 balance will drop briskly. They only required $5 for the share account, and nothing for the checking, as I recall. I just threw in the $500 to have it ready once the draft starts working.
The only negative so far is that I have yet another box of useless checks.
Oh, and now my church is setting up an automatic payment option, so there goes pretty much the only place that I write a check. (They don't call it auto bill pay, of course, as that sounds a bit tacky for a religious body. )