Feeling Defeated and Clueless

[Anonymous]

Just a week ago, CK stated my Score was 640 (TU) and 622 (Equifax). I had 3 new Tradelines reported to my credit file since Monday, which dropped my scores to 597 (TU) and 583 (Equifax). OMG! This is such a hard task to complete. When I started this credit rebuilding process, I wanted a 740 Score within 12 months and a Amex card. I was under the impression of having more tradelines reporting with utilization of 1%-10% was the right thing to do in respects to rebuilding/building credit score. Boy was I wrong. Or maybe I should say, I was not 100% correct.

#FEELINGDEFEATED

[Anonymous]

CK scores are useless.  Some companies have been fined millions by the government for calling them useful credit scores.

Ignore those scores forever.

Use CreditScoreCard.com for a free EX FICO08 score.

To maximize your FICO do the following

• Pay all cards to $0 before statement posts, EXCEPT...
• Make sure ONE card, not more than one card, posts a $5 balance at statement cut (then pay that off to avoid interest)
• If you have NO active open installment loans, immediately do the Alliant SSL technique
• Age all your accounts for 12 months with perfect payments

Bet your scores go up enough to get you that Amex unless you have a lot of derogatories.

[Anonymous]

ABCD2199  - Thank you for your feedback. I have a $14 balance on one of my cards and the rest are at a zero balance. I will definitely follow the steps you have outlined, and stick to it for the next 12 months. Thank you...

[Anonymous]

Forgot to mention, that I have a selflender loan that is excepted to start posting to the CRAs by the end of October. Should I still look into the Alliant SSL method since I have a selflender account already?

[Anonymous]

You'll see remarkable improvement in a year sticking to that.

Definitely pull your free FICO 08 from the website I posted -- you can pull it monthly for free.  I like telling people to pull their first score after all their credit card statements post so that you always get a fresher view every month when you pull a new score, but it doesn't matter.  Every month, pull another EX score.

The EX score is a real FICO 08 score.  The CK score is a "Vantage Score" which we call FAKO because it doesn't correlate to FICO which creditors/lenders usually use.  CK penalizes new accounts way more than FICO usually does.

Once you do get your FICO 08 EX score, post it in this thread so we have an idea where you're really at!

[Anonymous]

I'm only familiar with SelfLender from some posts here so I'm not sure about it, but if you pay it down to less than 9% of the original balance, it should help for however long it reports for!

I like Alliant SSL because it stays on my reports as open for 5 years.  If the Selflender loan is short term, in the last month before it is paid in full, get the Alliant SSL so you always have an installment loan reporting.

Since you have 3 credit cards you're at your "maximum free FICO points" at this point.  Let it all age for 12 months, but see if any of your creditors offer CLIs for a soft pull so you can grow those with age.  In a year, after your inquiries no longer ding FICO (12 months) you can post your score on these forums and we can give you advice on what to apply for next.  There's some anecdotal evidence that 3 credit cards are "free" FICO boosts, but having 5 credit cards (eventually) is what is needed to really maximize FICO long term.  Don't apply for credit 12 months before applying for a mortgage if you can avoid it.

[Anonymous]

Your average age of accounts dropped by opening so many trade lines in such a short period. Give it 6 months to a year and you will see the improvement you're looking for while also following the advice above, and above all pay on time and keep your cc utilization at ~9%. Dv

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

CK scores are useless.  Some companies have been fined millions by the government for calling them useful credit scores.

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This is the first I've heard about fines regarding CK/Vantage scores. Can you cite some sources so that I may read up on this?

[Anonymous]

This is regarding Experian's PLUS score, $3 million fine: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/cutting-through-credit-score-confusion-after-experian-fine/

This is regarding TransUnion's VantageScore, $13.9 million fine as well as Equifax's "Equifax Credit Score", $3.4 million fine: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-transunion-and-equifax-pay-deceiving-c...

I'm sure there are other fines for giving away useless and deceptive credit scores but I haven't really spent any time looking it over.  I have been a big advocate of shaming all the useless credit scores publicly and a lot of people attacked me with boilerplate BS like "some creditors use VantageScore!"

The truth is, VantageScore is used billions of times a year by banks for one purpose: to provide consumers with a useless free "credit" score.  That's it.  If there are ANY banks who use VantageScore for an actual individual consumer lending decision, even VantageScore isn't advertising who they are.  

The only two marketed customers of VantageScore use it strictly for bundling risk models: https://www.vantagescore.com/who-uses-our-model

[iced]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is regarding Experian's PLUS score, $3 million fine: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/finance/cutting-through-credit-score-confusion-after-experian-fine/

This is regarding TransUnion's VantageScore, $13.9 million fine as well as Equifax's "Equifax Credit Score", $3.4 million fine: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-orders-transunion-and-equifax-pay-deceiving-consumers-marketing-credit-scores-and-credit-products/

I'm sure there are other fines for giving away useless and deceptive credit scores but I haven't really spent any time looking it over.  I have been a big advocate of shaming all the useless credit scores publicly and a lot of people attacked me with boilerplate BS like "some creditors use VantageScore!"

The truth is, VantageScore is used billions of times a year by banks for one purpose: to provide consumers with a useless free "credit" score.  That's it.  If there are ANY banks who use VantageScore for an actual individual consumer lending decision, even VantageScore isn't advertising who they are.  

The only two marketed customers of VantageScore use it strictly for bundling risk models: https://www.vantagescore.com/who-uses-our-model

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Fair Isaac effectively has a monopoly on the credit scoring market, which is a problem in itself. To dismiss any other scoring model that comes along as useless and deceptive will help ensure that no competition can ever come about. At least we have 3 credit bureaus - it's still an oligopoly, but it's a step in the right direction.

I can't fault entities like CK with using another model, particularly for free scores, as FICO charges the bureaus for their scores. I can fault them when they claim things about those scores that, at present, aren't true. Vantage isn't useless, even if few (or no) lenders use them, for no other reason than it can provide a ballpark estimate and introduce an alternative. It took AMD ages to get a foothold against Intel, but they eventually did.

Thanks for the links!