Some good info to help everyone

[cambia46]

of you already know this, but credit karma, the CRA’s, etc., make money and work to the benefit of lenders, etc., not the consumer. 

 Sorry for the length, but I hope this info helped someone in their journey to improving their credit.  Of course, there is much more to it, but I can only share so much, otherwise I’d be sharing privileged info and legal strategies of how consumer attorneys win their cases. My attorney and his colleagues have won every consumer lawsuit that they have filed and around 95% of cases in defending consumers against law suit (including mine), so I trust them with helping me through this.   While agencies may sue you (as one did me), banking on you not responding so they can get a default judgement, they rarely try to defend suits against them unless it’s a big chunk of money. 

 Thanks for taking the time to read and sorry for any typing errors.  

[OmarGB9]

Appreciate the insight. There are some of your points I disagree with, like disputing lates. If they're legit (and you know they are), why would you dispute accurate information? That would just hurt you and bar you from future disputes for disputing frivolously. Same goes for disputing something you're unsure of...if you're unsure, do some research, request old statements, etc., but don't just automatically dispute, because, again, it could come back and bite you.

Also paying old collections only hurts you if they're not regularly updating, which in my experience, hasn't happened. All of the collections I had were updating every month, so paying them off actually helped me because they stopped updating. Also why is the cutoff 2 years? Is that just some arbitrary number? The collection will remain for the full 7 unless PFD is granted. Not trying to start anything, just trying to get a better picture of why you/these attorneys said that.

Either way, again I thank you for your contribution. Your other points were still good, and I learned something new in regards to the address thing and the submitting disputes online thing. So thank you for that.

[donkort]

Credit Karma could also yield lower credit score results than the FICO scores.

I think of Credit Karma and FICO scores as an apples-and-oranges sort of thing.

Until recently, they consistently fell between 30-50 points below my FICO 8'S----and even more than my FICO 2,4,5's (which, unusually, were somewhat to considerably higher than my FICO 8's).

[Anonymous]

Great read but credit karma numbers aren't feel good numbers. Personally my Fico score is a lot higher. They use different metrics. They both treat inquiries, paid collections (take away fico 9) and AAA differently.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Great read but credit karma numbers aren't feel good numbers. Personally my Fico score is a lot higher. They use different metrics. They both treat inquiries, paid collections (take away fico 9) and AAA differently.

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I also took issue with this. They're legitimate scores even if they're not commonly used. In addition, the bureaus also push for applications of new credit even when you pay for a FICO score. Basically the same wording about it could help your score to apply for more credit because they also get paid for linking to credit products.

[Anonymous]

I think some of you are missing the point here with CK.

They are "feel good" scores for the products they are pushing. 

The worse my credit was, the higher my VS 3.0 was in comparison to my fico scores.

They make you think that your credit is "just good enough" to get these awful subprine cards that they push.

If your credit is better, they may knock ot down and make you feel as though you can "only" really get these awful subprime cards.

Food for thought!

[Anonymous]

They push more than subprime cards. CK has been telling me for months that I'm a shoo-in for Citi cards that I know I am 35-40 points low to qualify for. It's not that VS scores aren't legit - they are a real model - it's that they're irrelevant because they aren't the scores these lenders use to determine credit qualification. But as Brian mentioned, they get paid to refer you so they'll say anything and everything to get you to app through them, which is a disservice because many end up piling on the inquiries for cards they have no chance to get.

[Jnbmom]

Nobody is missing the point, while CK uses vantage scores , they are just a different scoring model  than FICO that most lenders do not use . My vantage scores are always lower than my FICO scores. While lately synch has factored them in regarding credit decisions. Experian also pushes cards and they provide FICO and they also get paid as well as most sites .