Where to get an up to date credit report?

[hankejp]

Can someone tell me where I can get an up-to-date credit report?  Is Annual Credit report up to date or do I need to sign up with the CRA's to get an up to date one?  I was looking at experian and they say that their free one updates every 30 days after you sign up.

Any information is great appreciated.

[Anonymous]

AnnualCreditReport.com will certainly give you an up to date report, but you can only get one report from them every 365 days (one for each bureau).

The various free tools out there that pull your reports frequently also give fully up to date reports, in the sense that if you pull your EQ and TU reports at Credit Karma on Thursday, you won't get reports based on data from Tuesday. 

In terms of a toolkit that will give you frequent reports at no cost, I would suggest:

       * Credit Karma (for Equifax and TransUnion)

       * creditscore.com (for Experian)

If you tell us more about what you are trying to achieve by pulling your reports, we can advise you better.

[hankejp]

Thank you.  I broke down and decided to just purchase the Ultimate 3B.  Curiosity got the best of me.  So this Ultimate 3B are the scores that mortgage lenders use correct?

Thank you

[SouthJamaica]

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@hankejp wrote:

Thank you.  I broke down and decided to just purchase the Ultimate 3B.  Curiosity got the best of me.  So this Ultimate 3B are the scores that mortgage lenders use correct?

Thank you

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In the full 3B report, the scores the mortgage lenders use are

EX FICO 2

TU FICO 4

EQ FICO 5

Typically they run with the middle score

[Anonymous]

Just for clarity, in your initial post you asked about where to get credit reports.  In your follow-up it sounded like you were more interested in credit scores.  The two things are related but also very different. 

Do you have a timeline for when you guess you might buy a home?

Did you buy the $40/mo myFICO package or the one that costs $30/mo?

[hankejp]

Well I was initially interested in the reports, but my curiosity got the better of me and I bought the ultimate 3b report for $39.95.

A question I have and posted this in a new thread is when I look at my insights for Equifax it says the the time since my most recent late payment has been 1 month. As far as I know I have missed a payment in almost 1 1/2 yrs. The other cra’s All reflect this 1 1/2 yr Mark. I looked at all the items reporting and none of them say they’re late with exception to some collections (which have been paid off but not updated yet). Any ideas on how to see what Equifax says was late?

[Anonymous]

You could try pulling your Equifax report with Credit Karma, print it out, and then look over each account carefully., including the month by month payment history indicator (look especially to see if each month has an OK for it, with a particular focus on the last four months).

I mention Karma simply because you can get a newly updated version as often as once a week.  If Karma doesn't reveal anything in the next six months, you could do the same thing with annualCreditReport.com -- but again remember you only get one ACR report every 365 days.

As far as myFICO goes, bear in mind that it is an expensive choice for getting reports.  You are paying $500 a year for it when you can get reports for free.

When were you thinking you might buy a home?

[hankejp]

Thanks.  I'll have to print off a CK one once and see what it says.  We are looking to purchase in the next couple months I hope.  We are waiting for those collection accounts to update and fall off and waiting for my credit card balance to update and then see what my score looks like for a VA mortgage.

[Anonymous]

Given that you plan to buy a house in just a few months, the $40/mo myFICO Ultimate is a good choice, though if I were you I would cancel it once I own the house.

[Anonymous]

I agree with CGID and don't see much value in MF memberships outside of their provided mortgage scores when approaching a mortgage application.  Once you're done with that process, I'd drop the membership.