All posts in Credit

Lifespan of Negative Credit

by Justin Miller on April 30, 2010 in Credit with No comments

Here is another article with great information about credit reports. 

Negative information is deleted seven years from the original delinquency date. Collection agencies are required to report the original delinquency date from the original account.

The original account and the collection account will be deleted at the same time. The original delinquency date does not change when the account is sold from one collection agency to another, according to Experian’s public education director, Rod Griffin, so the time does not start over each time the debt is transferred.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lifespan-of-negative-information-on-credit-reports-2010-04-30?siteid=rss&rss=1 

Last Activity On Your Credit Report

by Justin Miller on April 23, 2010 in Credit with No comments

Yet another great article on credit reports.  All I can say is to read it because I don’t even know where to begin with what I should talk about since I found all of it so important.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/defining-last-activity-on-a-credit-report-2010-04-23?siteid=rss&rss=1 

Your Credit Score Defined

by Justin Miller on April 23, 2010 in Credit with No comments

This was a great article and so informative even for me who is in the business and understands credit scores and reports.  The most important thing to point out is that “90 percent of all financial institutions in the U.S. use FICO scores in their decision-making process.”  I bring this up because so many people pull their credit scores online not using the FICO model and can’t understand why what we as a financial institution pull are so different.

Make sure to take a look at the chart of what goes into a credit score and the percentages involved. 

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/what-is-a-credit-score.aspx 

Credit Bureaus Will Be Looking At Your Income

by Justin Miller on January 13, 2010 in Credit with No comments

Just as banks are collecting more and more documentation so will the credit bureaus and credit card companies.  And they should.  The housing bubble in my opinion was created due to lax underwriting standards and not verifying income. 

I have been saying for months now that I think what is more important than your credit score is your debt to income ratio and your assets.  I understand as much as the next that your credit score shows your willingness to pay but at the same time I have seen many credit reports where someone with a lot of debt has a better credit score than someone with very little debt.  That is where your income plays a part.  And it looks like someone is starting to agree with me.

“Credit scores, which have been long a key factor in whether you get a loan or a credit card, may not be sufficient for many future credit decisions. With the new credit-card law requiring credit-card issuers to consider a customer’s ability to pay before opening new accounts, the Fed had proposed requiring people to report their own income or assets when applying for credit.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703672104574654211904801106.html?mod=rss_PJ_Main

How To Improve Credit Scores

by Justin Miller on December 31, 2009 in Credit with No comments

This article is okay.   To sum it up what you want to do is pay your bills on time, keep your balances down below 50% of the high credit (preferably below 30%), and don’t close accounts. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34633624/ns/business-personal_finance/ 

What’s Your Credit Score?

by Justin Miller on December 13, 2009 in Credit, Mortgage Education 101 with No comments

Many people think they know their credit scores prior to applying for a loan because they pulled it from an internet site.  Well, what we as lender’s pull can be different than what you find out online.  I recommend getting a copy of your credit report from your lender because what we pull is the most important. 

The correct credit score is from FICO.  “It you want your actual FICO score, it will cost you. A single FICO score plus a credit report is $15.95 at MyFico.com. At AnnualCreditReport.com, you can get a free credit report every 12 months from each of the credit-reporting companies. If you go through that site, Equifax will give you a FICO score for $7.95; TransUnion and Experian will provide the Vantage Score for $7.95. TransUnionCS.com sells a TransUnion credit report plus FICO score for $14.95.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126065440089389183.html?mod=rss_Money 

Getting Your Credit Score Online

by Justin Miller on October 8, 2009 in Credit, Mortgage Education 101 with No comments

The article below from The Wall Street Journal talks about the 3 different sites they tried and their results.  The 3 sites they tested were Credit.com, CreditKarma.com, and Quizzle.com.  They found all of the sites to give them a good sense of their scores because they all ended up in the same “credit tier.”  Their findings were that although all of the sites were good, AnnualCreditReport.com gives you more specifics and information. 

I have many clients who pull their score through the various sites out there and can’t understand why what I pull as a bank is so much different.  I have discussed this in the past but here it is again:

“There is variation among credit scores, depending on which scoring model is being used and which credit bureau the data are pulled from. Lenders can choose from FICO, the VantageScore—a score developed by the three credit bureaus—or from any one of the credit bureaus’ own scores. Adding to the confusion, lenders can choose from multiple versions of the same scoring model. FICO, for example, recently rolled out its latest version, FICO 08.

To gauge how easy-to-use and accurate the three new sites are, we pulled our credit scores—which may or may not be the actual scores lenders see—and compared the data with information in the credit reports and scores we obtained from AnnualCreditReport.com. (All three sites do a “soft pull” on your credit file, which they pay for, and which doesn’t hurt your score, according to the companies. In other cases, applying for new credit is considered a “hard” query, and can hurt your credit score.)”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704252004574459011384380556.html?mod=rss_PJ_Main

Credit Scores

by Justin Miller on September 9, 2009 in Credit with No comments

The article below has some good information on credit scores.  The most important part of the article to me is below.  Many don’t know this or understand it.  I don’t even understand it but it is the way it is.  The bottom line is to keep your balances low, pay on time, and I recommend monitoring your credit with all of the fraud out there these days. 

 

The score I pay for or get for free is my real score.

Most free scores are not the FICO scores that lenders request. You can buy FICO scores from Equifax and TransUnion—but not Experian—on MyFico.com for $15.95 each, but even then, they may not be the exact score the lender actually sees. You can, however, see each of your three credit reports—which include all the activity that is used to determine your score, but not the score itself—for free once a year by going to AnnualCreditReport.com. Because your scores aren’t likely to vary by much, ongoing tracking services are usually unnecessary.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204348804574400700026852702.html#mod=todays_us_personal_journal

All About Credit Scores

by Justin Miller on April 23, 2009 in Credit with No comments

This article is very informative. 

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30348172/

Negotiating Credit Card Payoffs & Your Credit Score

by Justin Miller on April 9, 2009 in Credit with No comments

This should answer the question for most

http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2009/05/does-negotiating-credit-card-payments-affect-credit-score.html

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