Yesterday I shared some of the excellent student questions that I received at a lecture I hosted earlier this week at the University of Georgia. Here are the remainder of those questions. Enjoy!
Q: How many times a year do you get a credit report? What determines if your credit report is good or bad?You should order a copy of all of your credit reports once a year. It’s free. Your score is the definition of good/bad. If you have a good score, then you have good credit, and vice versa.
Q: How often does your credit report change?
For someone like me who has had credit for years and has many open accounts, it changes multiple times each month. If you only have one or two accounts, your reports will only change once or twice per month. A good rule of thumb: However many open and active accounts that you have equals the number of times your report will change each month.
Q: Why does your credit report change so often and what are the best times to check it?
See the above question/answer. I always suggest checking ALL of them once per year.
Q: Is there a credit bureau that is better than the rest?
No, they’re all equally good/bad… depending on your perspective.
Q: What is the best way to estimate your credit score? Can you calculate it personally?
You can estimate your credit score for free at these sites…
https://www.credit.com/r/credit-report-card
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/credit-score-fico-calculator.aspxQ: Does a person have three credit scores or an average of the three as their official score?
You have one score per credit bureau, so you have three scores total.
Q: How do free credit report websites end up costing you?
Most of them make you sign up for a trial subscription and if you forget to cancel they start charging your credit card. The websites I gave you above truly are free and give you an estimate of your credit scores.
Q: Do lenders make inquiries about our credit from the same companies that we’ve used to see our credit reports and scores?
No, they can pick and choose why they buy your credit report from. Most lenders only get one of the three. The exception is a mortgage lender, who will generally get all three.
Q: Why do you have to pay for your credit score?
Short answer: Because it’s a way to make money. Better answer: There is no law that requires the credit bureaus to give away your score. As such, they have chosen to charge for it. Supply and demand… they know there is a demand and they own the supply.
Q: Is there a way to check my credit report in person?
Yes, there is. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires the credit bureaus to allow for “in person” disclosure. If you went down to 1550 Peachtree Street in Midtown, Atlanta you could drive up to Equifax’s corporate headquarters and tell them you wanted in-person disclosure.
Q: Why do you only get one free credit report each year? Why does your credit score go down when other people pull your credit?
You actually get three free per year because you’re a GA resident. Residents of other states get at least one free copy of each of their three credit reports for free, and some states will give you more than one free copy. Your credit score COULD go down if too many lenders pull your credit reports because it indicates that you’re loading up on credit obligations and that’s predictive of future credit risk.
John Ulzheimer – Credit scoring and credit reporting expert and author, John is the President of Consumer Education for Credit.com. Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on CreditBloggers.com.
John Ulzheimer Formerly with Equifax and Fair Isaac, John shares his unique insight of the inner workings of credit scoring models and the credit reporting industry on Credit.com News & Advice.
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