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www.annualcreditreport.com

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
http://www.annualcreditreport.com

get yer free annual credit reports there. no joke. here is a news article mentioning it: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/consumer_news/13304838.htm

kansascity.com said:
go to www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the only Web site where you can access the central source to get your free reports from each of the three credit bureaus.

Any other Web sites that advertise “free” reports are impostors or sites that offer products with strings attached. Some sites sign you up for a “free” report that converts into a service you have to pay for after a trial period or requires you to buy more stuff — like credit monitoring — that you may or may not want.
and whether you have good credit or bad it pays to check and read the reports: 2 of the 3 agencies seemed to think i had a credit card through a bank i've never done business with. (there must be some other Toshi out there... at least he pays his bill each month.)

http://www.annualcreditreport.com
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
Yeah, laws went into effect regarding this a little while ago. I did my credit report last month just for fun.
 

-dustin

boring
Jun 10, 2002
7,155
1
austin
i thought i had more school debt than what's shown. whoo....relief. kind of, i guess.

i see credit cards listed, though, that i no longer have, nor use (card's been cut and trashed). do i have to call up the company and request my account be closed? i don't receive anything in the mail from them any more.

--edit--

god damn, 22 pages to print? oi.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,375
12,529
In a van.... down by the river
the Inbred said:
i thought i had more school debt than what's shown. whoo....relief. kind of, i guess.

i see credit cards listed, though, that i no longer have, nor use (card's been cut and trashed). do i have to call up the company and request my account be closed? i don't receive anything in the mail from them any more.
Don't close them. Apparently your score will be better with the available credit.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
rooftest said:
Every time you apply for credit, your score goes down a bit. If you look at your credit yourself, it doesn't count.
:stupid:

there are permissible and non-permissible inquires. checking your own credit report through the site will not ding your score. having the car dealer check your credit will make it drop a bit.
 

Tenchiro

Attention K Mart Shoppers
Jul 19, 2002
5,407
0
New England
rooftest said:
Every time you apply for credit, your score goes down a bit. If you look at your credit yourself, it doesn't count.
I have heard that any interaction with your credit, wether it is an application or just asking for a repotr can lower the score. The reasoning being that increased activity and credit balance makes you a higher credit risk.

Kind of like with Insurance companies, even calling to inquire about your policy can raise your rates. I saw a news article a year ago where a lady called her insurance company to find out of root damage to her plumbing was covered. It wasn't and her next bill relected a higher rate. When she called to find out what was up, they told her that because the inquiry that she had made.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
They always say "pay your bills on time" but I've never seen a real bill on the credit report. Loans and credit cards, yes, but it seems silly to refer to these as "bills" in a generic sense - they're outstanding money owed for money borrowed, not for services rendered. Most bills are for services, not money borrowed.

Do bills really impact your credit score?
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
if you have an unpaid bill that has gone to a collection agency, yes it will show up, and yes it will hurt your credit
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
Tenchiro said:
I have heard that any interaction with your credit, wether it is an application or just asking for a repotr can lower the score. The reasoning being that increased activity and credit balance makes you a higher credit risk.
from my equifax report:

equifax said:
Inquiries in the Last 12 Months

The following inquiries are "hard" or voluntary inquiries and were generated because you authorized the companies listed to request a copy of your credit report. Most credit scores are calculated using only inquiries from the last 12 months. Your credit score is generally not affected by several inquiries that are posted at about the same time, such as when you shop for the best auto loan or mortgage rates. [...]

Inquiries

This section lists companies that requested your credit file. Credit grantors may view these requests when evaluating your credit worthiness. Employment inquiries do not impact your credit score. [...]

Inquiries that do not display to companies and do not impact your credit score.

This section includes inquiries which display only to you and are not considered when evaluating your credit worthiness. Examples of this inquiry type include a pre-approved offer of credit, insurance, or periodic account review by an existing creditor.
note the categorization.

further backup of my point from this article: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Yourcreditrating/P41876.asp

msn said:
Applying for new credit is generally what hurts your score. Ordering a copy of your own credit report or credit score doesn?t count. Those mass inquiries made by credit card lenders, who are trying to decide whether to send you an offer for a pre-approved card, also aren?t going to hurt you, either -- unless you actually take them up on their offers.

If you want to minimize the damage from credit inquiries, make sure that when you shop for a mortgage you do so in a fairly short period of time. The FICO score treats multiple inquiries in a 45-day period as just one inquiry and ignores all inquiries made within 30 days prior to the day the score is computed.

For most people, one inquiry will generally knock no more than 5 points off a score (and scores typically run from 300 to 850, so that?s not a big percentage).
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,092
1,132
NC
Toshi said:
if you have an unpaid bill that has gone to a collection agency, yes it will show up, and yes it will hurt your credit
That's not really what I mean. I know that if an account is opened with a collection agency it gets put onto your credit report, but simply not paying your bills on time doesn't open accounts with collection agencies.

I've read probably a dozen sources on credit reports and they all stress that you need to pay your bills on time. It just seems like odd advice if what they mean is "Pay back borrowed money on time" and "Make sure you don't get turned over to collection agencies."

:confused:
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,375
12,529
In a van.... down by the river
binary visions said:
<snip>

I've read probably a dozen sources on credit reports and they all stress that you need to pay your bills on time. It just seems like odd advice if what they mean is "Pay back borrowed money on time" and "Make sure you don't get turned over to collection agencies."

:confused:
They're probably talking about credit bills specifically. If you don't pay your water bill for a couple months, I'm pretty sure nobody cares.
 

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,147
796
Lima, Peru, Peru
ERROR 404
The page cannot be found
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
SkaredShtles said:
Don't close them. Apparently your score will be better with the available credit.
wrong. having open accounts does nothing for you unless they are being used and paid off. simply having them to have them represents more risk because the opportunity to get into further debt is there.
my wife and i have gone to a completely cash based lifestyle and no longer have any open loans or credit on our credit report. we have a good history of debts paid on time but we will not have any other debts listed besides a mortgage (which we plan to pay off in 10 years).

another myth buster: "you need to build credit w/ a credit card to have a good credit score to buy a house/car".
wrong. this is a myth run by the large credit corporations.
you only have to show 8 months of on-time rent payments to qualify for a mortgage.
think about it, our grandparents never had credit cards like we do now. they saved their money and bought things in cash. it wasn't until the mid 70's that the credit card was available to a portion of the public and it took the insane 80's to push them to the top.

**side note: the only bummer about the free credit reports is that you still have to pay to get your actual score to see where you stand.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,029
7,549
manimal said:
**side note: the only bummer about the free credit reports is that you still have to pay to get your actual score to see where you stand.
this is kind of a roundabout way to get a fico score: i have a credit card through providian/washington mutual that offers free fico score access (at any time, updated once a month). the card itself has no annual fee so in essence it is a free way to get your score...
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,375
12,529
In a van.... down by the river
manimal said:
i'm not referring specifically to a credit score but mainly to what the loan officer looks at for a mortgage.

there is no actual need to build credit with a credit card just to have a good score.

"The borrower is slave to the lender"
You make it sound like a credit card is a bad thing............ :p
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
manimal said:
i'm not referring specifically to a credit score but mainly to what the loan officer looks at for a mortgage.

there is no actual need to build credit with a credit card just to have a good score.

"The borrower is slave to the lender"
Having a good FICO sure helps though. It's like Astroglide and anal sex. Sure, you might be able to do without, but if you have lots of it, things go smoother...
 

Acadian

Born Again Newbie
Sep 5, 2001
714
2
Blah Blah and Blah
So I gave it a try. Everything looks good except my Personal information on the Experian report. It shows one address that I've never lived at. Should I be concerned? Is it even worth my time to contact them about it?