Personal Credit Scores system

[MaggieMae]

Do you have a mortgage? Electric bill, cable bill, student loan, etc...don't all those affect your credit score?

I'd call and ask.

I don't have a mortgage, but do own a house so certainly I now have electric bill / cable bil, etc. The point was that I didn't have at the time I financed the truck, so I have no idea what generated the credit rating.

Most auto dealers have automated systems. I am thinking there is a mistake. 800 scores require a lot and they are not acquired by accident!

Maybe the salesman was so eager to sell the truck, he fudged the application. You know, kinda like all those free-lance mortgage brokers were doing for a few years.

 

[MaggieMae]

Hook - I have an off-topic question, since you would know the answer:

Can anyone who has access to your Social Security Number pull up your credit history? My concern over that is that my checking account shows my sister as my beneficiary, strictly as power of attorney when I die to give her access to any money still there. The account does not give her check writing privileges as long as I'm alive. But she does have my Social as a result of this paperwork, and being shall I say the "inquisitive type," I know she'd love to take a peak at my financial history NOW, not AD.

 

[sparky]

It is the logical extention of the classist FEDERAL RESERVE BANKING system.

Um not its not! Its a COMPLETELY private institution of 4 agencies. They compile information for commercial use and they are VERY profitable.

Goldman sachs and the New York Fed are also separate private companies as well, yet they have the same MO...

Sadly, few of us can avoid its tenacious grasp over our lives.

Maybe because not all of us are socialist!

[/QUOTE]

maybe because some of us realize we are living in a debt driven society, and can actually buck the system (pun intended)

 

[editec]

Mostly it's because most of us need credit.

Few of us can puchase a car outright, for example.

Even less can buy a home with cash.

Now, whether or not we ever use credit or even have any debt, our credit rating are checked by many companies even when we apply for a job!

I think we can agree that most of us STILL need jobs, agreed?

Hence, regardless of whether we even USE credit, the credit industry is in our lives, keeping dossiers on each of us.

I jettisoned credit cards in the early 90s. That's when I thought they were going from a convenience I coulde afford, to a parasite that was DESIGNED to bleed me dry.

Of course, I still have a home mortgage so I am, just as those of you who have and still use credit cards, still part of that pernicious system.

A system which was once beneficial to us all, but which has become a monster.

 

[sparky]

anyone who even 1/2 way understands the history of usry can see how the credit industry has morphed from a convienence to an all consuming evil here.

when every citizen is born into debt, when other countries own more of the USA than they ever will, when fiscal instruments such as CDS's can plunge us into economic oblivion , we have a problem Houston.....

 

[editec]

anyone who even 1/2 way understands the history of usry can see how the credit industry has morphed from a convienence to an all consuming evil here.

when every citizen is born into debt, when other countries own more of the USA than they ever will, when fiscal instruments such as CDS's can plunge us into economic oblivion , we have a problem Houston.....

Ah but they do not understand credit history, do they?

To most Americans this nation's history was the American revolution, the Civil war, and then everything post Reagan.

If American truly understood history, most of the problems we have now would not exist.

 

[GHook93]

One thing you can do is get a copy of your credit report for free. Go to annualcreditreport.com

Having over a 800 score is very hard to achieve.

Bank accounts don't get reported to the credit bureaus (it gets reported to the efunds).

UK, like German, Russia, Brazil etc all have separate credit bureaus, so you might have credit there, but very doubtful they pulled one of those reports. I have a few customers that sometimes pull foreign reports, but they are very expensive.

Ouch!

Please feel free to doubt the score, but don't doubt the story. I've given you no reason to believe that I'm a liar, as far as I'm aware.

No, I didn't see the credit score. He told me I had an 806. I have no idea which agency he used.

I suppose there is a chance that my score could have been impacted by my UK bank account. When I planned to move back to the US, I asked my UK bank to open an account with one of their branches in the US (didn't have any in Michigan, so they opened one for me in Buffalo). I opened this account so that once we had sold our house in the UK we could transfer the proceeds to the US without having to pay any fees (it was considered an internal transfer), and we got a preferred exchange rate.

They did mention at the time that this would also mean that I would establish a credit rating again in the US, but until the house was sold and we made the move the US account was effectively dormant.

To answer your other questions, yes I have several credit cards, I have signed up for electric / gas, I don't rent (I own a house), and we have a credit line with our brokers (Edward Jones). But, as I said in an earlier post to Ravi, I didn't have any of these things when I financed the truck. All I had was a US bank account with nothing in it. Oh, actually, we did have a credit card, provided by the bank when we opened the account. But we had never used it.

Interesting. I just checked the HSBC website, and it says there that opening an account with HSBC USA only transfers your HSBC credit history, so, my mistake.

All of which leaves me none the wiser. Never mind, it was just an academic question anyway.

Moving to the U.S.

 

[GHook93]

Maybe it was the credit reporting company the dealership used.

That could be an issue, since each credit report doesn't usually have all of the same companies reporting to them.

It might be interesting to check it now and see if that write-off shows up. Apparently it didn't the first time around. You can get one free annual credit report at annualcreditreport.com.

It won't show up, since its over 7 years old. FCRA requires it to be off.
annualcreditreport.com will not get your FICO score and if you purchase the score from that site (or directly from the credit bureau) all you get is their generic credit score (one they usually don't sell to credit agencies)!

 

[GHook93]

I don't have a mortgage, but do own a house so certainly I now have electric bill / cable bil, etc. The point was that I didn't have at the time I financed the truck, so I have no idea what generated the credit rating.

Most auto dealers have automated systems. I am thinking there is a mistake. 800 scores require a lot and they are not acquired by accident!

Maybe the salesman was so eager to sell the truck, he fudged the application. You know, kinda like all those free-lance mortgage brokers were doing for a few years.

Impossible. The automative system (many which my company sells also) connects the deal to the finance company automatically. The credit report is pulled by the system. 99 out of 100x the dealer doesn't even see the credit report only the score. If he fudged he report then the loan would be written on another person. Not happening.

Mortgage brokers didn't fudge credit reports or scores, since the bank pulls their own credit report anyways. What they did was state income the people simply didn't make (which was within the guidelines) and put people in loans (again according to the guidelines) that they couldn't afford.

 

[GHook93]

Hook - I have an off-topic question, since you would know the answer:

Can anyone who has access to your Social Security Number pull up your credit history? My concern over that is that my checking account shows my sister as my beneficiary, strictly as power of attorney when I die to give her access to any money still there. The account does not give her check writing privileges as long as I'm alive. But she does have my Social as a result of this paperwork, and being shall I say the "inquisitive type," I know she'd love to take a peak at my financial history NOW, not AD.

To check someone's credit you need name, address and social security number. In many cases all you need is a name and address.

You can put a freeze on your credit report (which is more pain then its worth) or you can put an identity theft alert on your credit report (which is a freeze and all that the hack company life lock does). Its free to do.

 

[editec]

Evil system.

People who have no interest in being in it find themselves having to protect their credit ratings because otherwise they become victims of identity theft.

Another good reason, I think, to eschew using credit cards.

 

[tigerbob]

One thing you can do is get a copy of your credit report for free. Go to annualcreditreport.com

Having over a 800 score is very hard to achieve.

Bank accounts don't get reported to the credit bureaus (it gets reported to the efunds).

UK, like German, Russia, Brazil etc all have separate credit bureaus, so you might have credit there, but very doubtful they pulled one of those reports. I have a few customers that sometimes pull foreign reports, but they are very expensive.

Interesting. I just checked the HSBC website, and it says there that opening an account with HSBC USA only transfers your HSBC credit history, so, my mistake.

All of which leaves me none the wiser. Never mind, it was just an academic question anyway.

Moving to the U.S.

OK, I just checked TransUnion (didn't bother with the other 2, because while you can see your report you have to pay for your score).

It says I'm at 843.

However, despite your point earlier about it being very difficult to get over 800, the report says that

- 843 equates to a B level
- the range goes up to 990
- I have a better credit rating than 65% of the US population (which of course means that 35% have a higher rating than me).

So, it appears that getting over 800 isn't that big of a deal after all, at least as far as TransUnion scores it, which may go some way towards explaining the 806 I got when financing the truck 18 months ago.

I'm guessing that your earlier point about only 2% getting over 800 may refer to the way it is scored by Equifax / Experian.

 

[sparky]

well maybe the whole system needs a rebooting, maybe one's score should be something accumlated through one's peers, maybe some sort of public vetting, some sort of on line thing......

 

[GHook93]

One thing you can do is get a copy of your credit report for free. Go to annualcreditreport.com

Interesting. I just checked the HSBC website, and it says there that opening an account with HSBC USA only transfers your HSBC credit history, so, my mistake.

All of which leaves me none the wiser. Never mind, it was just an academic question anyway.

Moving to the U.S.

OK, I just checked TransUnion (didn't bother with the other 2, because while you can see your report you have to pay for your score).

It says I'm at 843.

However, despite your point earlier about it being very difficult to get over 800, the report says that

- 843 equates to a B level
- the range goes up to 990
- I have a better credit rating than 65% of the US population (which of course means that 35% have a higher rating than me).

So, it appears that getting over 800 isn't that big of a deal after all, at least as far as TransUnion scores it, which may go some way towards explaining the 806 I got when financing the truck 18 months ago.

I'm guessing that your earlier point about only 2% getting over 800 may refer to the way it is scored by Equifax / Experian.

Unless you went to myfico.com you didn't get your FICO score, you got TU's generic score. FICO only goes up to 850. My guess is your in the low 700s

 

[MaggieMae]

Hook - I have an off-topic question, since you would know the answer:

Can anyone who has access to your Social Security Number pull up your credit history? My concern over that is that my checking account shows my sister as my beneficiary, strictly as power of attorney when I die to give her access to any money still there. The account does not give her check writing privileges as long as I'm alive. But she does have my Social as a result of this paperwork, and being shall I say the "inquisitive type," I know she'd love to take a peak at my financial history NOW, not AD.

To check someone's credit you need name, address and social security number. In many cases all you need is a name and address.

You can put a freeze on your credit report (which is more pain then its worth) or you can put an identity theft alert on your credit report (which is a freeze and all that the hack company life lock does). Its free to do.

That's what I thought. However, the last time I checked my own credit using one of the big three (in Vermont, we can get the more sophisticated checks for free, annually), I had to plug in all my account numbers before it would pull up the actual figures for what I owe on each. THAT'S the kind of information that is nobody's business, especially a relative who happens to be a control freak.

 

[Big Black Dog]

I don't know how it works either but I do know that my credit score was 824 when I bought my pick-up truck about 9 months ago. To me, credit should be like (a) you have credit or (b) no credit. Makes no sense to me to have something in between.

less that 2% of the public has over 800 scores and we just met 2!

Look there are NOT just one score out there. There is FICO (all these bureaus have different scores, EQ =Beacon, TU = Empirca, EXP = FICO), there is the new Vantage score, the BK Score, the Recovery Score, Fast Track, Custom Models, Scorex, etc.

Funny thing is if you get monitoring services and pull your credit report and score, you ARE NOT getting FICO. the only way to get FICO is through myfico.com!

I love it when people think you are lying. Why would I lie about something as silly as a credit score. Yesterday (March 15th) I bought a new truck. I bought a 2010 Chevrolet Avalanche LTZ. I put $18,000.00 down on it. And by the way, my credit score was 812. I was wrong about saying it was 824. It was 824 when I bought the previous truck. So, what's your credit score big boy?

 

[strollingbones]

I don't have a mortgage, but do own a house so certainly I now have electric bill / cable bil, etc. The point was that I didn't have at the time I financed the truck, so I have no idea what generated the credit rating.

If you were renting, that would count toward your score. Basically, the scores predict your ability to pay your bills...so unless you were dinged for nonpayment since you came back you'd have a decent score.

Maybe rent is reported to credit agencies in your state, but not here.

Here, you get NOTHING for paying rent on time except a pat on the back.

and a place to live

 

[strollingbones]

<-------------has no clue to any of this