Credit Bureaus/Reports/Scores

FICO Meter - Skewed

Discover Offers Free FICO Credit Score to All Cardholders

Leave a comment

DISCOVER FREE FICO CREDIT SCORE – As a longtime Discover cardholder, I was rather disappointed when back in November they announced that they would offer Discover it cardholders a free FICO credit score on their statement each month, as well as when you logged into your account online. However, I knew of plenty of other resources to get access to my credit score if needed, albeit not necessarily a FICO score.

So I was delighted to receive the news this week that Discover was now offering a free FICO credit score to all cardholders.

Discover FICO Jan 2014

“The response from Discover it cardmembers – who already receive free FICO Scores on their monthly statements – has been overwhelmingly positive, so we’re thrilled to extend this service to other Discover cardmembers,” said Julie Loeger, senior vice president of brand and acquisition at Discover. “Knowing their score can help our cardmembers achieve their personal goals and better prepare to reach life’s many major milestones.”

In order to build a more knowledgeable consumer, Discover is also implementing tips discussing why your score may be what it is, and how you may go about improving your score.

“Beyond sharing the FICO Score itself, we’re now taking it one step further by providing consumers with the specific reasons their score is what it is,” Loeger continued. “A knowledgeable consumer is a powerful one, and we’re happy to partner with FICO and TransUnion to give consumers the information they need to make smart financial decisions.”

Building and protecting your credit is a lifelong process. It is a marathon, not a race. Doing things like making your payment each and every month, having various types of credit (mortgages, car loans, student loans, revolving credit), and making sure you have accounts with long histories (i.e. not opening and closing credit cards necessarily just for the bonuses) help build and maintain high scores that will result in lower interest rates and better chances financially in the longterm.

Comparing Discover FICO Score to Others

I am always curious how my credit scores stack up against various models. The FICO score offered by Discover gives a good representation of the scoring model other lenders would see.

Credit Karma also uses a scoring model from TransUnion, though it is TransUnion’s proprietary TransRisk score. One can not necessarily compare scores apples-to-apples since all of the scoring models are calculated based on different methodologies.

Credit Karma Jan 2014

Are you excited to get access to your FICO credit score each month with your Discover card statement?

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: Discover PR

Credit Circle

Sources That Offer Free Credit Reports or Scores

3 Comments

Updated with new information.

Knowing not only what comprises your credit report, but also what goes into calculating your credit scores, and knowing your numbers is what everyone should have a basic fundamental knowledge. My parents taught me at a young age about how important credit can be and impact your financial relationships for the rest of your life.

So what I take for granted, I am often quite shocked at how little the general public knows about their credit. If you tell anyone that you open multiple credit cards at one time just for the sake of earning tons of rewards, the questions start pouring in about whether your credit is hurt as a result. The answer is in the short term, yes you will take a couple point hit per card; however, over the long run, you will have added additional credit to your portfolio, and when managed properly, will increase your credit scores.

I get asked all the time about what credit card should I open? The answer is quite unique to each persons particular scenario. Before I even make any recommendations, I always feel it is my obligation to make people obtain their credit report at a minimum, as well as their scores.

I have also been amazed by all of the resources out there that give you credit reports and/or credit scores. The great thing is they are free, and secondly, obtaining your report and/or scores does not impact your credit.

Options to Obtain Your Free Credit Report/Score

To begin with, the United States government requires that everyone is allowed to obtain their credit report one time per rolling 12 month period from each of the credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). Visit AnnualCreditReport.com, which is the official site with no hidden costs.

Personally, rather than obtain all three credit reports at the same time, I prefer to space them out throughout the year. If you were to get all three on say, October 1, you would need to wait till October 2 of the next year to obtain them again. Therefore, I like getting one from each bureau once every four months. This allows us to monitor our credit throughout the year.

Note, you only obtain your credit report via the Annual Credit Report website. If you want your score, you have to buy them separately from each bureau. However, you have other free options.

Tip: If you are ever denied for credit, you are also able to obtain a free copy of your credit reports, which is in addition to those obtained from Annual Credit Report.

130929 Credit Karma Score

Credit Karma– Offers a free credit score every 7 days, based on your TransUnion credit report. You do not get to see your actual credit report for free, only your score. Credit Karma purchases the scores directly from TransUnion and gives them to you unmodified.

I evaluated how the Credit Karma scoring model varies with my score directly from TransUnion, and as the founder pointed out in the comments, there is no one single score. What this means is that even if you go to TransUnion to obtain your credit score directly, a lender may obtain a totally different score when they pull your credit.

The methodology to calculating your score varies depending on what type of credit you are trying to obtain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

130903 Credit Sesame Score

Credit Sesame: Obtain your free credit score based on your Experian credit report. Note, you are only able to obtain your free score once per month. For most people, this should be often enough.

Purchasing your credit report comes with an additional fee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quizzle

Quizzle, which is part of the Quicken’s Loan company, appears to be different than both the aforementioned sites. Quizzle will allow you two copies of your credit report each year (every six months) for free. Any additional requests will incur a $9 fee, which still is cheaper than purchasing them directly from the credit bureaus. The site will also give you access to your Quizzle score (again every six months), which is similar to the Experian calculation.

Thanks to a readers tip in the comments for this resource.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to another readers tip, guests can use credit.com to access their credit score once every 30 days. The credit report information included in your Credit.com account comes directly from Experian.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

130824 U.S. Bank Experian Credit Score

Credit Card Options

There are also credit cards that offer free credit report/credit score monitoring as an added service.

U.S. Bank– Cardholders can pull their Experian credit scores once per month for free. You need to make sure you access the link directly from your U.S. Bank account.

“Calculated on the PLUS Score model, your Experian Credit Score indicates your relative credit risk level for educational purposes and is not the score used by lenders.”

What I have not quite figured out is the means by how often you can access your credit score from U.S. Bank. As you can see from the image above, when I log into my account, it shows a credit score from the end of August. Here it is over a full month later, and my score still has not updated within the system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

American Express- This is one option I just recently learned of for obtaining your free credit report and score. Update: Since running this article, it appears the free credit reports are only available for a 30 days period once per year.

Per the AMEX site, “My Credit Score & Report offers a Credit Report and PLUS Score® from Experian, one of the major Bureaus. The PLUS Score is designed to be indicative of your overall credit risk. PLUS Scores are not used by lenders and you should not rely on them exclusively to understand how lenders will view your creditworthiness. Lenders use several different credit scoring models.”

130929 AMEX Credit Score

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Barclaycard is now offering card users of select products the chance to access their FICO credit scores for free. Scores are pulled from TransUnion at a minimum once every 60 days.

Currently the feature is only available on the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard (affiliate link), Barclaycard Ring, Barclaycard Rewards, Juniper, Frontier and Carnival products, and you must register for the option online or by calling in.

In Conclusion

As you can see, there are many options out there that everyone should be utilizing. Knowing about your particular credit report and what goes into it is a valuable resource that is not to be messed with, because it will impact your credit profile for the remainder of your life.

Are there any free resources that we missed?

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents

10/3/13- Originally published

CreditKarma

Credit Karma Discontinues Daily Score Updates

Leave a comment

CreditKarma

We have been paying off some bills with our tax refunds, and I have been anxious to see what kind of positive impact that will have to my credit scores. The first step I took was to log into my Credit Karma account and pull up my latest score (for free), which is determined based on the TransUnion credit bureau information.

The first major thing I noted was the layout of the Credit Karma pages had been redesigned. However, what ultimately really surprised me was to see that there was no place to “update” my credit score. The site automatically updated my score for me. Ok, I am fine with that.

Credit Karma Weekly Score Update

The thing that alarmed me though was the little note next to my score.

There in front of me was a new note that said I needed to wait a week until I could update my score again.

Credit Karma was always founded on the principal of being able to update your credit score once per day. The great thing is that checking your score with Credit Karma had no bearing or impact on your scores performance.

So I reached out to Credit Karma to check on why the system was being redesigned.

When you log into your Credit Karma account, your score will automatically update if it’s been more than seven days since your last update. All you have to do is log in to initiate this update.

In your dashboard, you’ll see the date when your score was last updated as well as when a new score will be available for you.

Creditors send updates to the credit bureaus once a month, so credit scores typically do not change daily. We decided to make the Credit Karma experience more seamless by automatically updating your credit information for you weekly when you log into your account.

If you receive a credit monitoring alert about something important changing in your TransUnion credit report, your score will be automatically updated the next time you log into Credit Karma.

All of this makes our score updates more intelligent and keeps you focused on only important changes to your credit. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

While I agree that creditors update your information once per month, it is not standard when in the month this happens. Therefore, on Monday of one week XYZ could send updated account information to the credit bureaus, and on Tuesday company ABC could also do the same thing. The problem I see with this new weekly score update is that there is no longer a way to directly see which reportings directly impact your score.

If on Wednesday of the week where several creditors updated your information, you now might need to make a guess at which line item raised or lowered your score, where as before you could track daily which creditors information effected your score positively or negatively.

Upcoming Credit Predictions

What I discovered Credit Karma now includes, and maybe it was there prior and I just never noticed it, is a prediction of when creditors will be reporting your new information. If you go to your Alerts page, you will see a calendar view. By either scrolling over each day, or viewing the list below, you can now determine when creditors expect to report your information to TransUnion. Credit Karma is sitting on a huge pile of data not only from you, but everyone else, that I would venture to say pretty accurately can determine when new information is transferred over.

Credit Karma Alerts Calendar Predictions

By using this tool, you now might want to plan out your logins to Credit Karma to accurately capture the most recent data and prevent you from missing that one creditors information in your weekly pull.

Wrap-up

I value a free system to monitor people’s credit, and am really appreciative of Credit Karma’s existence, as it is a powerful tool for the consumer and those of us who like to use our credit to its maximum potential by opening up new lines of credit for rewards.

The reality of what is really going on, I presume, is that Credit Karma is trying to curb some of its costs. They purchase your credit report from TransUnion and calculate your score on a similar method. By cutting down to only pulling your report weekly, there was some cost savings on Credit Karma’s part. Credit Karma makes their money off of the associated products you get pitched while researching your own credit. If less people are opening up lines of credit than are pulling their reports, the math simply needs to be revised, which is at the heart of what is really going on.

Regardless, I am still happy to see Credit Karma is still able to offer their credit score system for free to the consumer. What could really do wonders for Credit Karma is if they could work some exclusive deals with the credit card issuers, similar to what CreditCards.com is currently doing. Until then, I think the educated consumer will continue to use their free credit information to hunt out the best offers possible, which is happening with affiliates everywhere.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents