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     | Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 08:04 am  Okay, I get my Best Buy account paid off. This helps my debt ratio. Two other cards are within $500.00 of credit limit with little or no activity. I can tell almost immediately that my report(s) have been updated because of the better offer's that continue to come my way. So I get the other 2 cards paid off. You know what happens then? Lower score. To much credit available. In search of the perfect score. My best guess? 1. One card with no outstanding balance 2. One or two cards with SOME balance owing. Now about those people who offer to get your score in a tri-merged report. How is the inquiry listed? Does it hurt? Phil
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| | Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 08:40 am Phil: Contrary to popular belief, scores will go down temporarily. People ask all the time how do I increase my score. To answer that is impossible because every lender has their own guidelines for what they believe to be a "good score". People think that if they close un used accounts, clean up their credit and reduce INQ's that their score will jump. It is the opposite. It goes down but then it levels out later usually 60-90 days later. Consumers never cared about scores until it affected their ability to get home loans. The very best thing for your credit now is -no activity. No inquiries, no opening of accounts and no increases. Just let it set and it will go up as long as the balances stay low in relation to limits and the trade’s age even more. What is calculated into your score: • How long you've lived at your current address • Your job or profession • Your financial obligations (debt-to-income ratio) • Any late payments • The amount of credit you have outstanding • The amount of credit you are using • The amount of time you've had credit established We have a section on scoring if you would like to read more. You can also read about the "mysterious scoring" at creditscoring.com Kristi Feathers Http://www.carreonandassociates.com
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| | Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 02:52 pm Kristi -your reply notes something I've wanted to check in to for a bit. My information is that there are 2 "scoring mechanisms" with which the typical borrower should be concerned: (1)The "generic" FICO score generated directly by the CRA's and (2)The "cusotmized" scoring that "deal" lenders (such as mortgage lenders) use. The "generic" FICO comes from Fair Isaac's analytical engines and is provided to EXP, EQU, and TU...furthermore,each of the CRA's, in conjunction with Fair Isaac's statisticians and analysts, "tune" their generic FICO score. Hence the Empirica FICO score from TU, the Beacon FICO score from EXP, etc. While the scores are usually different, they ONLY CONISDER THE INFORMATION FROM THE RAW CREDIT FILES. Now,when it comes to a mortgage lender, for example, it is my impression that they have even further enhanced their "tuning" of a score by taking into consideration information that is NOT in the raw data files such as: -How long you've lived at your current address (CRA's don't have the info to caclculate that) -Your job or profession (CRA's note it, when provided, but it is not an integral item of info) -Your financial obligations (debt-to-income ratio) (CRA's don't know how much you make) [When I say CRA's don't "know", what I mean is that they don't endeavor to manage, maintain, and strive to keep an accurate and up-to-date record of such things as they are all consumer-provided.] So, am I not correct in that to get an instant cell phone approval at Circuit City, that they simply just pull a "generic" Beacon FICO score directly from EQU? But...... ......to get a mortgage, I have to supply the lender with job, length of job, length of address, income , etc. that they then plug into their "tuned" system to generate whether or not I then qualify for an "A paper", "A- paper", etc. loan?
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| | Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 03:07 pm Yep, that sounds about right to me. The Mortgage copy (merged) also removes duplicates which gives you a different score then you would get from "generic" but how is one to know the difference when the CRA won't release the score? Maybe Gregg has more on this topic. I really am no expert on scoring in depth.
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| | Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 04:06 pm Phil: You said: "So I get the other 2 cards paid off. You know what happens then? Lower score. To much credit available." From what I remember about your previous postings, this sounds SOOOO unlikely. Is this what happened or just what you assume will happen? Did you get declined and it was one of the four reason? Which one? You posted your cards and limits before, could you please repost those? All the merged reports I have seen caused an inquiry at each bureau, lowering your Scores. As far as I know there is NO way to get your Scores without having the inquiries count against you. Does anyone know how to get your Credit Scores without lowering the Credit Scores? Regarding MORTGAGE Credit Scores: Up until 2 years ago I am absolutely positive that mortgage lending used the GENERIC FICO, Beacon and Emperica Scores. This was a FNMA/FHLMC requirement. I am NOT aware of changes. I find it hard to believe that nobody would have posted about it here. So did that change? When, how? Some links? Finance companies and banks often use customized scoring models for all kinds of loans, but not mortgages. Yes, the mortgage loan application asks for employment, etc. but that had absolutely NOTHING to do with my Clients' Credit Scores. How do you get the best Scores? Where is Sean when you need him? :) I just did a keyword search for "increase scores" and found 250 PAGES. Of course, nobody knows how Scoring works. That's why it's time for a law suit against Fair Isaac and the creditors utilizing Credit Scoring.
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| | Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 06:00 pm Hello Christine- BB-bal-0 CL-1200 MC-bal-1300 CL-2500 DC-bal-1100 CL-1500 Interesting.....MC is only charging me 8.50% APR-------DC-12.99% DC sent me a letter stating that the notice of 16.99% APR was a mistake and that it would remain 12.99% Also-Bank One is being investigated for discriminating against minorities. I said it once and I'll say it again----The WORST thing that EVER happened was when Bank One came to town. Phil I haven't asked for any other credit and no one has turned me down. Just curious about those numbers. I am single and I read where that counts against you.
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| | Saturday, February 19, 2000 - 08:18 pm I don't think being single counts against you *directly* although you'd probably have MORE credit if you weren't. And that would be good. Do NOT worry about having too much credit, you're a long way from that. I wouldn't mind seeing a couple more accounts and higher limits. As you pay your balances down you'll get increases automatically. Time is definitely on your side. I'm glad to see that Discover had made a "mistake" when they raised your rate. Isn't it amazing the results you get when you close your account? It's good that you kept the card, it really does help your Scores. Is Best Buy a FINANCE company account? If yes, that's not good.
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| | Sunday, February 20, 2000 - 05:11 am One of the puzzle pieces which would be helpful would be the four reasons, from each report, that your score is not higher-- before and after you made the changes. There hasn't been any changes in the conforming mortgage loan business with regard to the type of score used-- still generic "credit bureau" (to use their term) scores. A funny story: not to be upstaged by HUD, Fannie Mae made a statement regarding their "Mortgage Consumer Bill of Rights." The press release contained this: ... Raines said it is incorrect to focus on automated underwriting when looking for reasons why there is still a minority homeownership gap in the U.S. http://www.fanniemae.com/news/pressreleases/0608.html So, he raises it in the air, but do they post it on the web? No. I even wrote to them and asked. They said they won't be doing so; they mailed me a copy. You can always count on them for good mystery (and comedy).
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| | Sunday, February 20, 2000 - 05:29 am Is Best Buy a finance company? Codes from TU report BC-Bank Card HE-?? Best Buy BB and QZ-??
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| | Sunday, February 20, 2000 - 11:42 am Best Buy is a department store. Their credit cards are written by places such as Household Finance, Citibank, etc. The 'HE' probably refers to some type of finance company (?).
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