Originally posted by: Sraaz
Seriously? They just checked it and that dropped it? What a wacky system...
Originally posted by: JeffreyLebowski
Having read a lot about credit scores and what exactly affects it, I've come to the conclusions that it is a big game that the financial sector put together to make sure the most people possible will have less than perfect credit. They say to have open credit accounts to help your score, but, if you have a $20K limit on a card, and spend say $18K and pay it off that month, it will still show as a negative hit since you came close to maxing the card out. Doesn't matter that you pay it in full every month.
You have the same card and don't charge enough on it every month and it looks bad because you're not utilizing your credit "effectively".
Guess what, if you want your credit to be perfect you're going to need to do a lot of research and learn how to play the game, since that is all it really is.
Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.
Originally posted by: shocksyde
Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.
They do, but never more than a few points.
Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.
Originally posted by: stag3
actually the last 3 times i've applied for and gotten new credit cards, my fico dropped close to 40 pts each time
and gained it all back the next month, weird?
Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
The whole building credit game is so overrated. I bought a house when I was 22 with hardly any credit history, and I had no problem. Why kids are taught these days that you need to spend your early life impressing the credit bureaus so you can get access to enough credit to fuck your life up is beyond me. Seems part of growing up these days is getting over your head in your twenties, and spending your thirties trying to dig out of the hole you got yourself in.
Originally posted by: weeber
Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.
Oh, they affect it. I just bought my house and did some shopping around to see where I should get my mortgage. The first place I looked gave me all three of my scores (all were higher than 780). I finally settled on getting my mortgage from this third place and when they gave me my score I was down to numbers that were over 750. The only thing that lowered my score was the credit checks that the three lenders did over a short period of time.
My chosen lender also had me write a lender to explain the recent credit checks that were on my report. The cliffs of the letter I sent was: Duh, I'm buying a house.
Yeah, that's a fair approximation, though it's a bit more complicated than that. For even more details about how the FICO score is calculated and how much a "hard pull" of your credit report affects your FICO score, you can check out the June 30th posting at uThunk: Money-Saving Decisions Made Easy.Originally posted by: SoulAssassin
Originally posted by: shocksyde
Originally posted by: Safeway
I didn't think that credit inquiries (to check your score) affected your score at all.
They do, but never more than a few points.
Yeah, +- 10 points is about normal....50 is not.