Let me second Credit Karma. I am a credit score zealot and love this site. The only one I know of that is REALLY free. The others including “freecreditscore.com” are BS pay sites that get away with calling it free because they require a monitoring sub.
Avoid those like the plague IMO.
I learned from my mortgage company that the credit score that you receive from these sites listed above are only for general consumer credit information and is not the score that the bank uses when you apply for a home loan. I know because I thoroughly checked my credit score before I applied for a mortgage (average around 767) and then got told by the bank that my credit wasn’t good enough for the best rate in 2009 (they said 696). When I asked how I could check my report out for myself they told me that I couldn’t, that the Fair Credit Act only apply to consumer credit ratings and not mortgage credit ratings. Bastards.
I don’t buy it. How could the Trans Union score credit Karma gives me be a different number than they give a lender?
Your mortgage company wants to get more money out of you via higher rates. This “secret score” that they get to see but you don’t sounds like pure bullshit.
Nope.
So what is it that they do for the mortgage ratings that an operation like Credit Karma can’t do – and why can’t Credit Karma do it themselves? What information do they have that we can’t just give to Credit Karma ourselves? What algorithm do they use that no one else can use?
It’s not that “no one else can use” their algorithm, it’s that there are dozens of different algorithms, and there’s no way for you, as a consumer, to know which one any given lender will use.
And those algorithms are closely guarded trade secrets. Their ability to predict your likelihood of paying back your mortgage or other type of loan accurately is worth a lot to lenders.
Right, they didn’t come out and directly say it but basically what they told me is that the Fair Credit and Lending act didn’t apply to home mortgages. Credit cards and credit checks yes, you can get copies of those. Basically the mortgage/banking lobby negotiated a loophole to it’s own advantage and I don’t things getting any better for individuals anytime soon. So surprise, it’s just an illusion that anyone gives a damn about the little guy. Not that I’m still bitter about this shit. :mad:
The score Credit Karma gives me is within one point of the free FICO I get from my Walmart account. I think Walmart uses transunion as well. I don’t know which one Credit Sesame uses, but it gives a score 10 points lower.
We just did a refi on our home and not only was the Credit Karma score within 2 points of what the bank had. The bank was happy to share the report they use with me.
Perhaps each bank has their own rules, not surprising.