Acknowledged, as I already said. But — again — the discussion has not been that narrow since the OP. By the third post, the OP was talking about debt consolidation. By the fourth post, there was talk about credit reports and identity theft. And by the time you responded to my early post, people had moved on to talking about credit limits, debt ceilings, and all kinds of things. On no occasion did I ever say that a FICO report was necessary for a cell phone. But just to put your mind at ease, I’ll repeat — again — that I know that a FICO report is not typically required for a cell phone. Is there any way to satisfy you about this, short of rending my garment in twain and sitting on a pile of dung?
Not trying to bust your chops, dude, just trying to clarify. :smack:
I’m just going through this myself - no known issues but I’m making sure. You need to get in touch with 3 companies: Experian, Equifax, and Callcredit. You have a statutory right to your credit report: it will cost you £2 for each agency, though they will try and divert you into paying more. Total cost: £6, plus postage where necessary.
Once you’ve got these reports you can see where they’re wrong and take action to correct them.
I was shocked to see my credit report. It is amazing the amount of information they have about you. They had addresses of places I’d forgotten I’d ever lived, etc.
[Bolding mine.] Could you explain this? I’m not sure what you mean by ‘inquiries.’ I almost never use credit, so I’m not worried about anything, but do the credit bureaus log your inquiries about your credit? Why? Do they feel that numerous inquiries reveal a sketchy character and potential problems?
For the record, I’ve never made an inquiry about anything having to do with credit. I have a credit card I almost never use, and I have a small mortgage, but that’s it. Nonetheless, this thread makes me want to order a report. But if ordering a report leaves a black mark on my record, I’ll have to think twice.
I think its with reference to enquiries made to potential lenders, not just a case of you asking for a credit report.
There are ‘hard pulls’ and ‘soft pulls’.
Hard pulls are you applying for a home loan, car loan, line of credit, credit card, cell phone, home insurance…
Soft pulls are when you ask for a copy of your report or when a lender pulls your credit as part of reviewing your existing account, or any number of other reasons not related to your application for credit…
So when you go to the bank and say, I’m thinking about getting a loan to buy a second property, the bank immediately checks your credit, and that’s listed as an inquiry? Something like that? And it’s bad to have too many of those?
Sorry if I’m being thick, but I’m really fuzzy on this idea.
You’re correct.
Based on some old research, here’s what you want to have, best to worst:
1 inquiry
0 inquiry
2 inquiries
3 inquiries
4 inquiries
5 or more inquiries
The more credit you’re applying for, the lower your FICO score goes.
There’s also a rule that states multiple mortgage inquiries in one month (or two months? I’m not sure) only count as one hard pull [inquiry].
I believe the difference in score between 1 and 0 inquiries is pretty minor.
Think about it from the creditor’s point of view. Some guy wants to borrow money from you. You check around and find out that he’s been doing the same thing all around town. You realize that he’s asked a whole bunch of other people if they too will lend him money. You start to wonder, “Damn, so this guy might borrow from five other people, making me just one on the list of people he owes. What if he loses his job or something? Where in line will I be to be paid?”. See what I mean?
Ordering your own credit report is a “soft pull”. Soft pulls do not affect your credit in any way; “hard pulls” are done whenyou’re applying for credit and can impact your credit score. A hard pull is a slight ping; if you generally have good credit and need another credit card, one hard pull won’t make a difference. But if your credit is marginal and you’re applying for a mortgage, you want to refrain from applying for stuff to keep your score at it’s highest.
I highly recommend everyone pull thier credit report at least yearly (I generally do it two to three times a year). The free credit report will give you all your information so you can check for wrong reporting but it won’t give you your FICO score, the number lenders use to rate your credit-worthiness. If you’re applying for a loan or mortgage, it really helps to know your FICO score so you have an idea of your bargining power and expected interest rates. You have to purchase your FICO score (usually $15 per agency) which you can do through myfico.com. If you go to the creditboards forums, you can usually find a 10 or 15% discount code.
In this day and age, having good credit is extremely important for many things: renting an apartment, getting a job, getting ggod interest rates. It would benefit everyone to become an educated consumer and learn as much as you can about your credit. Everytime these threads come up, I highly recommend The Credit Boards. Someone on the Dope linked it once and I found it an amazing source of information.
Wow, I had no idea about soft and hard pulls. I’m kind of an anti-credit guy. On the rare occasion when I use my credit card, I pay it off the next day. So I’ve never given much thought to my credit rating. Only two times has it come into play, once when I started a company and once when we got our mortgage. In both cases, the lender just laughed and said my credit rating couldn’t be any better. Go ahead, they said, we’ll lend ya whatever ya want.
Thanks for all of the information. I’m going to order a report, just to see what’s going on in there.
Don’t just order a report.
Order three.
In the USA, you want reports from:
Equifax
Transunion
Experian
Overseas, I got no clue.
Experian’s corporate headquarters are in Dublin. Operational headquarters are in Nottingham and Costa Mesa.
There are a few message boards out there that are exclusively for discussion of credit reports and credit issues. There are many posters on those boards who are completely obsessed with credit reporting and who are very very knowledgeable.
I’m sure you could find those boards with a few searches and I would suggest you do so.
(Not to knock this forum in any way, but for certain kinds of specialized practical information you may be better off in a more specialized forum)
Yeah. Some fabulous resouces on those boards.
One guy used to pull his credit report and score EVERY DAY and note what happenned every time something entered or left his credit report.
Interesting attempt at reverse engineering the system, but you’d need a bigger sample pool than the few dozen over there that did that…