So, I took a look at a free service offered by CreditKarma this week. Since I used to be quite the credit and credit score aficionado, this stuff is still very interesting to me.
CreditKarma gives a you a "score" that’s pulled from Transunion data. It’s not a real FICO score, but what would be known as a "fako score" among credit score snobs.
CreditKarma gave me a 633 FICO score!
Holy smokes, that was WAY higher than I was expecting. I mean, WAY higher.
The last time I checked my score (probably about a year ago, and before my bankruptcy), It was a 471 from experian. Ouch.
My Real Credit (FICO) Score
Curious, I decided to pull my score from MyFico and actually get a real, legit score (that I had to pay for, but did use a coupon).
The verdict?
610
Can you believe that? Dang.
What’s hurting my credit score
Here’s what is hurting my score according to my report:
- You have a public record or collection, as well as a serious delinquency on your credit report.
- You have multiple accounts showing missed payments or derogatory descriptions.
- The remaining balance on your non-mortgage installment loans is too high.
- You have a short credit history.
These all make sense based on what’s happened the last year. The bankruptcy shows up on the public record side of things.
Short Sale…Not Much Credit Score Hit
I think this shows some real evidence that doing a short sale won’t completely kill your credit score. I’d have to hear from others who have done one, but a 610 after a bankruptcy, tons of late payments, and a short sale…I’m really surprised at this.
In the notes on my 2nd mortgage it says,
Account legally paid in full for less than the full balance
And on the first mortgage it says,
Paid account, foreclosure was started
I’m almost tempted to purchase my other two scores now to see if they are in line with this Experian score.
Late Payments…Yeah, I’ve got em
50 lates on my report. Ouch.
Props to MyFico
Props to MyFico (and creditkarma was pretty close actually!). I haven’t used their service for a long time, but I used to be quite the frequent customer. They’ve redesigned their whole layout of the score and report and it’s very easy to navigate. If you want to check your real score, make sure and use a MyFico Promotional Code.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Dude, I have a 610 credit score as well, and I don’t have any lates or missed payments. The only thing I have is a lot of credit card debt from a 0% balance transfer deal. It’s crazy how they come up with these scores.
How the hell do we win this rat race to be debt free? Are we to blame for all of this? The companies? The government? Our parents? Maybe we are just in a tough time. I want to be free!!!! We need a 700 credit score.
DK – MUCH better than a score in the 400’s. Congrats! The trick is to get all those accounts showing up on your credit report into some sort of a formal plan (payment plan, write off, etc), so that late payments do not continue to accumulate. Then your score will start to go up considerably. You are making progress.
Now, not to hijack your post or anything, but I’m wondering if you or your readers can point me in a good direction for researching online financial management software. I and another relative across the country will be taking over the financial management of an elderly relative. We have already decided to put most of the bills on billpay and get statements electronically. To support this we created an email address for the elderly relative to which we both have access.
Our two main goals of the online software solution are to
1. get all financial affairs in one place so we can get the “big picture”, preferably with minimal data entry.
2. do a bit of long term planning regarding how long the assets will support the nursing home care, but the budgeting function is secondary.
Ideally we could accomplish item 1 by linking all the various accounts to the online solution without having to do data entry. We are going to figure out the financial picture by collecting the mail, because the house is a mess and it will take forever to find things that way. We are willing to pay a minimal monthly fee if that gives better security and confidentiality, but free would be better. My concern with any of these solutions is also that I want something that will be around for awhile – not shut down next year.
We are also going to need to file income taxes, because apparently the elderly relative has not done that in several years. But I think that would be a different tool.
So far I found that mint.com seems to satisfy all the requirements, but any additional advice is appreciated. Thanks.
WOW! Not bad at ALL for everything you’ve been through!
I was actually wondering about what your credit score would be, but thought it far too personal a question to ask.
So thanks for reading my mind and posting: it just goes to show, you CAN repair bad credit! Heck, I don’t think they get much worse than your 300k situation. Think of all the people you’ve given hope to!
http://www.btgnow.net
I’m shooting for a FICO score of 0. Absolutely no debt, no mortgage, no credit history, nothing holding me back from using my income to get what I want instead of using credit to do it. If you don’t have to make any payments on debt, you have money. I don’t know of anyone who has a rare perfect FICO of 850 or what they had to do to get it.
Look at the factors that make up a FICO score:
35% — payment history
30% — ratio of debt to credit
15% — credit history
10% — flavors of credit on the report
10% — inquiries into who’s looking
In order to have a high credit score you must carry a lot of debt, different types of debt, small balances on many accounts kept current, and apply for new credit from time to time. Now take all of that away and ask yourself which one is easier to manage? Don’t let a number have so much power over your life and future.
Holy Cow! 50 late credit payments and that high a score? And, I get bent out of shape when I think I’m going to make one late payment. I thought that was the thing that MOST damaged a credit score. I guess not!
I know, maybe after two or three they don’t hurt your score anymore? Maybe they figure more than a certain amount is equal. Doesn’t make sense to me either, but I ain’t complaining!
@IMHO – I’ve been using http://www.wesabe.com lately and I like how easily it makes tracking and tagging (once you run a month or two of transactions and tag them it does it pretty much automatically from there). I hear they are coming out with a budgeting program soon there too, that will be cool.
Also, I’ve used http://www.geezeo.com before as well. It has a neat text message balance check feature.
I know http://www.mint.com has raised quite a bit of money, so assuming they handle it as well as their pretty application looks, they should be around awhile. They are the definite leader in the PFM app niche, but I’m also a fan of wesabe’s forums….sigh, I can’t stick to one thing in life!