Archive for the ‘credit score’ Category

The importance of your credit score

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

Credit scores are becoming more and more important as financial institutions more closely examine how they manage their funds. Increased government regulation in this down economy has led to higher interest rates passed onto credit users.

While 720 used to be a good enough credit score to get the best interest rates on a mortgage, now some lenders are requiring scores in the high 700s to get the best rate. Credit card interest rates are getting jacked up too with any late payments. Don’t give the credit institution any possible reason to raise your rates!

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What is a good credit score?

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

What is a good credit score?

A lot of people ask this question- in fact over 18,000 people ask this exact question on Google every month. Typically, credit scores are divided into

According to Fair Isaac, the median credit score is 723. This means that half of people have scores below this number and half have scores better than this. However, the average credit score according to Experian is 678. Since the average is lower than the median, this means that credit scores are skewed left. There are more extremely high scores than there are extremely low scores.

All three credit agencies maintain their own databases and credit score formulas, so your score across each could vary by as much as 50 or even 100 points. Which one matters most? I suppose that is up to your lenders- just ask and they’ll be happy to let you know which one or multiple credit scores they use.

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Free credit score

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Get your credit score for free!

You probably hear or see this type of advertisement daily, but there is almost always a catch to it. Most of the time, these “free credit score” offers involve signing you up for a monthly credit watch subscription that costs between $10 and $30 per month. If you forget to cancel after the free trial is over, you get stuck with monthly fees that far exceed the cost of buying your score one time.

Supposedly, there are a number of sources to get your free credit score without costs down the road. At one time or another, it was probably possible by having a Washington Mutual credit card, using Prosper (the person-to-person private lending website), joining Lending Club, applying for an e-Loan mortgage, or becoming active on CreditKarma.

I don’t know if any of these methods currently work, but you should check out their credit websites and poke around. You might be able to get your credit score for free!

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New credit score website

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Today marks the creation of the new website on CreditScore.ws. We plan to write articles about how to find a free credit score, what is a good credit score, how to improve your credit score, and what is an average credit score. Check back frequently as we add more great information and resources.

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