Setting Your Priorities
Inquiries may hurt your credit score, or they may do nothing. If you are in a credit repair program there are probably bigger issues on your credit report than inquiries. Since it is best to focus on cleaning up the items that have the greatest impact, your inquiries may be left until everything else is resolved. Even then, you may decide to ignore the inquiries, but before we dismiss them altogether let’s explore a bit further.
Two Types of Inquiries
There are two types of inquiries. “Hard” inquiries will affect your credit score, and occur when you apply for new credit. “Soft” inquiries will not affect your credit score, and are typically triggered by three different events; 1) when you request your own credit report, 2) when potential lenders check your credit prior to offering you pre-approved credit, and 3) when a current lender conducts a periodic review of an existing account.
The Logic of Inquiries
There is logic behind the impact inquiries have on your FICO score. If you are applying for new credit you may be in the process of incurring new debt and placing an additional strain on your budget. Hence you are placed in a higher risk class, designated by a lower credit score.
Rate Shopping
The FICO scoring model was recently modified to accommodate consumers that shop for mortgage or automobile financing. You may now have as many inquiries as you wish in a 45 day period while shopping for a mortgage or automobile loan, and they will only have the impact of a single inquiry on your credit score. To further accommodate this type of shopping, these inquiries will not appear at all for 30 days. Many credit repair customers are relieved to find out that the many inquiries which appeared after they purchased a new car had little or no impact.
Inquiries and your FICO Score
Soft inquiries, as mentioned, have no impact on your credit score. Hard inquiries typically will lower your score between 1 point and 5 points. Credit repair efforts revolve around your credit scores, and it is handy to know that the FICO scoring model considers everything on your report simultaneously. The affect of an inquiry, like other bits of information on your report, can vary depending on everything else in your file. The more credit you have, and the more established it is, the less of an impact an inquiry will have.
Time and Your Credit
Time plays an important role on the impact of an inquiry. As the months slip by the affect of an inquiry diminishes quickly. After six months the affect is negligible. If you are in a credit repair program and are deciding if you want to dispute inquiries, you want to keep this in mind. And if all of those inquiries bother you, it may be helpful to know that soft inquiries fall off your report after 12 months, and hard inquires after 24 months.
Opting Out of Inquiries
Would you like to stop all the pre-screened credit and insurance offers you get, along with all of the soft inquiries that precede them? You may do so by calling (800) 5-OPTOUT. You will be given the option of opting out for 5 years, or permanently. Many of our enthusiastic credit repair customers choose to opt out to reduce the amount of junk mail they receive, which is a nice benefit! But remember that soft inquiries have no impact on your scores, and there is some possibility that you may miss out on some legitimately great offer.
Inquiry Errors Hurt Your Score
In the credit repair business we look at inquiries as a matter of course. Often we decide to ignore them and focus on more pressing issues. Sometimes we return to inquiries for a final clean up when a customer is at the end of the program. It should be noted that not all soft inquiries are properly coded, and as a result may show up as hard inquires and lower your score.
Identity Theft
The last and more urgent warning about inquiries involves the uncomfortable possibility that someone is applying for credit under your name. If you see a hard inquiry on your report you might want to contact the creditor to see if there is an active or pending application in your name. Chances are it is just another stray or improperly coded entry on your report, but it is best to be sure.
Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Credit Repair: What’s the Score?
FICO, the Score that Counts
There are many credit scores available, but the FICO score is the one that matters. FICO, by the way, is an acronym for Fair Isaac & Company, the creator of the scoring model. Virtually all lenders use FICO scores to make loan decisions. If you are in a credit repair program, any score you monitor is fine for measuring progress. But if you are planning to apply for a loan the FICO score is the one to watch.
FICO and Your Lender
When you apply for a loan, the lender orders your credit report from one (or more) of the three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Each credit bureau report comes with a FICO score. If you speak with your lender about your credit, they are likely to refer to each of your scores using the specific credit bureau name.
The Credit Bureau Illusion
Given the constant association of FICO scores with the three credit bureaus, you might assume they have some proprietary claim on the scores. You might also assume that if you purchased your scores from the credit bureaus, you would get the same FICO scores the bureaus sold to your lender. You would not be alone. In the credit repair business, we find most of our customers make the same assumptions. The assumptions are wrong.
Credit Score Re-Branding
As an aside, I should mention that the three bureaus have re-branded the FICO scores they sell to lenders. Equifax calls it a Beacon score, TransUnion calls it an Empirica score, and Experian calls it an Experian Score. Different names, but they are all FICO scores. Our credit repair customers often ask about numeric differences in the scores. Numeric differences arise because each bureau gets information from a slightly different mix of creditors. Timing also plays a roll in score variance; a recent change in your credit may be picked up sooner at one bureau than another.
The Business of Credit Scores
As it happens, the credit bureaus don’t own the FICO scores, nor do they sell them directly to consumers. Fair Isaac & Company owns the scoring model and licenses it to the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus use the model to score the data they have on file for consumers. Then they bundle the scores with consumer credit reports and sell them to lenders. Fair Isaac collects royalties from the credit bureaus for these sales.
Putting Credit Scores to Use
If you are planning to apply for a loan, you might want to purchase your FICO scores beforehand. You would want your real scores, not “estimated” scores that might vary widely from the ones the lender will use. Yet “estimated” scores are exactly what millions of consumers get every year when they visit the credit bureau’s websites. Many of these consumers go on to apply for a loan, and are disappointed when the lender tells them that their scores are lower than they were led to believe. We hear this story almost every day from people starting up their credit repair effort.
Estimated Scores
Fair Isaac would have been happy to have the credit bureaus sell FICO scores directly to consumers. The credit bureaus, however, seeing the opportunity, developed their own “estimated” credit scores rather than paying royalties to Fair Isaac. Equifax, the exception, offers a FICO score to consumers, which provides an economical way for consumers, or anyone in a credit repair program, to monitor their score, but on its own does not provide a complete solution.
Experian’s PLUS Score
Experian sells a credit score at their website called the “PLUS Score”. Here is the small print from their website, “Your PLUS Score is formulated using the information in your credit file. It is modeled after the hundreds of commercial credit scores that help potential lenders, landlords, and employers quickly gauge your credit history and decide what kind of a risk they might be taking if they approve your application.”
TransUnion’s TrueCredit Score
TransUnion sells a credit score called the “TrueCredit” score. Here is the small print from their website. “TrueCredit” is not connected in any way with Fair, Isaac and Company; the credit score provided here is not a so-called FICO score. The credit scores of TransUnion may not be identical in every respect to any consumer credit scores produced by any other company.”
Equifax FICO Score
Equifax, as mentioned, makes a FICO score available to consumers. If you are in a credit repair program, or planning to apply for a loan, this is the most economical way of seeing a real FICO score. But it is important to know that many lenders, and almost all mortgage companies, look at all three of your FICO scores, and base their decision on the value of your middle score. One score is simply not enough.
Myfico.com the FICO Source
So, if you want to know where you stand prior to applying for a loan, or to monitor your credit repair efforts for each credit bureau, you will need to see all three FICO scores. These are available at myfico.com, The Fair Isaac website.
Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.
There are many credit scores available, but the FICO score is the one that matters. FICO, by the way, is an acronym for Fair Isaac & Company, the creator of the scoring model. Virtually all lenders use FICO scores to make loan decisions. If you are in a credit repair program, any score you monitor is fine for measuring progress. But if you are planning to apply for a loan the FICO score is the one to watch.
FICO and Your Lender
When you apply for a loan, the lender orders your credit report from one (or more) of the three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Each credit bureau report comes with a FICO score. If you speak with your lender about your credit, they are likely to refer to each of your scores using the specific credit bureau name.
The Credit Bureau Illusion
Given the constant association of FICO scores with the three credit bureaus, you might assume they have some proprietary claim on the scores. You might also assume that if you purchased your scores from the credit bureaus, you would get the same FICO scores the bureaus sold to your lender. You would not be alone. In the credit repair business, we find most of our customers make the same assumptions. The assumptions are wrong.
Credit Score Re-Branding
As an aside, I should mention that the three bureaus have re-branded the FICO scores they sell to lenders. Equifax calls it a Beacon score, TransUnion calls it an Empirica score, and Experian calls it an Experian Score. Different names, but they are all FICO scores. Our credit repair customers often ask about numeric differences in the scores. Numeric differences arise because each bureau gets information from a slightly different mix of creditors. Timing also plays a roll in score variance; a recent change in your credit may be picked up sooner at one bureau than another.
The Business of Credit Scores
As it happens, the credit bureaus don’t own the FICO scores, nor do they sell them directly to consumers. Fair Isaac & Company owns the scoring model and licenses it to the credit bureaus. The credit bureaus use the model to score the data they have on file for consumers. Then they bundle the scores with consumer credit reports and sell them to lenders. Fair Isaac collects royalties from the credit bureaus for these sales.
Putting Credit Scores to Use
If you are planning to apply for a loan, you might want to purchase your FICO scores beforehand. You would want your real scores, not “estimated” scores that might vary widely from the ones the lender will use. Yet “estimated” scores are exactly what millions of consumers get every year when they visit the credit bureau’s websites. Many of these consumers go on to apply for a loan, and are disappointed when the lender tells them that their scores are lower than they were led to believe. We hear this story almost every day from people starting up their credit repair effort.
Estimated Scores
Fair Isaac would have been happy to have the credit bureaus sell FICO scores directly to consumers. The credit bureaus, however, seeing the opportunity, developed their own “estimated” credit scores rather than paying royalties to Fair Isaac. Equifax, the exception, offers a FICO score to consumers, which provides an economical way for consumers, or anyone in a credit repair program, to monitor their score, but on its own does not provide a complete solution.
Experian’s PLUS Score
Experian sells a credit score at their website called the “PLUS Score”. Here is the small print from their website, “Your PLUS Score is formulated using the information in your credit file. It is modeled after the hundreds of commercial credit scores that help potential lenders, landlords, and employers quickly gauge your credit history and decide what kind of a risk they might be taking if they approve your application.”
TransUnion’s TrueCredit Score
TransUnion sells a credit score called the “TrueCredit” score. Here is the small print from their website. “TrueCredit” is not connected in any way with Fair, Isaac and Company; the credit score provided here is not a so-called FICO score. The credit scores of TransUnion may not be identical in every respect to any consumer credit scores produced by any other company.”
Equifax FICO Score
Equifax, as mentioned, makes a FICO score available to consumers. If you are in a credit repair program, or planning to apply for a loan, this is the most economical way of seeing a real FICO score. But it is important to know that many lenders, and almost all mortgage companies, look at all three of your FICO scores, and base their decision on the value of your middle score. One score is simply not enough.
Myfico.com the FICO Source
So, if you want to know where you stand prior to applying for a loan, or to monitor your credit repair efforts for each credit bureau, you will need to see all three FICO scores. These are available at myfico.com, The Fair Isaac website.
Copyright © 2007 James W. Kemish. All Content. All Rights Reserved.
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