free credit report

Three Reasons Why FREE CREDIT REPORTS are BAD!

Montinoring your credit is good. It is necessary today on a semi annual basis to make sure you do not fall victim to identity theft. If you are in the middle of credit rehab, then a daily monitoring service with the ability to pull a fresh consumer report every 24 hours is a must.

The main reason why free reports are bad is because when you need to file a dispute with Transunion, Equifax or Experian, they now have 45 days to do their research rather than 30 days. If you are playing the loophole game in credit rehab, this is very important. If you have a problem you want clear up, it is reasonable to get it cleared up a quickly as possible.
You need to order your reports directly from each Credit Reporting Agency. A Free Trimerge (or even paid) report will do you no good. If you are going to fix errors on your reports you need the real McCoys.
The scores that come from Trimerge reports are FAKOs not FICOs. Only MyFICO.com has the real scores. MyFICO scores will match what a car dealer or mortgage lender will pull, as long as your credit does not change between the time you order a MyFICO.com report and when you apply for credit. I don’t put much stock in auto based FICOs or Mortgage based FICOs. Have not seen one yet, but they could be out there.

OKAY Ted, What is a FAKO? A FAKO is the credit score you see from third party credit monitoring service, for example Truecredit. While there is benefit from using a service like Truecredit, remember that the Fair Isaac Corporation owns the FICO formula and it is as guarded as the formula for Coca-cola and Kentucky Fried Chicken.

There are two types of credit report pulls. One is known as a “Hard Pull” and one a “Soft Pull”.

Hard Pull – This is when you apply for credit. This pull (inquiry) will show on your report and after certain numbers of pulls will start to affect your score. Typically if you are shopping for a loan for a home or car, multiple hard pulls within a short time frame will not decrease your score. These pulls will stay on your report for two years before dropping off.

Soft Pull – This is when you as a consumer pull your own report through a thrid party service such as myFICO.com or TrueCredit or order your report directly from Transunion, Equifax or Experian. You can pull daily through a service like TrueCredit and monitor rehab or changes in real time. SOFT PULLS have no (ZERO) impact on your score. In fact they can help your score on Transunion and Equifax. Continual daily soft pulls on TU and EQ will eventually bump off Hard pulls, so if you have too many hard pulls and do not want to wait 2 years for the hard pulls to fall off, you can bump them off early through daily soft pulls. It takes as many as 100 or more soft pulls, but I have seen it work.

Remember FREE REPORTS are BAD. If you cannot afford to pony up the whopping total of $30.00 to get the three reports directly from each Credit Reporting Agency, then you should not be applying for new credit.

Search for Homes in Simi Valley California

Thanks for reading Simi Valley’s Premiere Real Estate Blog!

Author – Ted Mackel Simi Valley Real Estate Agent – Keller Williams Realty

Ted Mackel is a top producer at Keller Williams Realty Simi Valley,

specializing in Simi Valley Real Estate

(805) 432-7705

An Introduction To Your Credit Report

Credit Secrets?

Credit and Credit scores are very mysterious. Mysterious to the point that many people do not pay much attention to their Credit status until it is time to make a purchase. The little steps you take today can pay huge dividends later when you go to purchase that next home, car or appliance, etc.

If you have not looked at your credit recently there are two ways you can do this. Well there are more than two, but the following two are the best. You need to see your reports in a raw form. The best way to do this is to order a hard copy of each report from each Credit Reporting Agency (aka – CRA). Each report will cost approximately $10.00. If you believe you might have a few challenges then this first option is the best.

Let me stress…………NEVER USE A FREE REPORT SERVICE.

Free reports make it more difficult to dispute any errors on your reports (this topic will be covered later). The $30.00 you spend for the hard copies will be well worth it if you need to dispute. Additionally DO NOT ORDER YOUR REPORTS FROM ANYONE OTHER THAN TRANSUNION, EQUIFAX & EXPERIAN. Third party company reports will not have many of the details you may need to see in order to optimize your report.

Exception: The only other place place to get your report (s)is a little more expensive (between $45.00 and $50.00 for all three) and that is www.myfico.com. myFICO.com is the only website you can go to and get your REAL FICO SCORES. All the other websites that claim to have your score, have what is affectionately called a FAKO (Pronounced FAKE-O). The Fair Isaac Corporation owns the secret formula for the scores and does not share that with anyone. The formula is closely guarded just like the recipe for Coke and Kentucky Fried Chicken. The score you see on myFICO.com will be the same score that a car dealer will pull or any other lending source.

What is a Trimerge report? A Trimerge report is a report you can order from third party providers which will include all three reports combined into one report. While these reports are helpful, they are not as detailed as the reports recommended above. If you sign up for a credit monitoring service then you will have access to a trimerge report. This is good for monitoring purposes and costs less, but if you need to dispute or work on your credit, the hard copies are a must. The good news is if you dispute items on your report and they are removed, the CRA will send you a new updated copy of your report at no additional charge.

To order you report mail your payment and request to the following companies:

Equifax
PO Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
Currently $8.00

Experian
PO Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013
Currently $9.95

TransUnion
PO Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022-2000
Currently $8.00

You will need to include a copy of your Driver’s License if you mail in your request. You may also order over the phone with a credit card.

Also when you request your report you will want to OPT-OUT at the same time. When you opt out you will have your name removed from the mailing lists the CRAs sell to credit card companies and others. You will recieve less junk mail when you opt-out. This option is good for 5 years and must be renewed.

In my next blog post I will cover how Free Credit Reports hurt your ability to dispute errors.

Thanks for reading Simi Valley’s Premiere Real Estate Blog!
Author – Ted Mackel Simi Valley Real Estate Agent – Keller Williams Realty
Ted Mackel is a top producer at Keller Williams Realty Simi Valley,
specializing in Simi Valley Real Estate
(805) 432-7705