Credit scores, do you know yours?

[katiemae1277]

Originally Posted by Duchess15

I heard on the Early Show one morning that closing accounts that you have opened actually hurt your credit more than just leaving it open.

I made the mistake of closing my accounts as soon as I paid them off, Susie. I only learned until after I should have just left them open

 

[pennicat]

Both DH and I have scores right around 800 on Experion. Their high is 830, so the scale does vary with the 3 different companies. When we applied for our homeloan, our mortgage officer said he would have jumped over his desk to shake our hands when he pulled our credit report, had we actually been in the office

.

 

[kittylover4ever]

Originally Posted by pennicat

Both DH and I have scores right around 800 on Experion. Their high is 830, so the scale does vary with the 3 different companies. When we applied for our homeloan, our mortgage officer said he would have jumped over his desk to shake our hands when he pulled our credit report, had we actually been in the office

.

 

[momofmany]

Originally Posted by kittylover4ever

I've heard conflicting stories on whether to close or not close credit accounts you never use..........hummmmmmmmm

I worked Credit for 10 years. When we would score people that applied for cards, we would ding them if they had a lot of individual store cards, for example, cards for gas stations, department stores, etc. It was OK to have bank issued credit cards that could be used all over the place.

The problem with individual store cards is that if you shop at all of them, you quickly lose track of the total monthly bill as it comes in on many statement.

So if you have unused department or gas station cards, close them out. It's probably OK to keep the bank issued cards open.

 

[diego]

Wow you guys have an interesting system. New Zealand works on like school grading system, the highest is A+++, last time I checked mine was A++ but now I bet its Z-

The credit card companies however, they are weird, get this. When I was working full-time in excess of 50hrs a week, raking in a small fortune and was applying for credit cards with a small $500 limit, I was shot down by every company. I had no debt, pay my rent, food, power and phone and I was sweet.
But as soon as I left my job to go back to college for further education, all those credit card companies sent me application forms.

You know why they do that though eh, its because when you are making money, you can pay the credit cards off and avoid interest, but when you are not working you can only pay the monthly minimum that way you also pay buckets of interest.

I only have one loan now and once its paid off, thats it, cash for everything. Except a house of course. If I didn't want to buy a house, then I couldn't give a hoot what my credit rating is like.

 

[natalie_ca]

I don't know what mine is. For awhile a few years ago it was probably really bad because I was waiting on my long term disability which was held up because my doctor was lax in filling out the medical form, so I was really in a financial bind and had all kinds of collection agents callling me.

Now though it must be ok because today I got a letter in the mail from a bank that I don't deal with. I opened it up and it had a Visa credit card inside!!

I never applied for one. It said I was preapproved for $10,000.00.

It was a credit card, not an application and I didn't have to phone anyone to activate it. I called them and told them that I didn't apply for a card and I didn't want it and to cancel it. They tried to convince me to keep it.

I'm bad with credit cards and I sure don't need to rack up anymore debt than I have, so I was insistent that it be cancelled. I hate when banks do stuff like that!

 

[babyharley]

I know mine, but I'd prefer not to share it with the whole world