credit report discrepancies
Date: Sun, 07/23/2006 - 07:32
Over the course of the past six months or so, my husband and I have been working hard to improve our credit scores. We recently both signed up for a service called My Credit Keeper. Basically, we pay them a monthly fee to pull monthly credit reports from all three bureaus. Due to our efforts, our credit scores have gone up almost 100 points, or so we thought.
Yesterday we decided it was time for a new-to-us car, so we made the rounds of the local auto dealerships. First, we applied for a truck loan at a dealership. We were immediately denied due to bad credit, but we were so embarassed we forgot to ask what our scores were. We found another vehicle at a different dealership and applied. Again, we were denied for bad credit. This time we asked--our scores were reported as pretty much what they were six months and almost 100 points ago!! They didn't have details--just scores--so we couldn't see what was on the reports...
We would never have tried if we would have known. Now I'm wondering if it's possible that BOTH dealerships were accessing months-old info. I suppose it's possible that My Credit Keeper is inaccurate. I'll be calling them Monday. I just don't know how these things work... Do any of you have any thoughts?
In the next weeks of so, you should receive a letter from both p
In the next weeks of so, you should receive a letter from both places telling you where they got their credit information from. You are now entitled to 1 free copy of your credit report from that CRA. Request your reports from the CRA';s involved and review them carefully for negative information.
I have never head of My Credit Keeper, but I am Leary of any credit/score monitoring service which is not run by one of the 4 National CRA's, as I'm not sure they will openly share all their file information with an outside competitor to one of their own services.
Personally I am very happy with Equifax's service, though it can be pricey, and the score monitoring is an additional $9.95/ month,but a worth while investment if you are trying to cleanup your credit or if you are planning a major purchase in the next few months.
Thanks, Clay. I just did some research--found out that My Credi
Thanks, Clay. I just did some research--found out that My Credit Keeper doesn't use FICO scores because no one really knows how the CRAs figure those out. It's so important to be as informed as possible--sadly, we're still learning! Still, 100 points seems like a big discrepancy. Anyway, at least now we know what's on our credit reports and can use that info for our debt consolidation...
IF your are in a position you can afford to, I would cancel your
IF your are in a position you can afford to, I would cancel your my credit keeper, and sign up with Equifax. Trans Union also offers a similar service, however I found That Trans Union and Experian tend to have the highest incident of incorrect entries. Equifax offers a 3 in 1 monitoring service as well as score monitoring and other services.
Yeah, we'll definitely cancel the credit keeper deal now and go
Yeah, we'll definitely cancel the credit keeper deal now and go with Experian's service. Thanks again!