Comments on: Your Credit Score

By: Kenneth Lin

Kenneth Lin — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:36:41 +0000

If have never used credit, you probably don't have a file at the bureaus and consequently no credit score. If you are looking to build credit. Try a secured credit card. Public Savings Bank has a relatively good secured credit card based on user reviews.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:17:46 +0000

I recently tried to retrieve my credit score from Karma and was not able to access it. If I have never purchased anything and don’t have any credit under my name, would I not have a score at all?

By: Kenneth Lin

Kenneth Lin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:26:09 +0000

Your point is not 100% accurate. Credit reports don’t differentiate between revolving debt and transaction debt (paid in full monthly). So simple using your credit cards it enough. You don’t have to carry a balance to show credit card utilization.

By: r4thomas

r4thomas — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:43:58 +0000

Believe it or not some of your “good habits” are really not that good for your credit score. For example, not having any credit card debt is not good for your score. People who have debt and show they can pay it get higher scores than people who have not demonstrated the ability to pay off debt. So, if you had a mortage and were faithful in paying it on time your score would actually be higher. Hard to believe that having debt can be a good thing but true!!!

By: Kenneth Lin

Kenneth Lin — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:24:15 +0000

Your point is valid in the sense that there are multiple scores. You seem to believe that there is only one “absolute” score. Truth is even FICO has many scores.One score from each bureau and then about 3-4 readily used models. So you may in fact have as many as 12 FICO scores. FICO also states that more than 30% of users see a score difference of 50 points based on the bureau used.

By: Oyster

Oyster — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:55:09 +0000

While the score from Credit Karma may be a good *relative* indicator from month-to-month on how your credit worthiness changes, it is not a reliable indication of your *absolute* FICO score. For me, I carry no balances on my credit cards, have no mortgage, have had credit history for 35 years, have never been late on a payment in all that time, have a credit availability on 6 cards of over $160,000, and only score 748 on Credit Karma (merely good). Be careful about making decisions based on what Credit Karma is telling you.

By: Mortgage guy

Mortgage guy — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:01:28 +0000

If I make all my payments on time will that help my credit score to improve? How much can I improve in a year?

By: Jazz42man

Jazz42man — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:33:51 +0000

I just tried out the Credit Karma score simulator. When I ran a scenario of paying off my credit card balances, it made my score go down. I don’t understand why it would go down. I’m at about 85% usage on my credit cards so it should increase my score of I paid my balances down below 20%. Why would my score go down if I paid all my credit cards off?

By: Jackson

Jackson — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:33:05 +0000

I went through the post and I must say that it is a very good post regarding credit score. Credit scores can help any individual going down much more rather than going up. A wise decision to maintain a clean credit history is paying off your debts as early as possible rather than stretching the term of it. I think, the post will be very much helpful for all your visitors.

By: 49reasons

49reasons — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:49:58 +0000

CreditKarma is safe and secure from my experience. The free credit score it great, especially since myfico.com charges for this service. On a side note, I read today on calculatedrisk.com, that some high FICO customers were defaulting of their credit cards. I’ve also read that the 3 big credit agencies are developing FICO score equivelents of their own since they are tire of paying Fair Isaac so much money, while, all the while losing faith in FICO. Who knows for sure, but it sounds true to me. As for CreditKarma, this is a great service.