I’m mulling over whether to refinance since interest rates are rather low. As I said I’m mulling this over. I’ve gotten a couple of rates and I would save some money but not a great deal.
Anyway back to the credit scores. The scores now seem to be the Holy Grail to lenders. Have a good score you get the best deals. If score isn’t so hot well you pay more for just about everything. The thing with the scores is they are much harder to get then a credit report. Once a year you are entitled to a free credit report from the three credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion (I think the question needs to be asked why these three became the end all and be all credit reporting). The scores it seems you don’t get to look at for free.
Well you can look at them for free but you have to go through many more hoops to see them. I googled free credit score. The list of places one can go to is well it’s a bid damn long list. The scores are offered for free. But you have to sign up for a credit monitoring service. Depending on the service you get 7 to 14 to 21 days to try out the service and after that time you’ll be charged for the service on a monthly basis.
I picked FreeScore. There were many hoops to go through to get the scores. You had to set up your initial account with you password. You needed to have at least one number and it was suggested one special character. As you typed in the password its strength was gaged from weak to strong. Then there was your personal information. Confirming your address, e-mail address things like that. They there were four questions you had to answer. This was to test you if for some reason you forgot your password.
So I go through and set all this up. Then there’s a button that says get you scores. Well you don’t get your scores you go to the main menu of the site. There is another button that says get your scores. You then had to provide you password again to prove you were indeed you. Then you had to verify your address and the last four number of your social security number and you date of birth and your sex. Finally up comes the scores.
I did very well. In two I’m in the 84th percentile and in I’m in the 86th percentile. So my credit is pretty damn good.
Then there is a long list of recommendations on how to improve your credit score. I’m not sure how much higher I can get it. But a couple of the recommendations were pretty funny. Here they are:
Not enough revolving debt experience. This is from both Equifax and Experian. This point goes on to say a healthy balance of credit and loan accounts is key to achieving a high credit score. It is important to build a record of responsible credit use over time with different types of accounts. Consider opening a new account to strengthen your credit report. Doing so of course would mean which ever lender you would go to would be accessing your credit report.
A little way down on the page is this advice again from both Equifax and Experian. There are too many inquiries on your credit report. A few inquiries a year is normal, but multiple inquiries within a short time frame may cause a temporary drop in your credit score.
Well guys which one should I be doing. Opening up another account or not.
This just reinforces that just about no matter what you do your credit score will go down. But then again I'm in the 84th percentile so I'm not going to be all that worried.
As for refinancing, there aren't enough benefits. I'll wait and see and interest rates go. And maybe my scores can be even higher!
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