Will My Stimulus Check Impact the Credit Score? – Episode #36
Can a credit score be impacted by a stimulus check? Depends on where you apply those funds. Paying down credit card debt will help your score. The government did this stimulus program to stimulate growth, but we like the idea of using this money to pay off credit card debt and getting your credit score in shape.
We think of a stimulus check like a bonus check. Your bonus checks should go to pay off credit card debt before treating yourself to that shiny toy, gadget, car, dress, whatever.
Do Lender Credit Reports and Credit Scores Look Different? – Episode #35
Have you heard this one? The consumer says “I have my credit score and my credit report” and the lender says “those are different from lender reports and the lender reports have more information”
Is this true or false? The answer is both. In the case of mortgage lenders, most of them use FICO scores, so if the consumer has their FICO score, the information should be similar if not exactly alike. If the consumer has a non-FICO score, then the data could be quite different.
But, if a lender suggests that their FICO scored report is materially different from the FICO scored one a consumer pulled from myFICO.com, he is incorrect.
Some history about credit scoring and credit reports. Not too long ago, consumers could not get access to their credit reports and credit scores. The feds decided to change this and mandated that Fair Isaac start disclosing credit scores. Fair Isaac launched myFICO.com to comply with this request. As part of the service, the credit report from myFICO includes 4 reason codes. Reason codes are an explanation of why your credit score isn’t higher.
The first time I saw a lender credit report, I could barely read it. It was done on some archaic computer system that could only produce one font of text — like a typewriter. This category is confusing enough without making the documents hard to read. The consumer credit score websites have worked hard to make them easy to read and easy to understand. In fact, I’ve sat in focus groups where users have oftern been surprised by how easy to use the consumer sites are. See for yourself my checking out our reviews of Score Watch, the Suze Orman FICO Kit and the TrueCredit 3 in 1 product.
