Suze Orman FICO Kit Review – $49.95

The Suze Orman FICO Kit includes most of the the credit features you see in many other credit products with a couple of other features. Right off the bat, you see that the product allows you to get 3 FICO score report pulls. But, wait, there’s a difference. These can be pulled in a number of different ways. For example,

• You can pull your TU and Equifax reports and FICO scores and save 1 pull for a later date
• You can pull your Equifax report and allow your sister and brother to each pull their Equifax [or TU] report.

The core features of the Suze Orman FICO Kit stem out of the Action Planner and it’s rich features:

• Examine Your FICO Scores and Reports
  • Your FICO Score
  • Understanding Your Score – Reason Codes
  • Credit At a Glance
  • Accounts
  • Inquiries
  • Collections
  • Public Records
• Find and Correct Disputes
• Debt Eliminator
  • Credit Snapshot
  • APR negotiating tips
  • Your repayment plan
  • Your FICO Future
• Mortgage Payments
  • Your Mortgage type
  • Your mortgage details
  • What the future may hold
• InfoVault

Suze wouldn’t be Suze if she didn’t offer advice, and she’s done a great job of organizing the product around the action planner. This includes dispute assistance, the debt eliminator, a mortgage payment watcher and the InfoVault. The dispute tool is neat as it has a simple process to generate a letter. The debt eliminator is a great tool to help you negotiate with credit card companies for better rates and develop an action plan to pay down your debt.

Watch the video to learn more. See our other credit product reviews as well.

Post from: Video Credit Score

myFICO Suze Orman FICO Kit – Review

What is a Reason Code on a Credit Report?

Because credit reports have a history of being cryptic, regulators asked the credit reporting agencies to provide a summary of sorts, reasons why your credit isn’t higher. When credit reporting agencies started to market their products to consumers, they started to provide 4 negative reason codes and 4 positive reason codes to consumers.

How Do These Impact My Credit Score?

The problem: these codes can often be confusing themselves. They often tell a consumer something vague, like you “opened too many credit lines recently” without telling you exactly how many points that cost you. Why don’t they tell you this? They are concerned that the credit scoring algorithm could be reverse engineered. This is a valid concern [sorry all] but don’t feel lost, you can usually see from the codes what steps might make sense.

I realize the chart above is a little daunting. So don’t worry about it. Just know it’s here for you if you want to check it. Most actions needed are really common sense. Pay your debts, be on time, keep balances low. Time can heal all wounds.

Post from: Video Credit Score

Reason Codes: What They Mean for My Credit Score – Episode #109

Do Apartment Evictions Impact Your Credit Score?

One of challenges of being an credit expert is that sometimes you get to close to your subject matter. I never would have thought of this question but it’s a great one.

Right or wrong, most apartment experiences don’t hit your credit report. In fact, here’s a short list of rules:

• Applying for Apartments – Does impact your credit file, as your credit report will be pulled by a apartment management company. This won’t be a hard inquiry in most cases, so your score won’t go down, but it will get checked.
• Apartment Rent Payments – Do not impact your credit file. Some companies are trying to change this, but they are struggling to get traction with the bureaus. Don’t expect to see late payment history on rent in your credit file.
• Apartment Rent Late Payments – Often are not reported, so they won’t hit your credit report as well.
• Apartment Rent Collections or Evictions – It depends on whether a judgment is awarded. There is no “evictions” section on the report. If this appears, it will appear in the judgment section under public records. . Most often not reported to the credit reporting agencies because most apartment management companies simply take your security deposit.

Key tidbit: just because an eviction won’t appear on a credit report, doesn’t mean it won’t catch up to you. Many landlords use services that offer bundled background check services. These will include credit checks, as well as public records checks and often include a service where your old landlords are contacted. As your previous addresses are in your credit reports, they can find your old landlords whether or not you provide this information.

Post from: Video Credit Score

Apartment Evictions Impacting Credit Scores – Episode #108

My Credit Score

If you arrived on this page, you probably are asking this question:

“What’s my credit score?”

The very statement “My Credit Score” is misleading as each one of us in the US has 3 credit scores, one for each of the three bureaus. Plus, each bureau uses a different scoring system for each application. There are auto industry credit scores. There are bank card credit scores. There are insurance scores.

In keeping it simple, you want to look for the scores that most lenders use – FICO credit scores. You want to ask ” Can I get my credit scores for Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. You have to be cautious though, as a visit to each one of their websites will show you products that may not have FICO credit scores and instead provide a non-FICO credit score. Of course, it won’t be marketed as a non-FICO credit score, but rather simply listed as a credit score. That’s why we recommend going to myFICO.com and getting all 3 FICO scores to start.

What’s Inside My Credit Score?

My credit score, your credit score and anyone’s credit score in the US will be made up of 5 credit score factors.

• Payment History – 35% of my credit score is determined from how I’ve paid on time
• Amounts Owed – 30% of my credit score figures in how much I owe
• Length of History – 15% is the length of time I’ve had accounts opened. Longer histories indicate less risk
• Mixture of Credit – 10% is whether I have just credit cards, or credit cards and installment loans. Better scores have a full mix
• Credit inquiries – 10% is how often my credit score is impacted by my opening new credit lines or even applying for new credit.

How Should I Track My Credit Score?

Once you have seen all 3 FICO scores, it’s a good idea to start tracking your FICO credit score. myFICO Score Watch monitors your FICO score by delivering email alerts and cell phone text message alerts each time your FICO score changes.

Can I Get My Credit Score Free?

Your credit score is not really available for free. You can get a free score if you sign up for a free trial product like freecreditreport.com or privacymatters.com, but so few of us cancel on time, that it makes using these services expensive.

How Do I Know If My Credit Score is Good?

Check out our posts on the credit score scale and the credit score range to find out more about where your credit score would fall

Tell Us Your “My Credit Score” Story!

Send us an email at info {at} videocreditscore.com

Post from: Video Credit Score

My Credit Score – Episode #107

Man, I was feeling all special with my 853. Now, I know it’s really good, but not as good as it can be. Ironically, I’m not sure why my score rose 22 points. On my myFICO Score Watch account, my FICO fell by 7 points and has been falling from my recent 800 peak of a few months ago. Plus, I know why. So I’m unclear what the bank card sees as being better behavior here.

Post from: Video Credit Score

853 FICO Credit Score … huh?

We’ll once again, breaking my own strategy to keep my credit score high led to a FICO credit score decrease. This time it was by 7 points to 785. What’s different?

1. I let my American Express bill run up to over $3,000 for the month. Normally, I pay it off twice per month to make sure I keep the balance low. Remember that credit utilization or the ratio of credit used each month divided by your credit available is a crucial credit score factor.
2. I didn’t use one of my credit cards for over 12 months and now it’s been closed. I warned against this in my post on closing down credit cards hurts

The good news is:

1. My credit score is still high enough to get the best rates at 785
2. I can overcome the recent decline in one month by paying off my balances more quickly. I might adjust and pay them off every week versus every two weeks to see the impact. Remember that payment history is a crucial part of the credit scoring module.
3. The card that closed down had a small limit.

You can allows follow my personal journey at MyScoreBlog. Aren’t tracking your credit score? Start tracking your FICO score now with Score Watch

Post from: Video Credit Score

785 FICO Score

Annoying Credit Myth

This is starting to be a pet peeve of mine. There are so many “so-called” experts out there in the credit space and it’s really starting to annoy me. Why am I so peeved? Well, the lack of good advice is the kicker. The latest – A website written by someone promoting payday loans [generally, I hate anything with 300% interest rates, but hey, that's just me]. Anyway, this guy says that by paying off the entire balance in full each month, the credit bureaus don’t see you as really borrowing any money at all. His article reads as a message to help someone to take on more debt and perhaps find themselves in need of a payday loan package. Perhaps, he just has his facts wrong. But, I find it annoying.

Since I have not carried a balance ever, well as long as I can recall, this means that I must not have a good credit score. Nonsense. In fact, I’ve achieved an 831 FICO in the past few years and currently have FICO scores in 800 range. In all my years at myFICO.com, I never heard this myth to be true. In fact, the card issuers sometimes refer to people who payoff their bills each month as “freeloaders” because we don’t get charged interest or late fees. The reality is the statement “paying off the entire balance in full each month, the credit bureaus don’t see you as really borrowing any money at all” is flawed. Paying off balances before they are due DOES show something about your credit behavior and IS a good prediction of risk. Remember, while credit card issuers want you to be late, no financial institution wants you to default.

Post from: Video Credit Score

Annoying Myth: Paying off Full Each Month Doesn’t Build Credit Scores – Episode #106

Single Parents and Credit Scores

According to the U.S. Census Bureau [August, 2007], there are approximately 13.6 million single parents in the United States today, and those parents are responsible for raising 21.2 million children. Approximately 84% of custodial parents are mothers who are carrying a large burden.

If you are a single parent, I realize that you don’t have a lot of time to learn about credit. So here is a quick action list.

1. Make sure you are no longer “joint” financially with the absent parent. Too often, we hear about an absent parent who destroys the credit of the custodial parent by running up credit card debt on joint credit cards. If you are unsure, call your credit card companies and ask whether your credit cards are joint cards or individual cards. If they are joint cards, close them and open individual cards.
2. Start pulling your credit report for free from annualcreditreport.com. This won’t give you a credit score, but you can see what’s in your report.
3. Correct any inaccuracies that are in your report. If you don’t believe an account tradeline is correct, you can dispute it. Check out our free dispute form letters.
4. If your credit is terrible consider credit counseling with a US Dept of Justice approved counseling agency.
5. Teach your child or children about money and credit early on. Credit can make life easier. It can save time from having to make frequent ATM or Cash Checking storefront stops.
6. Get “creducated” and learn how to build credit if you haven’t started or know you don’t have a credit score because you don’t have enough credit.

Without getting into a debate on credit’s benefits and drawbacks, I’ll point out that even the FTC believes that credit is necessary to help create wealth. Even if wealth is too lofty a goal right now, good credit score management can save you money and make life a little sweeter.

Post from: Video Credit Score

Single Parents and Credit Scores – Episode #105

Avoid Cell Phone Free Trial Services

Perhaps you’ve seen an online advertisement like this – “Tim Tebow’s IQ is 129, What’s Yours?” I was curious to see what kind of business was behind this ad and was surprised to see the outcome was a quiz where by typing in my cell phone number – not a credit card – simply a cell phone number, I’d be signing up for a $14.99 per month service.

I wonder just how many $100s of millions are being made off this business model. Especially among pre-teens and teenagers, even though the product does say you need to be 18 to sign up or have parental consent. Some of these services not only charge a monthly fee, but also charge a 79 cent fee for each text message update. There’s another $23.70/month.

I remember reading a few years ago how 40% of people don’t read their credit card statements, I would assume that even less review their cellular phone bills.

Canceling is actually not that painful. Look at your cell phone bill for a charge that looks like this:

You can also cancel but texting “STOP” in reply to any received message in most cases.

In my case, AT&T offered immediately to refund the past two monthly charges with the caveat that AT&T must wait until they get refunded to get the amount before I see the refund. So, I’m forced to check my bill diligently for the next few months to see if the refund is recorded. An interesting marketing/customer service strategy as it makes me feel good [i.e. avoid filing a Better Business Bureau complaint, perhaps] yet, I’m unclear that the refund will happen. When I asked how many months I’d been signed up for, the customer service agent replied that he didn’t have that info. Sneaky.

In conclusion, with so much at stake with a weak economy right now, I’m wondering how much people can save by avoiding these types of businesses. Sure, some people might be getting their $14.99 value, but I suspect many people never use the service.

Post from: Video Credit Score

Avoid Cell Phone Free Trial Services – Episode #104

Credit Utilization Ratios Explained

One of the most important factors that makes up your credit score is your credit utilization. What is credit utilization ratio? It’s the ratio of your credit used to the credit available to you. Both, the aggregate ratio – the total credit used/total credit available – and the individual credit utilization ratio – will impact someone’s credit score.

Here’s an example. Someone with a $10,000 limit total across 4 cards, who then uses $2,000 of her credit has a credit utilization ratio of 20%. But, that’s not the only measure. Let’s say we have two people with this situation Jack and Jim. If Jack is spreading his $2,000 used equally across all 4 cards, and his credit limits are equal across these cards, then he has an aggregate ratio of 20% but also individual ratios of 20% on each card. If Jim has $2000 on one card, he has a 20% aggregate ratio, but 100% utilization on 1 card and 0% on the other cards. As the credit score system doesn’t like to see maxed out cards, Jim’s 100% ratio hurts him more than his 0% usage helps and therefore, his score will be lower than Jack’s credit score.

This example points out the importance of managing both your aggregate and individual credit utilization ratios. Normally, when I’m coaching someone out of debt, I have them pay off the highest interest rate card first. That’s going to save them the most money, but it might not lead to the highest score increase in the near term. If it’s a higher credit score you are after, it might make sense to pay down maxed out cards first regardless of the interest rate on the cards. This will help you get a higher score, which you may need for a new car or home loan, and that will save you more over the long run than the savings on your credit card.

Post from: Video Credit Score

Credit Utilization Ratios Explained – Episode #103