How They're Recalculating Your FICO Score

HA! My score was out of the ball park...unfortunately it was out the back door, and not very nicely I might add.

I always wonder why the Big 3 keep accounts (in good standing) on your record that you closed in 1984. What's the point of that?

Credit Report?

That's so 2008.

Who in their right mind would worry about their credit report today?

Just when I think that it can't get worse at B'net, they go an post a story full of links to blog and splogs. Oh, please...free credit scores? What's next, a story about how you can get discounted Viagra? A post about getting a free iPod Touch if you sign up for some surveys?

Sheesh...this is a pathetic and obvious post written to try to get more money for click-throughs and CPMs.

I don't even bother much with the content in b'ville. I usually go straight to the most entertaining part, and the true genius of this site, the 'comments' section. I love the hurly burly and comic wonder!

Financial institutions are looking for reasons not to give credit.

"Financial institutions are looking for reasons not to give credit."

Then they would leave the system untouched. The reason they are changing the system is to better identify risk SO AS to make more loans.

You know, making loans is how financial institutions make money, the want to make loans, GOOD loans, but loans.

ask one of those guys in suits when next you sell him a pretzel.

Here comes the hurly burly (wo)man.

Financial institutions are looking for reasons not to give credit.

You forgot the word "easy."

A large part of the reason we're in the mess we're in right now as because it was to easy for people who shouldn't have gotten loans to secure them.

The banks want to make loans (as ROC said, that's how they make money). This time around, however, they want to try and make sure to get it back.

What is interesting is that all Experian now refuses to show your FICO score unless you go to their own site, Free credit report .com. You know, the one you see in the commercials EVERY day! Just shows the zeitgeist of financial institutions

You can sing up for a credit monitoring service like truecredit, and you can get your three scores whenever you want. It costs $15 monthly, but they will also alert you if there are any inquiries or suspicious activity. Might be overkill, but it is an easy way to track your scores.

oops. "sing" should be "sign" ha.

You really don't want to check your scores that often. Everytime they are checked, by you or a potential lender/creditor, an "alert" goes out and it can cause your score to go down a few points.

I don't borrow. Have never gotten my score. Don't care. In two years my cars will be over 10 years old but I will have been saving up for a new used one that I can drive for another 10 years.

MM, I don't see this happening with truecredit. If you have an account with them, your own inquiry does not register as an "outside" inquiry, which would indeed send out an alert. But you may be right about other methods of checking scores.

It is my dream to be able to keep a car for 10 years. I, unfortunately, put too much mileage on my cars for that to be feasible. (Don't tell Mathilda).

There is low liquidity in the market. They don't have it to loan it.

Nellie: What do you drive?

Money traders have always made money and they always will.During the Carter administration(or the 70's to avoid anything political) people paid 18% interest or more for housing and automobiles.One has to assume that the same thing is going to happen again.Whichever way the numbers are worked they will always fall in the favor of the lenders,and they in turn will always have money to lend.Cradle to grave-that is how the politicians want it- and that is how they are getting it. The passage of the "Stimulus" package is a perfect example. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

"They don't have it to loan it."

So he's just gonna print it.
Problem solved !

NEXT

For Mathilda's benefit, I hope Nellie is not sitting behind a Hummer 3.

Yes, I agree, credit scores are so last year.

teller, banks create money when they loan it out. It's call fractional reserve banking. As long as the bank has $1 in reserve for every $10 they loan the bank stays in business. But when banks are leveraged 20 to 1 then they have problems. It is probable that the banks are over leveraged. The lack of credit has cause some deflation and it is ok for the fed to put out more money at this time.

Not true MM. Credit score checks done on your behalf by institutions such as Experian or an employer are called "soft checks" and are not revealed to creditors. The credit checks done by credit card companies, banks for loans, and other creditors with the purpose of checking your credit history to determine your full history are the ones which are revealed to creditors and which create the alert and hit against your score that you speak of.

"I don't borrow. Have never gotten my score. Don't care. In two years my cars will be over 10 years old but I will have been saving up for a new used one that I can drive for another 10 years."

jg,

Does this mean that my presupposition regarding your dispensable wealth was erroneous, the concommitant theory that the wealthy should just give their excess money to the rest of us, and that the $20,0000 gift that I had shamelessly solicited from you for my kitchen renovation is now off the table?

Yes, MB. My husband and I have always been tightwads. If we don't have it we don't spend it. Which is why we have more of it now. We purchased our first house in '93, and even though we wanted to live in Montclair we bought a fixer upper in Bloomfield because we could live there on one income. We lived with the original kitchen from the 40's, no dishwasher, for years until we saved the cash to renovate and then we moved. Buying only what one can afford means we didn't get to benefit from the huge run up on real estate values, but we always slept well and have never carried any debt other than small loans from family. We sold the other house and took out savings to buy our entry level house in Upper Montclair without a loan too. We have a crappy kitchen again. So we're saving for a kitchen countertop and some new (or high end used) appliances. As well as a replacement car. If one of us winds up out of work, we won't be buying anything.

or Mellon, she doesn't borrow because she doesn't need to.

She owns a house. There's only one way to get a house if you don't borrow.

That's right ROC. We lived below our means for 13 years and saved. Then used the proceeds from the sale plus our savings to buy a small, also in need of work, in the area in which we wanted to live in '93. Most people who buy homes purchase at the upper end of their limit. Of course in '93 it was possible to buy a house for a little over 100k, even in the northern end of Bloomfield. There were a lot of foreclosures back then too.

my car is 18 years old...toyota camry : )

my car is 19 years old...toyota camry : )

my car is 19 years old...toyota camry : )

sorry for the multiple post glitch ?

I wouldn't brag about an old car.

They are less safe and pollute more.

What's to love?

If it ain't broke... I pay for my cars outright and drive them until they need to be retired. Car payments are the absolute worst!

Think upon that the next time you bust out your "I'm not a plastic bag" bag and pull up to Whole Foods in your newly leased car!

My car is 17 years old. Has had just about every part replaced, but its a wrangler. I drive it for fun, not for work. (my other car is a Train!)

LASERMIKE-
Do you work in banking, or have you seen Zeitgeist the movie?

Or the emissions emitted from your inefficient, old car.

I laugh when I see folks with those canvas bags driving a 10-year-old car.

As if the bag makes up for the emissions......

And let's not even throw in safety. How anyone could choose to drive a car without abs, multiple airbags, traction control, etc. is beyond me.

I mean, saving a little on your car payment is good and all until you get in an accident-- suddenly that little savings doesn't seem so important.

Prof,

My jeep passed emissions. And even though there is no air bag, I have a cow pusher on the front of it. I've turned it on its side in the woods, and drive with no doors during the summer. If your car and my car had a head on accident, I think we'd both be able to walk away. (no crumple zones means I may even be able to DRIVE away!

Ah, no jimmy...

The heavens are littered with Jeep owners who felt as invincible as you seem.

And as a past Jeep owner, I can happily say, as you're rolling over (and over) moments before you go flying out the thing, feel good that you didn't hit that cow.

I see both sides of this argument, Prof.

Wired magazine says it's "greener" to drive an older car (not ancient, but 10 years old is fine) because of the costs and energy needed to create a new car.

However, you are right in the safety/emissions dept. The newer models are MUCH safer than their older counterparts and the emission control is better.

I personally like to keep a car as long as possible, change the oil as needed, do the basic maintenance. In my opinion, the Hondas and Toyotas are the best cars for holding onto the longest. I've owned both and they really are trouble-free for the most part.

I also don't like dealing with unctuous car dealers.

hahaha Prof.... words to live by. I have 10.5 inch wide tires, and a I dont take turns like its on rails. In fact, I average 45miles an hour up hills on rt 280. The problem most Jeep owners have when rolling, is that they are in a hurry to go somewhere, or do not give themselves a safe distance between cars.

True, there could be a time when I have to jerk the wheel and I go tumbling, but that's what the roll bar and "oh sh!t" handles are for!

Thanks for the banking lesson. U.S. banks have lost around $500 billion to loan defaults since September. The banks, as you will see today, are in fact lending money. But this time around they are requiring collateral. You know about collateral right? This page is about credit scores. People with low credit scores will also tend have low or no collateral. You can "ease credit" all you want, but when people can't afford the money in the first place you are left with the mess congress created for us in 90's. People and business aren't borrowing money today, because they realize they can't afford to.

As for "putting out more at this time" Today stimulus, tomorrow more TARP, next week healthcare, in a month energy conversion... Just as long as Congress and Hollywood can still use their lear jets... And what about that little old lady yesterday who needs the new kitchen, house and car.....

Safety and emissions are important to me.

So I get a new car every 5 years or so.

I'll pay for safety because too many folks cannot drive.

Money can be saved in other places, not here. My family (and my) safety is way too important.

And so this is why I've been trying to get Mrs. prof to get a new car... But she's of the "I love not having a car payment" school.

As you can see, this argument is VERY close to me;)

"If it ain't broke... I pay for my cars outright and drive them until they need to be retired. Car payments are the absolute worst! "

Yes! When we bought our 1990 Toyota Corolla the salesman said, "You'll be trading this one in in 3 years for a new one" and my wife said, "No way! We're driving this car into the gound". He looked at us with an expression of pity mixed with no small part of horror. I thought the moment was excruciatingly funny!!!!!

How did our parents get by on just one car? :-)

I often wish we could but it would be challenging.

Nellie: What do you drive?
----------------------------
Mrs. M., right now I have a Hyundai Accent.

That should be able to handle the mileage, no?

Well Prof, our current Volvo sedan was purchased used the week after 9/11 so we paid cash and got a great deal. I feel safe in it, and at the time hybrids were not all the rage. We traded in our 15 year old Volvo wagon, which was a tank and we felt pretty safe in that too. We are waiting for the next generation of fuel efficiency, perhaps an electric mini, and then we will trade in this one. The tradeoff in emissions is the fact that we are not buying something that is not green to manufacture and using it for most of it's life. Additionally, it saves us a lot of money in the long run.

Yes, I used to drive Fords and Chevys but decided to switch to a foreign car when I bought the Accent two years ago, and I'm pleased with it. I'm also doing somewhat better on mileage since I work closer to home now. I do drive to Maine periodically to visit family (the Hummer people!!!), as well as to a small condo I own at the shore, so that racks up the miles.