The Credit Racket

[TheTwinAndreBen]

The only way to change it though is through regulation. The bureaus will not change on their own. There was a pretty nice piece on 60 minutes within the last year or so that profiled a woman who had her credit wrecked for like a decade because her SS# was miss-associated with a person of the same name who was a derelict. She sued the credit bureau and won a seven figure sum. A former in house counsel was interviewed and said that it was cheaper for them to settle suits when they really fuck up than to change their policies, i.e. not give responsibility for your credit to some guy named punjab (Hello this is Bill!) smearing his lentil samosa all over your credit file.

 

[RollTheQuad06]

Yeah my scores differ 34 points between Mint, Quizzle and Credit Karma. Credit Karma tells me that I don't have enough accounts open (it says 22+ would be best??) to get an "A" in that category. I dislike having to play the game, and keep accounts open that I will never use again, just to have more than the next guy. I feel like 3 credit cards, student loan, car loan and mortgage with all payments always on time should be sufficient, but nope, that's probably not enough so I have to keep a handful of other accounts and credit lines open (and monitor those extra accounts for fraud) just for giggles. I mostly just want the highest score possible even though mine is already great.

When I was applying for my mortgage, they were looking at every transaction in my bank account. I had to explain like a $25 deposit from when I went in on a wedding gift with friends and they all paid me back. "what is this extra income?!?!"

 

[RJKarl]

if it wasn't such a good predictor of things it wouldnt' be so valuable. agree w/ RJ that the penalties for fuck ups should be much, much higher for the bureaus

Each bureau should have to put their scoring criteria online for the public to see.

 

[deacphan]

Yeah my scores differ 34 points between Mint, Quizzle and Credit Karma. Credit Karma tells me that I don't have enough accounts open (it says 22+ would be best??) to get an "A" in that category. I dislike having to play the game, and keep accounts open that I will never use again, just to have more than the next guy. I feel like 3 credit cards, student loan, car loan and mortgage with all payments always on time should be sufficient, but nope, that's probably not enough so I have to keep a handful of other accounts and credit lines open (and monitor those extra accounts for fraud) just for giggles. I mostly just want the highest score possible even though mine is already great.

When I was applying for my mortgage, they were looking at every transaction in my bank account. I had to explain like a $25 deposit from when I went in on a wedding gift with friends and they all paid me back. "what is this extra income?!?!"

and this is a big crux of my problem with it. they want you to have more accounts because they're in bed with the credit card companies. open more accounts so they can collect more fees. it's such bs.

 

[DeacHead]

I don't know Mint, Quizzle or Credit Karma, aside from what I just read about them 10 seconds ago after Googling. Their scores aren't the ones you need to be concerned with. Equifax, Experian and Transunion are. If those first 3 companies are advising to have more accounts, I'd be wary of following their advice. FICO will definitely ding you for having too many accounts. You have to find a sweet spot of enough accounts to show a credit history but not too many accounts with too much available credit.

Personally, I've found having one credit card (paid off in full each month of course), a car loan and a mortgage is right in the sweet spot of showing credit history but not too much available credit.

 

[RollTheQuad06]

Oh I'm not looking for advice from any of them, I have great credit as-is, but it's just the little suggestions on their sites for why you might not be higher that I have to roll my eyes at a little.

Credit Karma is the TransUnion score. Mint is from Equifax. Quizzle is Vantage Score and they claim: "The VantageScore credit score was launched as a joint effort by the three major credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion)."