Get smart with your money
You can leverage great scores into great deals — on loans, credit cards, insurance premiums and cell phone plans. Bad scores can hammer you into missing out or paying more.
The lifetime cost of higher interest rates from bad or mediocre credit can exceed six figures. In my latest for the Associated Press, how to save thousands of dollars in interest by building great credit.
Today’s top story: Staples becomes the latest employer to start paying student loans. Also in the news: Places with the highest and lowest credit scores, why you can’t always bring your cell phone to a new carrier, and the pros and cons of paying for travel over time.
Staples Jumps on Hot Employer Trend: Paying Student Loans
Better than a discount on office supplies.
Places With the Highest and Lowest Credit Scores
Where does your area rank?
Why You Can’t Always Bring Your Phone to a New Carrier
Deciphering the maze of rules.
Should You Pay for Travel Over Time?
Is the immediate gratification worth the expense?
Today’s top story: How to handle “expired” debt. Also in the news: Ways to avoid a disclosure catastrophe after closing on your new home, why your small business should have its own credit score, and why you should skip the extended warranty and save the money instead.
How to Handle Time-Barred Debt
Beware of “zobmie debt.”
5 Ways to Avoid a Disclosure Catastrophe After Closing
Pay close attention to the listing language.
Your Small Business Should Have Its Own Credit Score
Protecting your personal credit.
Skip the Extended Warranty and Save the Money Instead
Build a repair savings account instead.
Dear Liz: As a financial planner, I am surprised you pointed someone in the direction of paying for a credit score. Your score can be accessed at several credit sites for free. Why would you want your readers to pay for something they could get free?
Answer: As a financial planner, you should understand that “free” is a squishy concept.
Some sites do offer free credit scores in return for your private financial information, including your Social Security number. Most of these sites are committed to protecting your information — the credit bureaus they’re working with insist on that — but the sites may use your data to market financial products and services to you. As the saying goes, if something on the Internet is free, then the product being sold is you.
Many people are comfortable with that trade-off. Others aren’t. The other and perhaps more important reason to buy your credit scores from MyFico.com is that you’ll be getting numbers created from the same FICO formulas that most lenders use. The sites handing out free scores typically offer VantageScores, which is a FICO competitor. This particular reader wanted to see the auto FICO scores his lenders would use, and for that the best source is MyFico.com.
Dear Liz: I’m looking to buy a car and I’d like to see the FICO scores that lenders use. I already visited MyFico.com, but I want another site that shows my real FICO scores for auto lending. If you could point me in the right direction, that would be great.
Answer: You were at the right site. When you buy one credit score for $19.95 from MyFico.com, you actually get several scores from the same credit bureau. Those include FICO 8, the most commonly-used score, as well as the FICOs that bureau typically supplies to mortgage, auto and credit card lenders. If you want to see FICOs from all three bureaus, you can buy them for $59.85 and get a total of 25 different scores.
The scores lenders actually use to price your loan may be somewhat higher or lower from the ones you’ll see because credit scores change all the time. But if you apply for a loan shortly after buying your scores, they should be pretty close to the ones you see.
Dear Liz: Why is there such a difference between my FICO 4 and FICO 8 scores? My FICO 4 score is 646 while my FICO 8 score is 678. I want to buy a home and I know some lenders may still use the FICO 4.
Answer: Most (not just some) mortgage lenders use outdated versions of the FICO credit scoring formula. The agencies that buy most mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, accelerated acceptance of credit scores in the mid-1990s when they made FICOs part of the underwriting required for the loans they purchased.
But the agencies haven’t authorized lenders to use the newest versions or alternative scores, such as VantageScore. So an old collection or other misstep that’s ignored by modern versions of the FICO formula could hurt your efforts to get the best rates and terms on a mortgage.
There are several ways you can boost your scores in the coming months. First, get your actual credit reports from all three credit bureaus at www.annualcreditreport.com. (You don’t need to provide a credit card. If you’re asked for one, you’re on the wrong site.) Scan the reports for errors, such as accounts that aren’t yours or late payments showing when you paid on time. Dispute those and prepare to follow up with any creditors that insist on reporting false information. (Complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can help you get the creditors to cooperate.)
Make sure you’re making all credit account payments on time and pay down any credit card balances. Your goal is to use 10% or less of your reported credit limits, and to pay your balances in full each month. (Homeownership is expensive enough without dragging costly credit card debt into the financial picture.) It may take a few months to start seeing improvements, but they should come.
When you’re closer to pulling the trigger on a home purchase, consider buying your FICOs for all three credit bureaus from MyFico.com. In addition to the FICO 8, which is the one other creditors use most often, you’ll get your FICOs for the mortgage, credit card and auto loan industries, which can give you a clearer picture of where you stand.