Modeling Impact of Some Example Credit Changes on FICO Score Using MyFICO Score Estimator

I decided to use the MyFICO credit score estimator to model some changes in credit usage and see what kind of impact it might have on a FICO score. 

The basic starting point I'll use is my own personal situation.    I will then run the estimator again with changed information to see what kind of impact to the FICO estimate such changes might give me.

Keep in mind that this is just one example scenario and its just an estimator.  So this is not at all exact and your own results may vary.   The impact of changes will also vary depending on where your score starts as well.

My current score as of Feb 2nd reported by Discover card is 816.


Here is my current situation roughly and how I answered the questions : 
I have over 5 cards
My oldest card > 20 yrs
My first loan was 15-20 years ago
I've gotten 0 cards in last year
most recent 6 months ago
I've got a balance on 0-4 cards
The total balance is $1-5k
I have no missed payments
0 card are past due
The ratio of my current balance / credit limit is 0-9%.
I've got no bankruptcy or foreclosures

Starting with that info the estimator says my score should be 770 - 820.      So my actual score falls within their predicted range.

Scenario 1 :  Applying for 3 new cards

I'm going to rerun the estimator and this time tell it that I've applied for 3 cards in the past 3 months.
I keep all the other options the same.

The resulting estimate is now 745 to 795

This gives me an estimate that applying for 3 new cards may cut your FICO by ~25 points.

Scenario 2 :    Using a lot of cards at the same time

In this scenario I'm assuming that I use a lot of cards and will say I have balances on 9 different cards.

Estimated score is 750 to 800.    Spreading usage over 9 cards instead of 0-4 drops the FICO by ~20 points.

Scenario 3 : Adding a large balance on a card of ~20% of limit

I've got a large total credit card limit of over $100k.   What happens if I were to put $20k on  a credit cards, say to take advantage of some 0% interest promotion?

All else equal that will give me a estimated score of 740-790.   That drops the FICO by ~30 points.

Scenario 4 : Missing a payment and getting 30 days overdue

Lets say I forget or goof up and somehow miss a payment.   Mistakes happen.

That will give an estimated score of 680 - 730 which is a hefty drop of ~90 points on the FICO.


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My FICO Score HIstory

I've got access to my FICO score for free via both Discover credit card and a Barclay bank credit card.  I occasionally check the scores to monitor them and I've got over a years worth of history recorded.

There has been a little fluctuation in there but in the past 14 months my score has stayed within a 10 point range so thats not really much movement.


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Accuracy of MSN Credit Score Calculator

There is a free credit score calculator on MSN's site.    I can get my actual FICO score through one of my credit card accounts and my score was 816 at last check.   I decided to test out the estimator and see how close it would get to my actual score.   I answered all the questions and it came up with an estimate score of 750 to 810.

Its off a bit then.  Its not grossly inaccurate but its not that close either.   Honestly I could have just assumed my score would be in that range given my credit situation.   Of course this is just one test and it doesn't really say too much about the accuracy of the estimator in general.

 Theres no harm in using such an estimator just don't expect it to be super accurate. 
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My FICO Credit Score is 816

I have a credit card from Barclay and they just added free FICO score to my account.

I'm pleasantly surprised to find that my FICO is 816.

Its nice to have a score above 800.   That will help to get me the best rates on any loans.

You might notice that the image above has two notes at the bottom with factors affecting my score.  Those are the negatives in my history that keep my score from being higher.   Sometimes I've seen such comments and worried about them as if I'm doing something wrong.  But given that my score is now over 800 and I"m still getting comments like that I'm not worried.  Maybe they just have to give some reason why the score isn't perfect or what areas there are for you to improve on.

Various factors have resulted in my high score:

I've had and used credit for about 25 years.   My mother got me a store credit card when I was in high school in order to get me a head start on building credit.   I then got a pile of credit cards which I proceeded to abuse in college.

I haven't been late on a bill payment for... um... about 18-20 years maybe?   I'm honestly not sure when I was last failed to pay a bill on time.

I pay my credit cards off every month.  

I haven't had a car loan for about 15 years.

The only outstanding debt I have are mortgages.
I haven't applied for any new credit for over a year.

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My Quizzle Credidt Score is 776 (again)

I just got my free credit score from Quizzle and it is 776. 

As you can see I actually got it on the 21st.

Last time I reported it was back in 2011 and it was 779 and before that in 2010 it was 776.   Interesting that its barely changed over a 3 year period.   I suppose that makes sense since my credit usage really hasn't changed much.


Here's my original post about Quizzle and how it works.   Lately they seem to push financial services more and really seem to want to sell you refinancing or credit cards, etc.   But thats easily ignored.


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Credit Scores by State : Lend to Minnesota but Not Nevada

I was looking for information on credit scores and found a page on Cardhub that has the average credit score by state.  Cardhub indicated that the source was Experian but I followed the link and I don't see the state averages on Experian currently but they might have removed them.

The Experian site does have a full list of average credit scores by major cities for 2012  and 2011 numbers which are also interesting if you wanna look at individual cities.    

Note the numbers are Experians credit score called Vantage Score and not the FICO number.   The Experian numbers range from 500 to 990 so the cap is much higher than the FICO.    Oh and before Nevada residents take offense I'm just joking with that article title. 

In any case here are the average numbers per state for 2011:

Average Credit Score By State:

State	Average Credit Score
Alabama	680
Alaska	691
Arizona	680
Arkansas	683
California	690
Colorado	695
Connecticut	711
Delaware	694
Florida	683
Georgia	677
Hawaii	707
Idaho	705
Illinois	699
Indiana	695
Iowa	714
Kansas	702
Kentucky	688
Louisiana	674
Maine	708
Maryland	695
Massachusetts	713
Michigan	695
Minnesota	721
Mississippi	672
Missouri	694
Montana	714
Nebraska	712
Nevada	668
New Hampshire	714
New Jersey	705
New Mexico	677
New York	699
North Carolina	682
North Dakota	719
Ohio	696
Oklahoma	685
Oregon	704
Pennsylvania	705
Rhode Island	704
South Carolina	674
South Dakota	719
Tennessee	687
Texas	670
Utah	699
Vermont	716
Virginia	699
Washington	707
Washington, D.C.	682
West Virginia	686
Wisconsin	713
Wyoming	703
US National	692

The variation there is pretty wide really.    The lowest average is in Nevada at 668 while the highest is Minnesota at 721.   Thats about +/- 30 points from the national average or roughly 5% give or take.   A 50 point swing between the best and worst is actually a pretty wide jump really.

I don't know why we'd see such large differences in scores but I bet that demographics has a lot to do with it.   For example younger people have lower scores on average so a state that has more young people will have a lower state wide average.  A high rate of delinquencies, foreclosures and short sales from the housing bust could also really hurt places like Nevada.

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My Equifax Free Credit Report FAIL

Unfortunately for some time now I haven't been able to get my free Equifax online credit report. (see my older article  Step by Step guide to Get Your Free Annual Credit Report for details on getting your credit reports)   Every time I try to access my Equifax report from the AnnualcreditReport.com website I get a message saying its not available online.

I was extra careful to double check all the security questions this time to make sure I didn't answer something incorrectly.   I must be locked out for some reason.   I'm guessing I probably goofed up the one of the security questions at some point and they locked me out, but thats just a theory.

I should mail in the info they request to get the report but its a bit of a hassle compared to simply doing it online.   There is a chance that someone else tried to meddle with my credit or log into the system using my name.  But I doubt that is the case here. I haven't seen any problems in my other reports and I just got my Experian report and everything was fine there.



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Not Paying Your Taxes Can Hurt Your Credit Score (via Credit.com)

Not Paying Your Taxes Can Hurt Your Credit Score (via Credit.com)

While you may get an extra two days to file, don’t expect any reduction in the enforcement of the rules and procedures for those people who decide they don’t want to pay their taxes. Many consumers are unaware that not paying your taxes can result in a tax lien being collected on your profile by…

Impact of Short Sale on Credit Score

A short sale is when you make an agreement with the bank where they allow you to sell your home at market value even though your mortgage balance owed is more then that.  The bank basically takes the loss in this manner as opposed to having to foreclose and then sell it themselves.    One benefit of short sale cited by many is that it is not supposed to hurt your credit score as badly as a foreclosure.  OCShortSaleNow makes it sound pretty good  saying : "Following a successful short sale your mortgage will be reported on your credit score as either paid or negotiated, lowering your score as little as 50 points and affecting you for only 12 to 18 months. "   An About.com article on the topic is much less optimistic : "The ding on credit will show up as a pre-foreclosure in redemption status, Steep says, which will result in a loss of 200 to 300 points."    Thats a huge difference in impacted given by those two sources.  The difference between 50 points and 300 points on a credit score is gigantic.   How much does a short sale really impact your credit score??

First of all we need to know a little about how the short sale shows up.   A QA post on the Experian website points out that "The term “short sale” does not actually appear in a credit report. So, the important concept to understand before you agree to your lender’s terms is how the mortgage loan will be closed and reported in your credit history."


For a good answer, lets go to the source.  This article on the FICO website cites different ranges of impacts to scores for foreclosures shortsales and the like.  They have a couple tables there showing numbers.  You can read their article for the source.   I consider the information from FICO to be the definitive answer on this topic since they are the ones that make the actual FICO credit scores.   If anyone can tell us the right answer it would be FICO.

FICO's info tells us that the actual hit to your credit score from a short sale will depend on where your credit score starts in the first place and how the short sale is reported on your credit report.   

If your score is lower to begin with then the hit to your score won't be as bad as you'll have less to fall.   For someone who starts with a credit score of 680 the impact from a short sale is 50 to 105 points.   If your score is much higher at 780 level then it could drop 105 to 160 points.  

When a short sale is reported with a deficiency balance that will hurt your score more than if the short sale is not reported with a deficiency.    From the numbers on the FICO site the difference between deficiency and no deficiency is 35 points.

The FICO data also shows a range of 20 points for any specific situation.   The impact to someone might vary 20 points depending on the exact specifics of their situation.   The credit score formula is pretty complex so you'd have to look at all the other factors involved.   I'm not sure how or why the impact from a short sale could vary 20 points but maybe if you have great credit otherwise the single short sale won't ding you nearly as much or maybe the opposite is true. 

Ultimately you'll end up with a credit score in the low to mid 600 range.   I'd assume your credit score will be 600-650 after the short sale is done.

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Average Credit Score versus Age

The CreditKarma site has data they compiled on average credit score trends versus age groups.

Here are the numbers:

Age	Credit Score
18-24	638
25-34	652
35-44	659
45-54	685
55+	724

I think that it makes sense that on average older people will have better credit scores.  

I can guess of a few reasons why this general trend would occur.


For one older people will have a longer history of credit and more years to compile a credit history.   One of the factors in your credit score is the length of your credit history.   Its impossible for someone 22 years old to have a 20 year credit history but not at all hard for someone in their 40's.  

People make more money as they get older and with a higher income its easier to handle your finances.   Its a lot easier to get go into default if you are getting paid $10 an hour than if you make $25 per hour.

As people age they learn and get wiser and generally 'settle down'.   I made some mistakes with my credit cards when I was in my 20's but I've since learned from those mistakes and will know better now.   I'm not the only person who goes through this experience.  This is a bit of a generalized stereotype of course.  I'm not saying young people are irresponsible and simply aging makes you good with finances.   Many people will do the opposite and are smart with their finances early or end up in credit trouble later in life.

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My TransRisk Credit Score is 820

One of my credit cards has a free feature where I can see my TransRisk credit score.   The TransRisk score is from the TransUnion credit bureau.  Its not the same as a FICO, but its supposed to be similar.    The TransRisk has a different formula and range of scores than the FICO scores.   As you can see it maxes over 900 which is higheer than the FICO max so 820 on TransUnion is not equal to 820 on a FICO, but its still good.

Suffice it to say my score is pretty high and I'm happy with that.   I am not generally worried about my credit score as long as its in the 700+ range.   However I do want to make sure the score stays fairly high cause that will help us keep our insurance rates lower and help us get the best % rate on a mortgage if when we do buy our next home.

Got my Annual Credit Report from Transunion

A while back I wrote an article on Step by Step guide to getting your free credit report.    I've had several comments there from people who had problems getting their free annual credit reports via annualcreditreport.com   Its hard to know why the some people would have problems.   My assumption is that either they accidentally answered a security question wrong, or there is something broken for their account on the credit bureau side or there is actual credit freeze on their report for one reason or another.

Recently one commenter said that only Experian works.    I decided to go ahead and get my report for Transunion to see if it worked for me.

I had no problems getting my annual credit report from Transunion.   I got the report yesterday August 31st, 2011.

Some screen shots are below for reference and I've censored out my personal information.

First of all you have to give your name, address, social security number and such info to start out and identify to them who you are.   Then after that you hit this start screen :

Second they ask you the security questions.   This is a point that I think you can easily get tripped up and give the wrong answer.  Unfortunately they seem to like to ask questions that can be confusing.  Sometimes the answer is supposed to be 'none of the above' but you may not expect thats the right answer and give another answer that you think is close enough to right.   They could also ask you a question that is confusing and vague.  Today one of the questions they asked me was about the last mortgage I got.   Well between my wife and myself we've got three mortgages so I didn't know if they only meant mortgages that I got myself or would they consider mortgages that my wife got?   Luckily the answer was the same for either.

Lastly my credit report results were given:

Finally here is a close up showing todays date on it:

In total the process only took a few minutes.  Thankfully there was nothing bad or inaccurate on my report.

I only got the Transunion one today.   I like to get the reports from each bureau spread over several months.   That way you aren't waiting 12 full months between checks.   While the three bureaus store their data separately they do have the same information most of the time, so checking one will generally suffice to see if there is something you really need to worry about.

Getting Another Credit Card Didn't Hurt my Credit Score

Earlier this week I wrote about my latest credit score report.   My credit score was 779.     Before that it was 776 and before that it was 773.   You might notice a pattern.    Then this past week FreeMoneyFinance (one of my favorite personal finance blogs) wrote How Getting a New Credit Card Impacts Your Credit Score

It occurred to me that during that time we applied for and got a Sears credit card while buying a new dishwasher.

Here is the timeline of my credit score checks and getting that Sears card.
Dec 2009 = credit score 773
May 2010 = apply for Sears credit card
July 2010 = credit score 776
July 2011 = credit score 779

It would seem that getting that Sears card didn't have much impact on my credit score at all.    You can see that before I got the Sears card my credit score was 773 and then after I got the card it had gone up to 776.     Its possible that the card application had a negative short term impact but if so then it didn't last.    I would expect though that if there was a large impact to the credit score that it would have lingered longer or had more impact in general.  

I should point out that this isn't super scientific.   Ideally I would have wanted to check the credit score the week before I applied for the credit card and then checked it again the week after and then monitored it for a while longer.

My Credit Score is 779

I just got my free credit report and credit score from Quizzle again.    Today my credit score is 779.    Last time I checked it was 776 but that was a year ago in July 2010.   The first time I got my score from Quizzle it was 773.   Thus far every time I've checked my score has been up +3 points.   779 is a good credit score.

If you're not familiar with it, Quizzle is a site where you can get a free credit report and credit score two times a year.   They give the Experian report and 'FAKO' score.  

On the Quizzle site they have a feature to see the history of your credit score reports and this is what mine looks like. 

The line looks flat but thats due to scale.   A +3 change isn't so noticeable within a range between 500-850.

Also check out my step by step guide to getting your free annual credit reports.  Between Quizzle and the Annualcreditreport.com site you can spread your reports out and get 5 credit reports a year.

Avoid Investing in Reverse Merger Companies

 Have you heard of a "reverse merger" company?  The SEC describes a reverse merger as : "In a reverse merger transaction, an existing public “shell company,” which is a public reporting company with few or no operations,1 acquires a private operating company—usually one that is seeking access to funding in the U.S. capital markets."  

I got that quote from an SEC investor warning about reverse merger companies.   On the same topic Forbes says in How to Spot a Pump and Dump of reverse mergers that " this variety of reorganization happens to be a common first step in penny stock scams."

There have been some recent problems with reverse mergers.   In that investor warning the SEC says they have suspended trading in several companies because of concerns over the accuracy and completeness of their financial filings.  The list is :
Heli Electronics Corp. (HELI);
China Changjiang Mining & New Energy Co (CHJI)
RINO International Corporation (RINO);
Advanced Refractive Technologies, Inc. (ARFR);
HiEnergy Technologies, Inc. (HIET); and
Digital Youth Network Corp. (DYOUF):

If you'd bought any of these you'd have lost all or virtually all of your money.

Recently there have been several Chinese companies that did reverse mergers with virtually dead US companies merely as a method of getting into the US stock market.   Several of these companies have had some major issues with their financial reporting.  Some people allege that there are Chinese companies perpetrating financial fraud and reporting false information to the SEC. This article claims: 1 in 10 reverse mergers of Chinese firms on US stock exchanges "fraudulent"    I'll leave it for the authorities to decide who is committing fraud and who isn't.   But there is sufficient reason for concern.  For these reasons I would be particularly careful of Chinese reverse merger companies.    Personally I think that buying stock in foreign companies should be left to the experts and that individuals are best to go with index funds if want to buy foreign stocks.

How do you spot reverse merger??  

An article on Chinese reverse mergers says that one way to tell is if they list a 5.06 item in their 8-k filings.   One such example is the 8-k from Rino International which was one of the companies the SEC stopped trading on.  In their 8-k it says:

Item. 5.06   Change in Shell Company Status.

As a result of its acquisition of all of the outstanding capital stock of Innomind and the Restructuring Agreements, as described in Item 2.01, which description is in its entirety incorporated by reference in this Item 5.06 of this Current Report, the Company ceased being a shell company as such term is defined in Rule 12b-2 under the Exchange Act.

THis is a clear sign of a reverse merger.   You may also tell by finding references to a reverse merger specifically in the companies filings.   THey should expose this as a risk element in their financial statements.   Spotting reverse mergers isn't always easy.   For that reason again, in general I'd recommend avoiding buying stock in foreign companies unless you've done good due diligence to investigate them and ensure they are legit.

This is not to say that all reverse mergers are bad.   Its just a financial mechanism.  Some well known names like Atari and US Airways went through reverse mergers.    Unless you're talking about a well known entity then I think that the risks involved in buying a reverse merger company are too high for us normal people and so we should avoid buying into reverse mergers.

What is a Good Credit Score?

FICO credit scores range from 300 to 850.   The higher the score the better.   You often hear of people talking about having "good credit" which generally means a high FICO score.   So what actually constitutes a "good" score?   Well oddly it seems that getting a solid answer on that is hard to find out.   I searched various sources...


The following is from an article via Yahoo.

Excellent credit = 720 and above
Good credit = 660 to 719
Fair credit = 620 to 659
Poor/bad credit = 619 and below

 An article from last fall on Moolanomy breaks it down this way:

760 to 849 = Excellent
700 to 759 = Great
660 to 699 = Good
620 to 659 = Average
580 to 619 = Poor
Below 579 = Very poor

The website Bad Credit Repair says:

Excellent or Very good = 700 or higher
Good = 680 to 699
OK = 629 to 679
Bad = Under 620

Ask three different people and get three different answers.    Those three sources give different answers for what "good" credit score would be.

Lets say your score is 700.   The three different sources say that your score is Good, Great or Excellent / Very Good.    None of them agree on where your score falls.

Lets look at it another way.  Consider how the credit score will actually matter when you're trying to get a loan.

FICO has a calculator that shows what loan rates you might qualify based on different FICO scores.

For a 30 year fixed mortgage the example interest rates are as follows:

FICO score	APR
760-850	4.419%
700-759	4.641%
680-699	4.818%
660-679	5.032%
640-659	5.462%
620-639	6.008%

On the other hand for a 36 month new car loan the scores and interest rates look like this:

FICO score	APR
720-850	4.886%
690-719	6.389%
660-689	8.308%
620-659	11.872%
590-619	17.693%
500-589	18.677%

Of course these are just examples of typical rates so don't expect you can run out and get these exact rates based on a given FICO score.

You can see that a 720 score will get you the best interest rates on the car loan but it won't get you the best rates on the home loan.   How good your score needs to be depends on what you want to do with it.  I'd assume that banks scrutinize home loans a lot more since they are loaning out a lot more money.   So it would make sense for them to demand the very best scores to get the best rates.

If your credit score is over 760 then you're in the top bracket.  Every source I found seems to agree with that. 

My Credit Score from Quizzle = 776

I was sorting through some old papers the other day and I found the credit report from when I originally applied for the mortgage to buy my home.  My Credit scores from 4/21/99: Experian 724,  Transunion 725, Equifax 777   My credit history had dated back to Sept. 1989.   I had a single 30 day delinquency showing on my credit the time of the report.   Experian and Transunion showed a 30 day delinquency but not the Equifax didn't which explained the 50 point discrepancy.  I don't know what the delinquency was from and I couldn't see anything in the report that really explained that or looked like a delinquency. 

This all reminded me that I should get my free credit report Quizzle.     I have recommended that you should spread out your free credit reports.   And I had a free credit score and report due from Quizzle in June.  I went ahead and got the report from Quizzle.

When you log into Quizzle it features their letter grades that they give you on your home, money and credit.   When I first logged in I had a 'C' grade on my home which puzzled me.   Our home is worth a bit over $210,000 and Quizzle showed our mortgage owing about $72,000.    I didn't understand how that could be a 'C'.   I went into edit the details and found that my mortgage interest for our 15 year mortgage was showing 5.6% or so when its actually 4.75% so I fixed that.   After that it showed me having an 'A' grade...

Ok so now Quizzle thinks I'm in pretty good shape.    Next theres the link to follow to get your 'Free credit report and score' so I follow that.  At the top of the page it shows my Experian credit score as of June 29th is 776 which is pretty good:

The range for the score is 350 to 850.    776 is pretty high but I wondered what is keeping it from being in the >800 range and how I might get my score higher.   I find it somewhat interesting that my score is just one point different than the Equifax score from 1999.   (Side note, the credit score from Quizzle is not a FICO score, but a credit score based on Experian credit report.)

Why did I score 776?

Quizzle gives factors that impact the score.   For me it said: 


"Your Positive Score Factors

•      You have at least 4 open accounts on your credit history.
•      You are wisely using your credit cards, and have kept the average amount of debt on your cards below 15 percent of the card limit.
•      You have a long credit history. Your credit file shows you have established a credit history of at least 20 years of financial transactions.
•      You paid all your accounts on time last month.
•      You paid all your installment and auto loan accounts on time in the recent past."

Your Negative Score Factors

•     No Negative Factors

Thats all good news actually but it doesn't really tell me why my score isn't higher or how I could increase it.  I looked further and found a bit where it said:

"Could your credit use a little tweaking?

"It looks like your potential for improvement is 0 points, but it's still good to practice smart credit management. ..."


OK so that is saying that my score can go up 0 points.   I have 'no negative factors' and my score can go up '0 points'.   It seems that given my situation my score is as high as I can get it right now. 

Quizzle also gave some general tips for improving your score but none of them would help me:

"5 Tips for Improving Your Credit Report and Score:

Check your credit report regularly.
Dispute inaccuracies on your credit report.
Pay all your bills on time every month.
If you have past-due bills, pay up and stay current.
Pay down your credit cards."


But this still leaves me wondering what I could be doing 'better' to have a higher score.  As far as I know I'm not doing anything "wrong".   So how do people get scores in the 800-850 range?    I found an old discussion on Fatwallet where people are talking what >800 scores takes.  Many of the people in that thread with >800 scores are similar situations as mine.

I'm not sure but its possible my score is still recovering from the 30 day delinquency I had in the past. But I'd assume not since that item is over 10 years old.   Maybe my mortgage is dragging down my score some?   I don't know.  

I was trying to figure this all out and then I remembered that I recently got a credit card at Sears when we bought our new dishwasher.   That card application was a 'hard inquiry' on my credit and would have dropped my score by "a few" points or "about 5 points" according to a couple sources.   Also that new Sears card is a new card with a short history so it might be pulling down my average some.   So I'm guessing getting that new Sears card pretty recently probably dropped my score some.

But this is still pretty much just guess work.   Unfortunately the credit scores are black boxes and nobody knows for sure what goes on inside their formulas.    I don't really need to worry about my score though.


My Score is Just Fine

I don't really have any need to get my score higher.   A score of 776 is pretty high.   On the MyFICO site they list loan rates for various score ranges.   The scores and the rates they expect you'd get are shown to the right.
 You can see the top score range is 760 to 850 and I'm in that range.  So it seems I should be able to qualify for the best interest rates on a mortgage.

Spread Out Your Free Credit Reports

You can get your free credit report online via the AnnualCreditReport.com.  But if you get all 3 reports at one time then that just gives you a snapshot of your credit once every 12 months.  It would be ideal to check your credit more frequently.   An easy way to do that is to spread out how you access your free credit reports over multiple months rather than getting them all at once.  

AnnualCreditReport.com allows you to get a free credit report from Experian, Equifax and Transunion every 12 months.   You could get all three reports at AnnualCreditreport.com at the same time or just get them one at a time.  Quizzle lets you get a free Experian credit report and score every six months.

Between Quizzle and AnnualCreditReport.com you can get  five free credit reports every year.  If you spread these out then you can effectively check your credit report for free every 2 1/2 months.

You could spread out your credit reports to access them like this:

Jan 1 - Experian via Quizzle
Mar 1 - Equifax via Annual Credit Report
June 2 - Experian via Quizzle
Aug 6 - Transunion via Annual Credit Report
Oct 22 - Experian via Annual Credit Report


This would spread out your free credit reports and allow you to check a credit report for free every 2-3 months.

12% off Equifax scores reports via Ebates

You can get 12% off Equifax products via Ebates. You can get your Equifax credit report and Equifax FICO score for $15.95 and the 12% discount will give you a $1.91 refund via Ebates.

While you're at it check out some other good deals on Ebates:

Sears has 4% back
HP's store is 6%
Ann Taylor has 5% back plus $25 off a $125 purchase.
Old Navy is 8%
Tracfone for 12%



If you aren't currently an Ebates member then this is how it works.. You sign up for an account on Ebates. Then you find the online merchant you want to shop at on the Ebates site. From the Ebates site you follow their link to the merchant. Once at the merchant site you buy your product normally. You'll automatically get a credit on Ebates for the purchase. Then later you'll get a rebate from Ebates via Paypal or a check. I've been using it for a while and its fairly easy and I haven't had any problems with it. Its a good way to get a few % back on your online purchases.

Free credit score and other services from Quizzle.

Quizzle is neat.

Quizzle is a free service from Quicken Loans. You can sign up for a free account through their website. One feature that I think is really nice is that when you sign up you don't have to give them your social security number, which makes me more confident in the security risk.

OK so what is Quizzle? From Quizzle's main page they say : "Quizzle is the only place that gives you a simple understanding of your home and your money, all in one spot. You'll get a free evaluation of your credit, home value, mortgage, budget and more, then get important tips on how to make the most of them (minus the confusing financial jargon)."

Quizzle has a few nice features but the best reason to sign up is that they give you a free credit score. The score they use is a "National Equivalency Score" from the Experian credit bureau. So it should be noted that this is not an actual FICO score. The FICO scores are available for purchase at myFICO But for personal use I think a "FAKO" score is just fine to get an idea of how your credit is doing. In addition to the credit score you can also see a copy of your Experian credit report. You get a new credit score and credit report every 6 months.

Quizzle gives you letter grades (A,B,...F) for your financial aspects including : Credit, Home Value, Mortgage, Budget and Rainy day fund. Then Quizzle combines all the financial data in to one overall Quizzle score which gives you an overall financial grade. These scores help you see how you're doing on your finances in general.

How they grade them varies: For the rainy day fund their goal is to have 4 months living expenses. Home value grade is based on how much your home as appreciated or depreciated since you bought it. They get a estimate of the homes current value from CyberHomes. Given that home values have gone down recently, it would be no surprise for many people to have a low score on this category. If you have depreciation overall then you'll get a D or F. The credit score grade is straight basis of how your credit score compares to the population in general. The mortgage grade is a little iffy in my opinion. They seem to grade you based on how much you'd save if you refinanced more than anything. That is very dependent on the ups and downs of interest rates. Personally I think that comparing your debt to your total income would be a better measure of your financial health.

My scores are pretty good. My overall Quizzle score is 96 out of 100. I got all 'A' grades except for home appreciation which is a 'B'. My home was bought 10 years ago and it has appreciated +50% in that time for annual increase rate of 4%.


If you'd like another opinion then here is another review of Quizzle from the blog Stop Buying Crap.

Overall I recommend Quizzle. Its a nice easy way to get access to a free credit score and their financial grades are a nice tool as well.