Comments on: How You Score

By: Maury Lum

Maury Lum — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:53:46 +0000

Great post and information. I really like the detail as it is hard to impossible to get information from equifax or transunion on what all really goes into coming up with the score.

By: Angela w

Angela w — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:56:46 +0000

Ok this frustrates me, I went to this site that looked good to get my free credit rating. I fill out all the necessary areas avoid anything that tries to charge me for something and i get an email after i submit my information telling mey they are going to charge my credit card for this service.

How does that end up being free? Ok so clicking back i saw where they said they would charge you for the service. i missed that part, although it is the first 7 days so im cancelling it before they charge me.
I just don’t get it though how can they get away with saying its a free service and charge you. Its very misleading and some people don’t read the fine print at all and don’t look at their credit card statements.

By: gregg

gregg — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:15:40 +0000

puzzles me, that with good credit, maintaining one card which i have been paying off, i used one additional card during the month of my grandbabies birth, with motel expenses, etc. charging about $500. my score with several of the credit services jumpied over 20 points. when i paid it down to about 335, same score. paid it off and dropped back down over 20 points. is there a magic quantity like two or three debts over a couple hundred dollars that need to maintain a balance without being paid off every month or what?

By: Shelley

Shelley — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:04:26 +0000

Mary – writing on the internet can make statements seem different then how they were intended. I said thanks to Blaine and truly meant it. I also wanted to assure him that I will be cautious. Sorry if you didn’t feel I was being grateful.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:48:28 +0000

Why so defensive? Ask for suggestions/advice/ideas, you’re gonna get em, so how about just saying thanks, and you can take it or leave it. We’re fortunate to have Gail’s site available to help us.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:42:20 +0000

Thanks Blaine – I am very aware of that and nobody is making this decision for me.

By: Blaine

Blaine — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:29:41 +0000

Lisa: Mortgages do not report to the credit bureau. That is normal.

Shelley: Beware of the “free consultation” from a consumer proposal company. Even beware of a consultation from a bankruptcy attorney. They will almost ALWAYS tell you that CP or Bankruptcy is your best option. Why? Because it’s in their own best interest if you do. When I was a banker I once had a client who had previously gone bankrupt and his debt totalled only $5000! I asked him why he went bankrupt and he told me that when he consulted with a solicitor that they told him he should. I’m sorry, but no one should go bankrupt over $5000.

People, credit score isn’t something anyone should worry about. If you manage your finances and credit responsibly then the credit score will take care of itself.

By: dinah

dinah — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:39:27 +0000

thank you for the answer.

i didn’t realize that different ‘problems’ affect the score in different ways. i always assumed that it was affected the same. & it’s interesting to know that scores are affected by outside issues (ie. recession).

cheers!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:33:38 +0000

Dinah, I’m sorry, but I don’t have a definitive answer for you since it depends on the types of problems you’ve had on your credit history. Negative changes in scores result from the addition of a negative element, like a collection or delinquency, to your credit history. Typically, delinquencies and anything else that’s on public record remain on your credit report for seven years. Some bankruptcies stay for 10 years. Inquiries remain on your credit history for two years. With credit tightening — meaning that it’s going to be harder to get credit — I’m not sure how scoring will be affected.

By: dinah

dinah — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:13:15 +0000

gail can you (or someone else) elaborate on how long it might take for your score to rise once you’ve stopped being silly about credit (ie. making late payments, or applying for too much credit, or having too large a ratio). i’m always curious to know how much you can expect your score to rise in 6 months or 1 year or 2 years.

thanks in advance!

& ps: me and my hubby started contributing to an emergency fund a couple months ago. last weekend we had a flat tire and it was so nice to be able to turn to the fund to buy a new tire instead of putting the money on a credit card or our line of credit! it was heartwarming to know that money was there and that there is still some money left in the account! thank you so much gail.

By: Weronika Van Buel

Weronika Van Buel — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:32:24 +0000

Hey Shelley

My husband and I have just gone through the consumer proposal route.
We had amassed a substantial amount of unsecured debt, the majority of which was school debt, but not OSAP. Needless to say we got married and got pregnant, and having our daughter got our butts into gear.

I understand the impact a crappy FICO score has on your life, but it was the only feasable solution for us, with over 50% of our income going to debt repayment we could hardly afford to eat let alone feed out daughter.

The consumer proposal has allowed us to start over, live our life.
We make a decent $5000 take home each month, and with the debt repayment we have set up with our consumer proposal it is much more manageable. All I know is that it made sense to us and it has allowed us to live again.

Yes it dinged our credit score, lots but now we can start over, we both have secured credit cards but after a year or two they will be regular ones and it will improve our credit score, we also obtained a car loan this week for a new to us van, since we are expecting again. This two will help us improve our credit rating. After two years we can refinance the open ended loan and get a lower interest rate.

Yes the consequences of a low credit score suck, but I have my life back and I still have a credit card for emergencies and we obtained a car loan.
Life does not end after a consumer proposal or bankruptcy.

If you need any info or have any more questions about the process contact me weronika.vanbuel@rogers.com

Hopefully you can start your life over too.
Ps. Im only 24 and I have an entire life time to improve my credit score.

Weronika

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:40:09 +0000

Rebecca – I understand your frustration but try to see it from the lender’s point of view – they can’t see if you’re good at paying back a loan until you’ve actually borrowed something and paid it back. Its kind of like a baseball scout wanting to see the star player hit a few balls in the game as opposed to seeing how they hit in practice. Saving up and paying for something in cash shows good intent but doesn’t prove credit worthiness since there’s no penalty if you choose not to rebuild up your cash supplies after initial expense. Not entirely fair I’ll agree but I can’t think of a reasonable alternative. What’s really not fair is not getting the same amount of ‘points’ for paying off the balance each month vs. carrying a balance.

Ultimately though and here’s where I may disagree with Gail – personal accountability shines through. Even though an evil credit card company may increase a person’s credit limit, it’s the person’s choice to ratchet up the spending, there’s no gun to anyone’s forehead.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:52:06 +0000

“Getting a credit card, putting some money on it each month and paying it off in full counts too.”

The whole idea of needing to have a credit card is what annoys me. You’re rewarded more for putting a purchase on a credit card and then paying it off than you are for paying for it with cash or debit. For consumers it is senseless – just a trap to trick you into spending more than you can afford.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:03:14 +0000

Hi ~K – yes I have tried the balance transfer – but was approved for $500 – which isn’t feasible for the $10k owing on the now high interest card. We are considering the consumer proposal knowing that it will effect my credit almost as bad as a bankruptcy for about 7 years but given our financial make up it could be worthwhile. I have about $40k in unsecured debt in my name only. My husband has about $2k. (over the years his debt was transferred over to my cards etc.) Otherwise, we only have our mortgage and about $4k owing on our car (book value is about $5500.00). For what I can tell – without even realizing it, we have the set up of doing this without effecting his credit, our car or the house. Just wondering if there was more information out there that I wasn’t aware of yet that could spin this differently. I guess the next step is setting up a free evaluation with the professionals or (not sure yet!)

By: ~K.

~K. — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:28:08 +0000

Shelley – I could be wrong, but I thought consumer proposals were pretty well as bad as declaring bankruptcy? Unless I have it confused with something else, but I remember an episode of TTDUP where Gail talked to couple’s about the havock it would still reak on their finances. Have you tried transferring balances to the introductory rates of a new card (freezing the card itself, of course) and then just paying off as much as you can as quickly as you can by cutting back everywhere you can?
(If you’re a TTDUP fan, you’ve probably already done these…)
Best of luck to you.