Where is the best place to check my credit score? I know of the free credit score site that has ads on TV all the time but I don't really trust them cause they have ads on TV. Also I do know that checking my credit score to often is bad but I don't think I have ever checked it.
Second does anyone have recommendations on a good credit card company to use (that has decent benefits and is usable everywhere? I have a card from my local credit union but it is low limit and they wouldn't give me much of an up on that limit. I recently almost had to make a last minute to trip to South Africa for work and I realized I don't have a high enough limit to cover that trip. My company would reimburse me but if I end up traveling much I am going to need a higher limit card then my credit union will provide.
Also if you are coming in here to say either one all credit cards are evil or two be careful with your cards, please I don't need it. I carry no balance on my card and I do need one.
Run away from Capital One. They are the devil
You can get a free copy of your credit report from each company once a year.
More info about geting your reports
EvanR
HalfDork
3/11/13 8:58 p.m.
EastCoastMojo wrote:
You can get a free copy of your credit report from each company once a year.
More info about geting your reports
Yes, you can get a free credit report, but the only place I know to get a score is quizzle.com
Unfortunately, since credit scores are based on proprietary algorithms, any score you get from a 3rd party can only be an estimate based on their own algorithm.
How about the bank you do business with?
The wife and I have been pretty happy with our Capital One cards, actually.
not worrying as much about carrying a balance during the interest free time period, but when the period ends, I'll be worried about it. The interest rates are not good.
With little credit history, though they will probably give you $300 to $500, which sounds like it won't be enough for you.
idk what the requirements are to get a small business card, but if you could get one of those it seems like it would give you enough of a limit
both Citi and Chase have been good for us
Keep in mind for big stuff like that, your company should also be willing to give you an advance for estimated costs.
The wife and I both have a Chase Sapphire card, there was a good sign up bonus and good points rewards.
z31maniac wrote:
Keep in mind for big stuff like that, your company should also be willing to give you an advance for estimated costs.
The only problem is sometimes there is not a lot of heads up on this stuff. When I almost ended up going to South Africa, I got a two day notice.
Google "Clark Howard free credit report." Follow their link. Free once a year. If you're not applying for loans every year, freeze your berkeleying credit, imho.
http://m.grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/so-any-real-world-experiece-with-credit-repair/61246/page1/
Check out some of the links that carguy posted. I've been rotating through those videos once or twice a week, since he put em up.
The other option for a free credit score-"ish" value is via creditkarma.com. According to Clark Howard their score is pretty close to the real Transunion score. They make money by referrals and might actually have a link to a deal for a better/higher limit credit card.
I currently have two cards - an Amex that I transferred from my UK Amex and a BoA cashback card. Both seem to be working out OK for me but then again, I pay the balance off every month, too. Both cards have decent limits so I generally get low utilization (good for the score).
One card I've been thinking about was the cash back card from PenFed (I'm a member already, but it's pretty easy to join them if you're not military) as that offers 5% cash back on gas. All their cards seem to offer no foreign transaction fees which is useful if you have to travel abroad. I'm seriously thinking of getting one for that reason alone as I have to go to Germany later this year.
First of all there isn't ONE true credit score.
Your score varies by the reason for the pull.
You have one score for credit cards, another score for car loans, another score for a mortgage, and so on and so on.
Any score you pull regardless of the source will be a generic score that doesn't match any of the above. I've seen 80-100 point spread between the generic and the mortgage score. I don't how much it varies between car & credit card scores since I don't do those.
A card that surprised the heck out of me was from the Navy Federal Credit Union. They had such a wonderful secured card rate & terms that I decided to see what they had for regular cards. I've been amazed at the service, it's like they really care. It's truly been like a local bank who knows me and loves me. I was also very pleasantly surprised at the rate & terms. I transferred all I could to that card.
Aussiemg is right, Cap One is of the devil. I deal with them on an almost daily basis and there is no one that is as uncaring as them. Got a problem? Tell it to India. I've had them hang up on me after telling me those aren't the laws over there. They've bought HSBC and HSBC had a lot of call centers in the U.S. so Cap One has inherited some of those which is a huge improvement in service, but they still lag far behind every other creditor out there.
Cap One Sucks
You can do your own search. Just make up any horrible combination of words with Cap One in it and you will get hundreds of thousands of horror stories. It's not IF they'll make a misteak, every company does, it's how they deal with the mistakes.
There's possibly a new credit score coming to town, but it just has more places for them to screw things up.
http://money.cnn.com/2013/03/11/pf/credit-score/index.html?iid=HP_LN
I've actually been real happy with my Discover card. The APR is relatively low, and I got a relatively high limit ($1500) for my age. I use this card for everything, and get good cash back in the process.
I also have a Capital One Visa. I use it for places that won't take Discover (maybe once a month) and to lower my credit utilization, as it has a $2,000 limit that largely goes unused. For a 19-year-old, that seems excessive, but I'm not one to complain about excess trust being levied on me. Overall CapitalOne sucks, but if it helps me on the path to getting a mortgage, then I'm all for it.
Oh, I have an old Suntrust Visa, too. I stopped using it when they pissed me off a few months ago, but am waiting for them to close the account instead of me closing it. For now, it's an additional $5,000 of available credit on my report that I'm not utilizing. And that's a good thing.
Overall, I've never (ever) paid any kind of interest, charge, fee, or anything else to a credit card company. And I plan to keep it that way; my credit score is great and my utilization is something like 7%.
aussiesmg wrote:
Run away from Capital One. They are the devil
They'll give you a low limit, but they are great at reporting on you. They are the primary reason my credit went up.
Tom Suddard wrote:
I've actually been real happy with my Discover card. The APR is relatively low, and I got a relatively high limit ($1500) for my age. I use this card for everything, and get good cash back in the process.
I also have a Capital One Visa. I use it for places that won't take Discover (maybe once a month) and to lower my credit utilization, as it has a $2,000 limit that largely goes unused. For a 19-year-old, that seems excessive, but I'm not one to complain about excess trust being levied on me. Overall CapitalOne sucks, but if it helps me on the path to getting a mortgage, then I'm all for it.
That is my problem. Everyone says Capital One sucks. I know lots of people who like Discover but it doesn't work everywhere. AmEx has the annual fees.
Also I as told that leaving a little balance on your card every so often helps your credit score. Is there any in truth to this?
93EXCivic wrote:
EastCoastMojo wrote:
How about the bank you do business with?
Huh?
My bank was able to pull my credit score for me.
In reply to EastCoastMojo:
Oh I will try that.
For my credit score, I usually pay the $8 that the credit reporting agencies want. I know there are free places to get it but I'm very far from worrying about $8 - to me it's worth not risking giving my personal info to jobobswebsite.com. (Note I said "to me," I'm quite sure $8 is more important to some people.)
I have had good luck with Chase, 53rd, and Key credit cards. Key Bank ended up giving me an absolutely ludicrous credit limit at a very young age, probably because I used the card to the limit a couple times and paid it off completely. (Bought land on it! hehe) I don't know if they did that since I had accounts with them though - but it might be worth a shot.
Keep in mind any card is going to start out with a lower limit if your credit history is not extensive. But they will raise it over time, either as you utilize it and pay it off or as you request it while your account remains in good standing. It is unlikely that they would raise it if you didn't put much on the card, though. I.e., if you had a $2000 limit and only ever put $100 on it, they'll probably think you have no need for a higher limit. But please don't use that as an excuse to go out and fill your card up. ;-)
93EXCivic wrote:
Also I as told that leaving a little balance on your card every so often helps your credit score. Is there any in truth to this?
What you want is consistent activity. The credit bureau doesn't know if you pay minimum payments or pay it off. All they know is that you had activity. Activity helps drive your score up.
Your balance drives how much interest you pay.
93EXCivic wrote:
Also I as told that leaving a little balance on your card every so often helps your credit score. Is there any in truth to this?
I think this is more rumour than fact - I make a big effort to keep my reported card utilization under 10% of the limit so more often than not I end up having to make payments before the billing date. Checking the score over on Credit Karma suggests that having a zero balance will give the score a little additional help. The big one is to keep the reported balances under 10% of total credit limits though for score boosting purposes. The score will still improve over time if you keep the utilization below 30% but it climbs a little faster if you keep it below 10%.
BoxheadTim wrote:
93EXCivic wrote:
Also I as told that leaving a little balance on your card every so often helps your credit score. Is there any in truth to this?
I think this is more rumour than fact - I make a big effort to keep my reported card utilization under 10% of the limit so more often than not I end up having to make payments before the billing date. Checking the score over on Credit Karma suggests that having a zero balance will give the score a little additional help. The big one is to keep the reported balances under 10% of total credit limits though for score boosting purposes. The score will still improve over time if you keep the utilization below 30% but it climbs a little faster if you keep it below 10%.
Well until I got a bump in credit at my credit union I was generally around that 30% mark and now I should be around 15%.
