Two months ago I checked into refinancing my primary residence for some extra cash. i was told my 630 middle score was below the 640 minimum to refinance with that company. Today I spoke with a mortgage broker regarding a loan for an investment property. I just sold my last property on Friday, so I know it’ll still be on my credit, but it was there two months ago as well. All my credit cards, car loans, etc. are the same, I haven’t closed any CC accounts, and yet now my credit is all of a sudden 560. How in the world does that happen?
you might want to get your credit report from the “Big 3” agencies.
Eqifax, Experian, & Trans Union. Inquire with them directly. In some cases, you may qualify for a free report. Reports cost only about $8-12 bucks. Ask them to give you a FICO score with the report. It may cost a couple of bucks extra. Have them mail it to you. You do not want to go to any of those “get your credit report free” internet sites. They are garbage. Besides, those reports are good for nothing. The report you get mailed directly from the reporting agency will be valid for 90 days.
Once you have your reports, scour them for inaccuracies and unauthorized accounts and inquiries. Once you have found them, you can correct them by contacting the reporting agency and writing them a letter. It is your legal right to have inaccurate information removed. After all, these agencies are not Government agencies, they are “for profit” corporations in business to sell negative info about you. It is your responsibility to have them remove it.
Steve
There is only one free credit report site that is not garbage, www.annualcreditreport.com. That’s the official site where you can get a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus each year. The credit lines should be exactly the same as from the credit bureaus. However, you will not get a credit score through this site. Any other free credit report site is tied in with a credit monitoring business or some other credit-related business and will usually make you sign up for a 30 day free trial in order to get your report.
That being said, a couple of things can bring down your score, besides just derogatory credit:
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Multiple recent “hard” inquiries. Hard inquiries are credit pulls related to applying for new credit such as a mortgage, auto loan, or credit card. A soft inquiry is one in which you pull the report yourself or a creditor you are already with pulls your report for a periodic credit check. The general rule is that one hard credit pull every 30 days is OK (although you are pushing it if you have that many inquiries), and any credit pulls within 14 days for the same reason only count as one.
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Negative accounts being transferred to a collection agency or another lender. If this happens, your credit report may show these accounts as being reported and active last month when in reality they are many months or years old. Any credit that is more recent (as reported), good or bad, has more weight on your credit score.
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Positive credit lines dropping off your credit report. Credit lines older than 7 years will drop off your credit report. If you have a lack of credit depth, losing these positive lines could have a negative effect on your score.
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inaccurate reporting. As the above poster said, maybe there are some reporting errors and there is something negative on your report that is not legit or that you weren’t aware of.
I hope this helps, good luck.
As far as free credit reports.
If you are denied credit by an institution you are entitled to a free credit report from the credit bureaus. Don’t ever go to a free credit report site, they are just platforms for advertisers. You’ll be bombarded with unwanted calls and emails.
Scores change VERY rapidly. I had a client drop from a 715 to a 635 in a month, then back up to a 680 the next month. It all depends on recent activity on your report and the current balance of your credit cards, etc.
www.truecredit.com is a pretty good site. I have used them for the past 3 years and there information is usually pretty accurate. I have seen a variance of between 3-6 points between their scores and my actual scores from a hard pull but I think it is worth it. You can dispute any inacurracies on line, from Experian or Equifax, but i believe TU has to be in writing. As far as why it dropped I have no real idea, the credit scores are extremely sensitive. Good Luck in raising the almighty FICO
Those free credit reports do not use the same model as a mortgage or auto institution. You’ll find that the free credit reports almost always show a higher credit score.
You mentioned that you had a score of 630, before. Did you actually see the report or took someone’s word for it? Who and where was the credit report acquired?
As mentioned, if all factors were even and unchanged at both times that you had received the credit report, then too many inquiries may have played the part in your decreased FICO score.