Check Your Credit

[hotcouponmama]

I am going to compile a list of all the places that do a good job with helping you monitor your credit score.

I swear by having this service - it's worth a few bucks a month to protect your credit rating.

And the great thing is, there's so many places you can sign up with, that you can take advantage of multiple offers and do this cheaply.

Get All 3 FICO Scores and Credit Reports! (http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-2095594-10436273)

There's a free trial for MyFico if you click on the home page after you open the link.

EXPERIAN - Free 30-day Trial (http://qspace.iplace.com/cobrands/890/home173.asp?sc=TL02)

[lisa89]

We decided to pay for everything in cash & elimanate ALL credit cards, thus no reason to worry about a credit score or credit. (Not that we ever had a problem)

We are on the Dave Ramsey Plan ;-)

[pennywatcher]

We decided to pay for everything in cash & eliminate ALL credit cards, thus no reason to worry about a credit score or credit. (Not that we ever had a problem)

Wouldn't you still want to watch your credit report to make sure no one else opened credit cards/loans in your name?

[MaryMary]

More and more data theft occurs everywhere, if we are not aware of problems it doesn't mean they do not exist.
Credit monitoring service well worth their fees. If you had been informed that your personal info was possibly compromised (TJMax stores, your employer, etc.) your are entitle to at least 1 year of free monitoring service.

[hotcouponmama]

We decided to pay for everything in cash & elimanate ALL credit cards, thus no reason to worry about a credit score or credit. (Not that we ever had a problem)

We are on the Dave Ramsey Plan ;-)

We pay cash for most things too, but you'd be surprised the odd little things that might show up on your account, and you're like, "I thought I paid that" and did, but it was erroneously reported to the credit bureaus.

Seems like you see those things when you go to buy a house, and most folks don't actively monitor their reports, so when the time comes and something is mysteriously there, they are forced to pay it off or lose the loan they are working on.

There was just an article in our Sunday paper last week where the guy went to buy a house, had a $300 collection that wasn't even his, but since it can take several months to go through the entire process to do a dispute, if he wanted to move forward on the house, he had to get that off there, so he was forced to pay the $300 someone else owed. Good luck going back later and trying to get that money from the collection agency by telling them you made a mistake in paying it or trying to explain the circumstances.

It's a smart precaution for anyone to do who values their ability to obtain credit inexpensively. The better your report, the better your interest rate!

[Janie63]

I think it can be especially worthwhile to pay for a credit monitoring service, say, 6 months before you will be making a big financial decision (like buying a house, getting a car loan, etc.).

But during the times that you aren't making any big moves, you can at least get 1 free credit report per credit bureau, per year (in total, 3 reports/yr.) from annualcreditreport.com.

That is the site that was set up by the government, so it is really free w/ no strings attached. Definitely a good alternative if you don't need to see your report as regularly.

FYI, though, this site just gives you a report, not your credit score. You have to pay for the scores.

Honestly, I think we should be able to access our reports and scores for free 24/7! It is our informaition! But at least you can get it for free annually.

[sweeneycat]

Can anyone tell me if debit cards count on your credit report?

I am getting virtually no interest from my bank so I am thinking of setting up new accounts for the $100 or $300 they offer. This will usually involve a new debit card which I will end up cancelling. Will this affect my credit scores? Does setting up new bank accounts affect my credit scores?

[llamalluv]

Can anyone tell me if debit cards count on your credit report?

I am getting virtually no interest from my bank so I am thinking of setting up new accounts for the $100 or $300 they offer. This will usually involve a new debit card which I will end up cancelling. Will this affect my credit scores? Does setting up new bank accounts affect my credit scores?

No, cash accounts (savings, checking, IRA's, etc) are not reflected on your credit report. Only credit accounts (credit cards, loans, and bad debt) are reported on your credit report.

[llamalluv]

annualcreditreport.com will give you all three bureau reports once per year. You can stagger them, and get one from one of the three bureaus every four months, so that you can watch out for new bad debt or unauthorized accounts.

creditkarma.com will give you an idea of where your FICO is. The free version will tell you your total debt, and bad debt, but they won't tell you exactly where that debt is held. You have to pay for that extra information. But the free version is handy for the free approximation of your FICO.

[llamalluv]

We pay cash for most things too, but you'd be surprised the odd little things that might show up on your account, and you're like, "I thought I paid that" and did, but it was erroneously reported to the credit bureaus.

Seems like you see those things when you go to buy a house, and most folks don't actively monitor their reports, so when the time comes and something is mysteriously there, they are forced to pay it off or lose the loan they are working on.

There was just an article in our Sunday paper last week where the guy went to buy a house, had a $300 collection that wasn't even his, but since it can take several months to go through the entire process to do a dispute, if he wanted to move forward on the house, he had to get that off there, so he was forced to pay the $300 someone else owed. Good luck going back later and trying to get that money from the collection agency by telling them you made a mistake in paying it or trying to explain the circumstances.

It's a smart precaution for anyone to do who values their ability to obtain credit inexpensively. The better your report, the better your interest rate!

But if they are on the full fledged Dave Ramsey plan, even a fake $300 collection will not affect them when they go to buy a house. They'd be paying cash when they buy anything if they are fully doing the Dave Ramsey plan. Sure, Dave has an exception for houses (15 year fixed rate mortgage with 20% down) but he still stresses that paying cash is the best option.

[Nishu]

Even if you're on a cash only plan, it's silly to ignore your credit report. Getting turned down for employment because of bad credit is a real possibility. They check your credit when they turn on utilities or services like cable, and if your credit is messed up you'll at least have to pay a deposit and you might not even be able to get it turned on.

We do'nt plan on using credit again after we pay down our debt, but part of our plan for being financially prepared is to be ready for absolutely anything. That includes having decent credit. At the very least, I want accurate credit. I'm not about to stand by and let criminals ruin my good name without a fight.

I would also be concerned about the possibility that if my husband and I passed away, the creditors who think I owe them would be able to sue our estate.

We use experian credit monitoring through usaa. My husband is military so we put an active duty alert on his credit report and I plan to keep it there till he's out. We also put fraud alerts on our reports on a regular basis. Once because our credit card information got stolen and they ran up about 3k in charges, and then again when we had a virus that allowed someone to get some of our login info.

[llamalluv]

I think you are grasping at straws here. Bad credit has never kept me from getting a job, and I had more than one $300 discharged debt on my credit report. I had a foreclosure and late payments on a credit card and an erroneous collection account (I had done business with the company, but they fraudulently reported my account as being closed with a balance due to them, when it was due to me).

Also, you cannot maintain "decent" credit without using credit. If you stopped using credit today, and paid everything off, in 7-10 years as everything aged off, you would have a 0 FICO.

[Nishu]

I think you are grasping at straws here. Bad credit has never kept me from getting a job, and I had more than one $300 discharged debt on my credit report. I had a foreclosure and late payments on a credit card and an erroneous collection account (I had done business with the company, but they fraudulently reported my account as being closed with a balance due to them, when it was due to me).

Also, you cannot maintain "decent" credit without using credit. If you stopped using credit today, and paid everything off, in 7-10 years as everything aged off, you would have a 0 FICO.
Having an empty credit report is better than having several open, delinquent accounts in collections. That's exactly what will happen if someone steals your identity and uses it to open fraudulent accounts.

If my husband's credit tanked, he'd get fired. His work requires a security clearance and they pull his credit on a regular basis. Any job that he gets from here on out will likely have the same requirements.


Recent statistics are scarce, but when the Society for Human Resource Management polled its members in 2006, 43% of their companies ran credit checks on some or all potential hires. That was up from 25% in 1998.

How bad credit can cost you a job - MSN Money (http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/how-bad-credit-can-cost-you-a-job.aspx)

It's one thing to reject the use of credit on principle, but to intentionally avoid checking it is just reckless. It makes absolutely no sense. Your credit report isn't just going to disappear because you don't like it.

[llamalluv]

Having an empty credit report is better than having several open, delinquent accounts in collections. That's exactly what will happen if someone steals your identity and uses it to open fraudulent accounts.

If my husband's credit tanked, he'd get fired. His work requires a security clearance and they pull his credit on a regular basis. Any job that he gets from here on out will likely have the same requirements.



How bad credit can cost you a job - MSN Money (http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/how-bad-credit-can-cost-you-a-job.aspx)

It's one thing to reject the use of credit on principle, but to intentionally avoid checking it is just reckless. It makes absolutely no sense. Your credit report isn't just going to disappear because you don't like it.

You are arguing against a point I never made. Never have I said it's fine to ignore identity theft. What I said was that you do not need good credit to buy stuff for cash.