Don’t get too excited. Equifax is offering a free “Credit Score Card“, which in reality just gives you a range of what your credit score is. And the score is from their “Equifax Risk Score” system, not a FICO score. (You can still get 30% off a real FICO score with a current my FICO coupon code.) The Equifax Risk Score does range from 280-850, which basically the same as FICO from 300 to 850.
Well, it’s free and it’s from Equifax which has all my personal information anyway, so what the heck. Here are my results:
Key Factor(s) Affecting Your Score:
Because your credit score is in the highest range, you may qualify for some of the lowest interest rates and offers from lenders. Below are the top factors that may be preventing you from achieving an even higher credit score.
- There is insufficient information, or no account history, for one or more types of accounts: for example, auto loans, mortgage loans, personal loans or credit cards.
- The proportion of retail accounts, such as department store cards, compared to all of the credit accounts in your credit file.
It still seems stupid that to get a “perfect” credit score of 850, I’ll need to add an auto loan, a personal loan, and a department store card. I’ll hopefully never have any one of those, and I’m betting I can still get just about any loan out there. Nobody needs perfect credit.
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At one point I had a mortgage, car loan and a few long lasting revolving credit card accounts in good standing. That was enough to get me a 806 with equifax I believe. But due to recently credit card account problems, forget about it now.
Actually – I’ve gotten pretty dang close to 850 without all those things. (830?) So, eh. Never had an auto loan, personal loan, or a department store card. (Just a couple of credit cards paid monthly + mortgage).
I dipped to 780 due to recent refi (inquiry) and closing some old accounts, recently. 780 is treated the same as 850 for just about anything, so who cares.
Check out http://www.creditkarma.com – it will get your exact credit score and report card for free at any time. The only catch is it that it also offers you ways to “save money” or “build your credit” with various offers. For the most part I find it very helpful though and I like logging in to see my credit score, credit utilzation, and I LOVE watching my total debt go down. Basically I can see the effect of what I am actually doing as I pay down my cards and how closing an account, paying extra here and there really effects various parts that contribute to my score. I’m a nerd…
Kristy, the creditkarma score is just the TransUnion FAKO number. But it should be close enough to your FICO number to not make much of a difference.
Tony – You are correct that the Creditkarma score is a TransUnion “FAKO” number. However, in my case at least it matches EXACTLY with the actual Transunion FICO number. I currently have a free nine month subscription to the Transunion credit tracking service from the class action settlement, which I learned about from this blog. (thanks, Jonathan)
I didn’t like CreditKarma at all. It was more than a little off from my actual score but whatever. I was surprised that my Chase CC provided a free Experian FICO score range.
Very interesting, I didn’t realize you had to have a dept. store card to have perfect credit! But you are right, it isn’t worth it. Near perfect credit should be good enough. Thank you for the info!
Free credit score range is not bad at all. Good to know!
A couple of years ago I had a credit card that I used frequently and I signed up for credit reports to be sent to me in the mail. I found that a lot of the reports that arrived did not include up-to-date information as it should have. Also, I found the criteria they use to determine one’s credit score isn’t overly specific.
I know you advertise credit card deals a lot and the quick money that can be made with opening offers. I’d like to start opening a new card every couple of months or so just to avail of the great deals and close them within a year or so. Since you have such a great credit score, I’m just wondering how often you actually open new cards and how long you usually keep them open? I currently have 3 open credit cards that I use regularly and don’t plan on closing. No negative marks on my credit reports either.