Friday, February 8, 2013

Credit Report Card: A's

Besides the sections I spoke about yesterday (age of open credit lines, credit utilization and total number of accounts), there are 3 more sections on the credit report scorecard. I got an A on all of them, although upon further inspection, I think they should have been rated B or C instead of A.

- Percent of On-Time Payments (high weight)
I was given an A on this one, but I know I have a 90-day late payment in 2008 from a closed credit card (aka CC2), and that's the only existing ding to my credit I am aware of. For whatever reason, it's giving me an A, and I'll take it, thank you very much (yeah, I know this isnt the actual credit score). It further says I have made a total of 154 payments, and all 154 payments have been on time. No idea what sort of payments they're talking about specifically (loans? closed credit cards?).

- Hard Credit Inquiries (low weight)
Again, not sure why I get an A. Says this accounts for all hard inquiries within the past 2 years. However, I did make a hard inquiry to get my Chase credit card in Feb 2012. I guess that puts me on the B range instead of A range.

- Derogatory Marks (high weight)
Here's something interesting: as I mentioned, I do have a derogatory mark from 2008. But this only counts public records and open accounts in collections. Since that credit card (CC2) is closed and being repaid on schedule, it doesn't show up. Or so I can hope, right? Perhaps this is another mistake and I should be on the B (or C or D, since it was a 90-day (three 30-day periods)).
 
Ah, well. It's nice to know what you're getting graded on for the most part, and it tempts me oh so much to see what my TransUnion credit score actually is. I'd be thrilled if it is as high as they estimate, at 761!

2 comments:

  1. I got my scores recently and they're all in the low 600s. My Equifax FICO score is 603, which is pretty dismal. It's only going to go down now because I just tried applying for a credit card to rebuild my credit. If that fails, then I have an inquiry on my CR and no chance to rebuild things. Ugh.

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    1. Don't quote me on this, but it is my understanding that when you "bundle" hard inquiries, they don't hit you quite as hard. I've heard this to be the case when shopping for a car or house loan, but since they are hard inquiries on a credit card, I wonder if you can apply to several places and get less of a hit.

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