More about credit scores

In my panic when my credit card's limit was mysteriously increased, I had to research a bit more on this credit score deal.

I understand that I shouldn't be relying on credit scores that much, but considering I will need a more reliable car before I move in 2 years which I can't pay off in full with cash, I'm rather interested in nursing my credit score to get the best deal I possibly can.

You can check an estimated range of your credit score by going here: MyFico Credit Score Estimator. I went through here and it gave me a range of 665-715. Which according to my last two sources of credit scores (checking it August 2011 through Experian (686) and most recently when opening my Chase credit card in Feb 2012 (709), the range is spot on.

You can further check the whereabouts of your score by using CreditKarma. I for one am really glad I found their website, and wish I could've started using it a few years ago. It does not affect your score to check your own scores, and the data gets pulled from your TransUnion reports to give you a fair estimate. A lot of people report that their real score tends to be pretty darn close to their estimates, about 20pts. Mine says I should have 761. That's a jump from the 715 max given by MyFico.

Anyway, I would really recommend for anyone that is trying to get out of debt, or paying down debt, to check this out. I wish I had, and I don't mean just for the credit score, but because it tracks all the info and can create a history, like your credit utilization rates, how your balances and limits change overtime, and so on and so forth. I've found a lot of interesting things about credit ratings, but I'll cover those in a separate post, lest this one gets too long.

Any particular questions you guys may have in regards to credit scores and their calculations? I may as well get some use out of this research!