Posts tagged "Score"

Q&A: What is the standard credit score to purchase a used car?

Question by BrownSugar 2 Da Maxx: What is the standard credit score to purchase a used car?
I could not get a car since my credit is not good enough. Does anyone know what is the actual credit score to obtain in order to purchase a used car? Specific answers would help. Please no “IDK” answers.

Best answer:

Answer by MKE Bike Beginner

As I understand it, the car loan market is typically lumped into 3 categories:

– The sub-prime market. These are individuals who have credit scores less than 620. Bank financing is usually difficult (or impossible) – When it is provided, it’s usually contingent on substantial money down.

– The mid-prime market. These are individuals between 620 and 680 who can probably obtain financing (potentially without money down), but most likely will have to accept an interest rate well above 10%.

– The prime market. These are individuals with credit scores above 680 and will command a respectable rate between 5% and 9%, depending on the term of their loan and other factors. Loans with no money down are usually not a problem, given the fact that risk of defaulting is percieved to be low.

If you want easily get financing from a bank with little money down, you’ll probably have to bring your credit rating at least up to 650 or more.

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Posted by Trevor - October 31, 2012 at 1:57 pm

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question about my credit score?

Question by Christopher Latham: question about my credit score?
I have a simple question about my credit score. I use USAA credit monitoring and I used the “estimate score” function. I get to change a few factors and it will tell me how it could change my score. one field says “what is the percentage of your available credit.” If i change it to 0-15% it says it could raise my score 19 points. mine is currently 59%. so basically, is it better to have more debt than credit? or the opposite? please provide as much detail as possible on how my credit to debt ratio affects my credit score, thank you.

Best answer:

Answer by Mike

The factor you’re tweaking is “Percentage of Available Credit” and is calculated as follows:

(Total Credit Used) divided by (Total Credit Available)

Anything that drives that ratio towards zero will increase your Credit Score. In your case, it shows that if your available credit on all your accounts stays the same and you can burn down enough debt to reduce your ratio from 59% to no more than 15%, you credit will improve by around 19 points.

To answer your question more directy: it’s better to have a ton of credit available and to use none of it!

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Posted by Trevor - October 30, 2012 at 2:47 pm

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How to improve credit score with first credit card?

Question by RainDog: How to improve credit score with first credit card?
Hi there. I have just received my first credit card. I struggled to improve my credit enough to finally qualify for a card. I had to start with a bottom of the barrell card, however, as my score currently averages 600. This card has a high APR, high penalties and a yearly fee. I am looking for advice on how to use this card as a tool to improve my credit. I’ve received a lot of conflicting information.

Best answer:

Answer by CHES
I used to work for a credit card company..

Most people think that if you pay your credit card purchases in full, you’ll have a higher score.. but actually, credit card companies prefer to give higher scores to those who leave out a few amounts that would earn interest.

For example, your credit card bill is $ 50 and you pay that in full, it means that there’s no interest.. But if you only pay, say around $ 30.. the $ 20 that was left would incur interest, and card companies like that.

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Posted by Trevor - October 26, 2012 at 1:17 pm

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Why is this credit score not higher (see details)?

Question by StephenWeinstein: Why is this credit score not higher (see details)?
According to the information below, (1) the only reason that I do not have a perfect credit score is because of one inquiry, and (2) my score is 68 points below perfect. A single inquiry should not affect a score by 68 points. Why is the score not higher?

“The Following Records are Based on Your [my] Equifax Credit Profile”
No Public Records Found
No Collection Items Found
4 Revolving credit cards, credit limits from $ 9000 to over $ 40000, and 1 utility company account. All 5 “Account Status: Pays account as agreed”, no delinquencies. Combined balance less than $ 500.
1 Inquiry.
3 addresses (1 current and 2 former).
“on a scale of 350 to 850 points, you have a score of: 782”
“You have never been late with your payments, and no collection accounts or negative public records are listed…”
Average credit limit over $ 17000.
Using “1%” of available credit.
Only listing under “top factors that lower your score:” is
“applied for credit 1 time(s) in the past 12 months”.
My oldest account is from 1994. The length/age of the credit history is over 10 years.

The only closed account on the credit report is the utility company account that I mentioned. I did close some other credit card accounts years ago, but they do not appear on the credit report used to calculate the score.

I did not apply for any type of credit. I applied for an HSA (a deposit account with unusual tax implications) and the bank checked my credit report. It is misreported on the credit report as a credit application, when it was actually an application to deposit money, not to borrow money.

Best answer:

Answer by Slimick
Only the top 1% of the population breaks the magic 800 barrier in the FICO score. I would not be concerned with a score of 782. FYI, although the main factors behind the FICO score are known, the exactly calculation method is proprietary. So it’s impossible for anyone to say for sure which factor or sets of factors will cause your score to go up by X points. In your case I’m guessing that it’s the age of your credit history that is keeping you down a tiny bit. The passing of time will remedy this. Regardless, any FICO score over 780 is A+ credit, so don’t sweat over this issue.

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Posted by Trevor - October 23, 2012 at 1:34 pm

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Q&A: When a married couple buys a home, which person’s credit score is used to qualify for the loan?

Question by Judge Judy of Y/A: When a married couple buys a home, which person’s credit score is used to qualify for the loan?
Is it an average of both credit scores? And, is it strictly based on the “fico score” opposed to the information contained on the credit report? For exampe, my fico score is just average but my credit report is really really good, I think my fico score dropped because of numerous inquiries when I was shopping for a loan a year ago and also one late payment over 3 years ago.

Best answer:

Answer by Special K
They will look at both your credit reports if your buying the home together…But there is no black and white answer to this because there are all kinds of companies that do”creative financing” for home purchases, you need to ask them.

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Posted by Trevor - October 19, 2012 at 1:23 pm

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Why is my score “fair’ and not “good’?

Question by JustGottaKnow: Why is my score “fair’ and not “good’?
I understand the credit rating chart goes like this:

350-619 poor
620-659 fair
660-749 good
750-850 excellent

I joined USAA’s credit monitoring, and it says my score is 663,but it still says my rating is ‘fair’. I hae tried Experian’s website but there is no place to ask this question. I have applied for a credit card and been turned down, so I am not sure if USAA is wrong or what.

Does anyone ae any insight?

Thanks in advance! I will try to give a best answer for 10 points to someone!

Best answer:

Answer by Simon M
Your credit rating will be reduced if you have at any time in the last few (5 I believe, but not 100% sure) years defaulted on any loans, or credit card repayments. You will probably also find that if you have not had a credit card or a loan for very long, you will not get a top credit rating. Put simply, anyone who hasn’t previously had a credit agreement will not have any history of how they tend to manage their repayments, so its not possible to say whether they are high or low risk. So they tend to be more “middle of the road” which is where you are.

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Posted by Trevor - October 16, 2012 at 1:37 pm

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How much can your credit score increase in six months to a year?

Question by tiramisu2c: How much can your credit score increase in six months to a year?
If you are paying bills on time, not opening new lines of credit and decreasing debt (student loans, etc), approximately how long would it take for your credit score to increase by about 100 points?
I know this is not exact, but is it closer to six months or two years?

Thanks!

Best answer:

Answer by Abby <33
Paying bills on time wont drastically change your credit score because essentially. That’s what we’re suppose to do 🙂 (well, unless you have been making a lot of late payments lately)

Just make sure, if you have credit cards, that your available credit it more than half of your limit. For example if your limit is $ 1000, you would want to keep your balance probably below $ 400.

But 100 points in 6 months is quite the feat. You should check out the website, it gives you ways you could improve your credit score.

Hope i could help!

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Posted by Trevor - October 9, 2012 at 1:23 pm

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Credit Union getting different credit score?

Question by LCJC: Credit Union getting different credit score?
I am looking to get a car loan from my credit union. The strange thing was that the credit union got higher scores than when I pulled my own credit report from both Equifax and Experian. I pulled my report the day after the credit union did. Was wondering if the credit union uses a different type of “score” when pulling for a car loan.

Thanks in advance.

LC

Best answer:

Answer by Kristi S
What was the difference in the credit score? When any business runs a credit check on a person, the credit score of that person is docked by a couple of points. The only exception to this, is when the person is looking for a mortgage, where several mortgage companies are looking at you credit. The credit companies know that you are only going to finance one house, and only doc the credit score as one business was checking.

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Posted by Trevor - October 8, 2012 at 1:58 pm

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How can your credit score keep you from getting a job?

Question by Martini: How can your credit score keep you from getting a job?
I heard on some commercial that a bad credit score can keep you from getting a loan, a car, and a job? How is this possible? Why wouldn’t someone hire you because of your credit score?

Best answer:

Answer by Michelle
Having a good credit score and history is one way of checking if you are responsible and reliable. A large company is not going to hire you to work in accounting if your own money management is a mess, plus they consider you a theft risk if you are hard up for cash. Not necessarily right, but it’s what they do. If you are missing car payments and in debt up to your eyeballs it doesn’t look good to them.

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Posted by Trevor - October 5, 2012 at 1:38 pm

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How does my credit score affect my military career?

Question by rendonwarren: How does my credit score affect my military career?
I have a bad credit score and a couple of financial delinquencies, is this going to affect my military career? if so how?

Best answer:

Answer by American Man
When you clear one company to another you are going to find out. You will have to pay up. They will take it from your check, your CO will be notified and he will take it from there.

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Posted by Trevor - October 4, 2012 at 1:41 pm

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