Finance Q&A

How can evaluate a good credit score?

Q. My mortgage guy ran my credit and my score was 830...he said it's the highest he's ever seen. weird...If after pulling the credit report he would have said "sorry, we can't lend you this money" I would not have been totally shocked. Sweet! I guess my buying this house is actually gonna happen.

A. -He's probably not lying. That's a very, very high score. -One of us is above 750 and one is above 800, and we're very, very happy with that. A parent of ours is above 800 and is very happy with that. Anything over 700 is very, very good. The lower score (just over 750) involves 1 very old paid small collection, no debt whatsover and not a whole lot of open credit accounts, but no mortgage history at all. The higher scores involve no derogatories at all and either no debt or extremely consistently paid debt. I think the highest score had more credit history, particularly more mortgage history. I've found that some things "show up" more than others. For example, I am much slower about paying medical bills than other bills, because of the insurance company reimbursements or other arrangements with the offices. But technically late medical bills almost never show up unless they are grossly late and you don't talk to the office. The one collection I had was a miscommunication between my ex and I as to who was paying a specific medical bill. But when I was a teenager, it seemed like even a few days late on a credit card bill would show up where a few months late on a medical bill wouldn't. And while a mortgage company probably would report a late very quickly, my landlords never have--but then again, I've never tried to stiff them on rent, either, and had already worked out an arrangement with them that I would consider my payday to be the "first" of their expected month rather than the actual "first". I'd consider myself "okay" about how I handle money, and with no debt and very little wrong with my "printed" history, I come out with excellent credit. The "truth" of the matter is that I'm okay with money--I never get very far behind, I never get very far in debt and I always pay my bills sooner or later. (Actually, the only times I go into debt are for specific planned necessary expenses, and I generally live well within my means.) But I look better than that on paper. Understanding my own style helps--I put everything I can on autopay, which helps immensely, and will let my future spouse handle the day-to-day money managing because he's just flat-out more reliable about it. But I was surprised at how good I looked on paper.

Ask Edwards a Finance Question

Other Questions:

Credit cards for people with bad credit rating ?

Can anyone recommend a company who will definitely take on people that have had bad credit in the past, doesn't mater if high interest rate or not, just to see if its possible?-Capital One seem to like giving cards to people who can least afford ...

Need An UnSecured Credit Card?

Where can i get Unsecured Bad Credit Card?-"Guaranteed **UNSECURED** Visa/Mastercard! Bad credit, no credit...NO PROBLEM! Our service is guaranteed to provide you with a minimum of TWO pre-approved sources for a credit card. For more details visi...

visa debit card with bad credit?

To cut a long story short, i got into a bit of a mess three years ago and had several ccjs. Since then I've had quite a change of fortune - all ccjs paid, no outstanding debts and I'm earning £80k a year but I still can't get anything more than...

Credit scoring, improving?

I was wondering about ways of improving my credit score. I have had a look at my file and can't see anything bad in it, however I see details of other folks in the house, does disassociating make a real difference? also does applying for cred...