How I Keep Track of my Credit Score
I have a credit card with Washington Mutual (aka WaMu, formerly Providian) which provides a free monthly credit score. I have not charged anything to the card in about a year now. I use it solely for the free credit score, which I find very handy. The card itself sits at home... somewhere (not sure where.... just went through a move).
It seems as though the credit score is updated at the first of the month, but it is not available on the website until the 20th or so. I am not sure how accurate that first date is. The site says "Updated on: 12/01/2006", but it seems strange to me that the score is pulled on the 1st but I can't access it until the 20th.
In any case, despite the question about the timing of the updates, the service is extremely handy. It shows everything from one reporting agency (in my experience, it has always been TransUnion, although evidently it can be Experian as well). I know that all 3 FICO scores track together, from the couple of times I have checked all 3. As long as I check my credit reports (not credit scores) regularly to make sure that there's no bad info on any of them, I am content just using the Washington Mutual service to check my credit score rather than something else.
I've had my Providian/WaMu card since 2003, which has allowed me to track my FICO through quite a few changes. The biggest monthly rise was when I got a new credit card with a $10k limit (at the time, more than all my other card limits combined) and transferring my balances (which were all skating close to the limits) to that card. Since then, I have paid off that card and never run up a balance on any of my cards.
If you want to sign up for a Washington Mutual card to get this benefit, the website is WaMuCards.com. If not, the best place to get your FICO scores is through MyFICO.com
. If you decide to use MyFICO, please use that link, as I just signed up to be part of their referrer network and will get a commission based on whatever you buy. The Google ads aren't getting many clicks (not so surprising) so hopefully this will work better.
3 comments:
One free way to get a "score range" (it's not precise, but for score builders, it's helpful, and free), is to go onto prosper.com. You can pull your credit info. every 20 days for free. (You just start a loan listing, but then stop at the credit check.) Also a good way of having free information for ID theft purposes (but only for the exceedingly anal people like me).
It's great to get your credit score everymonth, especially for free. I thought that a person is entitled for only one free credit report a year.
Your ability to do these things will significantly affect your credit rating. Only finishing DMP is not appropriate to improve credit at good score. You will also need to perform several other actions to keep credit on track. free credit reports from all 3 bureaus
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