Welcome clickers from Train Wreck Central

aka IAmFacingForeclosure. I've decided to do this post backwards. The meat is up front. Introductory/explanatory stuff is at the end. Since you're here, read these "Intro to Credit Score Gaming" articles: Part I - Payment History, Part II - Balance to Limit Ratio, Part III - Length of Credit History, Part IV - Types of Credit Used, Part V - Recent Inquiries and Recent Credit. That's the core info. Other highly relevant posts: FICO vs. FAKO (I got "FAKO" from a commenter on IAFF. Thanks, whoever you are!). What to do if you're young and trying to establish credit. Get your credit reports (not scores) yearly from the government, but be aware of how the "annual" part works. I also discuss recent inquiries in more depth.

If you've read some or all of the above posts and want to find out your FICO score and maybe track it over time, please use this link to MyFICO.com (the best place to get your real FICO scores) which can also be found at the top and sidebar of every page. Oh, and there are coupon codes out there for MyFICO.com. Just use Google and you'll find them.

(Now the introductory/explanatory stuff -- I originally had this part at the beginning, but it started to run pretty long...) I have been keeping up with Mr. Serin's situation for quite a while now, and I had to temper my disgust at Casey (especially with this recent Australia bit) with my greed and desire to make some more money from this blog. I have mostly stayed out of the comments at IAFF, because you guys can be awfully intimidating.... but I've read a lot of the stuff on Exurban Nation (Duane posts especially), Nigel Swaby's blog(s), Caseypedia, etc. Anyway, back to my motivation in becoming a "Supporterz" (although if I had to, I'd say I'm a Haterz(TM)). That MyFICO.com referral link that you see at the top of the page is actually making surprisingly good money, even with the minimal amount of traffic that I'm already getting. I'd like to see if I can increase that, at least temporarily (who knows how long IAFF will be up).

Anyway, this blog has been fairly dormant for the past couple of months, for several reasons. One, my wrists are hurting, and I already have to spend most of my day at the computer for work (not a W-2 -- ha!). But really the main reason is that I'm pretty much out of stuff to say about FICO scores and how to improve them. I'm not one of those guys who can just retread the same old topics over and over when nothing has really changed. There's only so much to say about FICO scores, but I'm constantly surprised at how little people know. There are many misconceptions out there. I probably still have some misconceptions myself! I'm just one guy, and I don't know everything. So I may have gotten some stuff wrong, but I've been tracking my FICO score monthly for upwards of 3 years now, so I probably have a better grasp on it than most. If you disagree with anything that I've written about FICO scoring (or just have better information) then please leave a comment correcting me.

So, that's that. I hope you at least learn something while you're here, even if you don't get your FICO score at MyFICO (mercifully unlinked for your mental health).