Credit report? Is it worth a second opinion?

Question

I have a subscription to view my credit report unlimited from Credit Expert. Would it be worth my while getting a copy of the report that Equifax holds as well? or will they both just contain the same information/score? I realise that different lenders will calculate a different score etc, so I am just looking for an insight as to whether it might be worth my while getting a second opinion, to see what other lenders may view?

Answer 1

Go to AnnualCreditReport http://www.annualcreditreport.com so you can get your credit reports from the 3 credit bureaus for FREE.  

It is best to see the 3 reports from various credit bureaus as some items may not be in the other credit reports. And some credit bureau may have an error in their report that you need to raise with them.

Answer 2

Cancel that subscription.  It is a waste of money.   I don't recognize Credit Expert and don't know if this is an actual third party company or just a name used by one of the credit bureaus to sell monitoring services.  You simply don't need to view your credit report that frequently.

Space out your free annual credit reports, one credit bureau every 3 months. You are monitoring for errors or potential fraud.  Pay your bills on time and keep your credit reports clean and your scores will take care of themselves.

If you want to check your score, the best place is MyFico.com.   You do have to pay.  This site gives you real up-to-date FICO which is what creditor use.  And you don't need to check your credit score more than once a year, if that often.

Answer 3

The different reporting agencies should have pretty close to the same info, but probably not exactly since not every company reports info to all three.  And they figure scores differrently too, so your score probably won't be identical from the three credit reporting companies.

Answer 4

Considering you can get your credit report for FREE from each of the three reporting bureaus it would be foolish not to. Don't bother paying for the score because it is what it is, but do check to make sure that none of them have any errors which can happen on one and not another.

Answer 5

Any reputable company should offer you your credit reports from all 3 companies and credit reporting agencies like

Equifax

Transunion and

Experian!

If your not getting all 3 I would be asking why not and if you don't like the answer you get, then switch to another credit monitoring agency like on of the above 3 and make sure you get all 3. Although these agencies will often receive the same information about you and your credit file, this is not guaranteed! Some creditors only report to the particular agency they use for themselves. Banks like to use Experian Exclusivley for instance.

Your free to check your credit as often as you like without hurting your score because checking your own credit is a soft inquiry.

These 3 reporting agencies rarely have the same score and the same information because lenders don't always report to all 3. The score you see for yourself is going to be different than what banks and other lenders will see when they look into your credit history, but it is still a reasonable way to keep track of your credit.

Keeping an eye on your credit is a really good way to help protect you from ID theft as well! I wasn't checking my credit more than once a year and I had my ID stolen so I'm more convinced than ever that once a year check on your credit report is not enough! Having access to all 3 is a good idea for the reason too that charge-offs and negative items that should be deleted off of your credit report will sometimes be transferreed to another credit reporting agency!

I have a free website you should read. There is a section I think would be especially helpful to you called "How credit scoring works". I had to fight my wa y back from ID theft and totally rebuild my credit again and this was a real learning curve you don't want to go through!

Protecting yourself from ID theft can be as simple as buying a paper shredder and sending all junk mail, especially credit card offers that have been pre-approved and everything else with your name on it, through a good quality confetti shredder!

Answer 6

First, there is a difference between your credit score and credit report.  For practical purposes, you should get your credit report from all three credit reporting agencies annually - you are entitled to a copy of your report for free once every year.  (BTW, the agencies are Equifax, TransUnion and Experian)  You are also entitled to a free report if you are declined due to information in a report.

You can get the reports at  www.annualcreditreport.com (they can be mailed or printed from online).

As to the scores, the scores are calculated by the credit reporting agencies themselves and each of the three has a different formula.  Access to these scores is not free.  Knowing your score can be helpful, especially if you have had problems getting credit.  Once your have your score, if it is not the best, you can do a search to find ways to up your score.

Answer 7

Always a good idea to keep track of all three credit bureaus.  They all have different reporting times, so one may show a late payment while the other two don't.  Some are more forgiving for certain things like inquiries.  I've seen scores with 100 point differences in their ranges.