Secure Credit Check

You will have to give your SS number. Probably birthdate, address and if you have gone by any other name. Sometimes you get a multiple choice type question like "Have you ever lived in one of these cities. With 4-5 chouces whith a city you have lived in included or a "none of the above" answer.
 
debodun said:
How secure are those online sites that claim to give you your credit score for free? How much personal info do they ask?
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Try your bank. They already have your data, and most banks provide them free to account holders.
 

I use a free site, credit karma. It was recommended in an article about freezing your credit. I like it, it gives a lot of useful info about your credit scores on Transunion and Equivax, it doesn't do the third one. You kind of have to trust somebody with your info... that's about the size of it.
 
There is no such thing as absolute computer security. As everyone who watches or reads the news, major companies get hacked and of course, the biggest insult, Equifax itself getting hacked. I have stopped worrying about the issue from the perspective that I have a large, online presence, and my info is everywhere.
I do have anti virus software, it gets checked for updates multiple times a day as myself or wife signs on, we do scans every day, I have a separate backup device and I back up the PC on a monthly basis. I keep abreast of latest threats and ways hackers try to get info. That's the best I can do.
 
By the time people reach their Senior years, Credit Score should be of little concern. By the time people reach retirement age, they should be debt free....if they expect a decent lifestyle in retirement. Anything other than monthly utility bills, and the necessary health/car/property insurance payments, etc., can have major impact on a person's ability to enjoy their retirement years.

Anymore, many credit cards include a credit score on their monthly bills. Discover shows our credit score bouncing between 815 and 825...and the last interest payment we made was sometime in the late 1980's.
 
I get my credit score on my Discover bills also, always over 800, I think they have a free credit check on their website even for those who don't hold a Discover card.
 
I use Credit Karma and love it. For a free service you get so much out of it. It's a credit monitoring service, not just a credit score report. Credit Karma gives you nice monthly breakdowns of all your bills, the payment history for each one and what to do to improve your credit. Credit Karma also helped me detect credit card fraud that I otherwise probably wouldn't have found out about without their service. I got an e-mail from Credit Karma about two months ago saying one of my accounts needed attention. I went on to their site to find that an old Capitol One credit card account that I had kept open for credit score purposes had a past due payment over 30 days and a handful of charges on it from the UK. I hadn't used the card in over seven years and whatever bill they sent out went to my previous address because I had since moved. Without Credit Karma, I wouldn't have known about these fraudulent charges until much later and my credit would have been damaged. Thankfully I was able to get the charges removed by Capitol One and was able to remove the past due payment history from Trans Union and Equifax within a month. Kinda crazy that my credit score dropped from 812 to 756 with just that one 30 day past due payment. But now I'm back up over 800. I did close that Capitol One acct and interestingly enough it cost me about a 10 points off my credit score because it had an available 20K limit that I wasn't using which helped boost my score.
 
At all times you have multiple credit scores, not just one.

The best way to secure your credit record is to freeze your account. Be aware the four credit rating agencies charge for this service (Equifax is currently waiving this due to their major screw-up). They also charge you for lifting the freeze when needed.

To say that retirees will never need to worry about their credit score is ignoring that many seniors do, in fact, carry debt into their senior years. We just bought a new car in May, so lifted the credit freeze for the 0% financing deal. Yes, we could have paid cash, but why bother? I'd rather pay a 0% loan back with depreciated dollars.

Be aware that your credit score can vary widely between not just the credit rating agencies, but also from bank to bank. Many companies use the Fair Isaacs Corp. score, but NOT ALL of them. Banks, for example, will pull your FI score but they will also rate you on their own internal credit scoring system.

All credit scoring will vary from month to month depending on when the score is pulled, as it shows last month's activity. Thus, if you had $5K in charges in May, but paid the bill in full June 15th, a credit score pulled June 5th would show you owed $5K on that card.

HTH!
 
Don M. said:
By the time people reach their Senior years, Credit Score should be of little concern. By the time people reach retirement age, they should be debt free....if they expect a decent lifestyle in retirement. Anything other than monthly utility bills, and the necessary health/car/property insurance payments, etc., can have major impact on a person's ability to enjoy their retirement years.

Anymore, many credit cards include a credit score on their monthly bills. Discover shows our credit score bouncing between 815 and 825...and the last interest payment we made was sometime in the late 1980's.
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why should someone be debt free just because they are retired .at todays rates , i may very well take a mortgage in retirement if we buy next year . many seniors still have mortgages and auto loans today and rightfully so .

i rather tie up the banks money in the property at these rates .
i just got a zero % auto loan .

this belief about having debt in retirement is nonsense .

in fact it can be pretty sucky ending up house rich and cash poor in retirement .

you can't get that money out of the house if you need it . you have to pay to take loans or sell it . a reverse mortgage is still a loan . so basically having money liquid and a mortgage may be a much safer deal

keep in mind what you pay for auto insurance , getting an apartment or accepted in a co-op , even getting a job if you want to work at something decent after you retire all may hinge on your credit report .
 
keep in mind the free scores from the credit cards are not comprehensive credit scores . amex -discover -citi are all fico 8 bank card scores . they do not weight a lot of other types of debt . some go up to 900 not 850 and use a different scale . they are not comparable to a fico consumer score which counts a much wider range of debt .
 
you will likely have a credit file . did you ever have a car loan , mortgage , etc ? if not then you will likely come up no credit history found . not a good thing today .

you are judged by so many , for all kinds of things based on your credit history .

there is a link between who you are as a person and how you are with money . no answer is no answer so no credit history gives no insight for anyone looking to judge you for something linked .
 
citi tells you specifically that they use fico 8 bank card scores and that the high score is 900. amex and discover tell you they use fico 8 bank card scores but do not disclose on their sites if it is calibrated to 900 or 850 .
 
the problem is that freezing your credit with the 3 consumer agencies still leaves you vulnerable to anyone taking commercial loans and credit cards . commercial credit does not go through those agencies so you won't see it , nor will the freeze mean a thing ..

also checking credit with one of the 3 may not show a fraud . many non credit card members like utilities do not report to all three .

years ago my wife had a fraud on her report that was a utility . someone used her info then stiffed the utility . it appeared only on 1 report , not the other 2 . we cleared it up but it took all kinds of documentation .

when that happens the utility has to have it removed , not the reporting agency
 
I strongly disagree that being debt free is nonsense.

I understand that using OPM may make financial sense.

For me being debt free is a luxury that I've worked for and can afford.
 
Don M. said:
By the time people reach their Senior years, Credit Score should be of little concern. By the time people reach retirement age, they should be debt free....
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being debt free is not nonsense . the statement that retirees should all be debt free is nonsense . there is no broad based statement that can ever be made about using " good debt " regardless of age . there is "good debt" and then there is bad debt .. being bad debt free is a good thing , that is not nonsense ! but good debt is a whole other story . there most certainly is a use for good debt in retirement .

40% of those over 65 carry a mortgage in the usa , many of them by choice .
 
mathjak107 said:
being debt free is not nonsense . the statement that retirees should all be debt free is nonsense . there is no broad based statement that can ever be made about using " good debt " regardless of age . there is "good debt" and then there is bad debt .. being bad debt free is a good thing , that is not nonsense ! but good debt is a whole other story . there most certainly is a use for good debt in retirement .40% of those over 65 carry a mortgage in the usa , many of them by choice .
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Just curious...What is Your definition of "Good Debt"??? And yes...40% of retirees are still stuck with a mortgage...and most of those 40% have little or no savings or investments. The bulk of most retirees Net Worth is in their home equity, and most would not be able to write a check for a new car. Then, if any unusual health expenses occur, they are soon broke.

https://www.fool.com/investing/gene...average-net-worth-by-age-how-do-you-comp.aspx
 
Aunt Bea said:
I strongly disagree that being debt free is nonsense.

I understand that using OPM may make financial sense.

For me being debt free is a luxury that I've worked for and can afford.
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I also worked very hard to get my mortgage paid off before I retired. I am very glad I did. I did not want to enter retirement with long term debt hanging over me.
 
Don M. said:
Just curious...What is Your definition of "Good Debt"??? And yes...40% of retirees are still stuck with a mortgage...and most of those 40% have little or no savings or investments. The bulk of most retirees Net Worth is in their home equity, and most would not be able to write a check for a new car. Then, if any unusual health expenses occur, they are soon broke.

https://www.fool.com/investing/gene...average-net-worth-by-age-how-do-you-comp.aspx
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good debt is debt that is used to your advantage . debt to invest elsewhere , interest free credit cards , zero interest auto loans , even credit card rewards where you pay off the balance . we have a few thousand dollars in travel rewards from our credit cards without 1 penny in interest ever .

in fact i borrowed money to buy a partnership in a real estate venture that was one of the most lucrative investments i ever made .

having a mortgage in retirement can be good debt . it can let you earn far greater than you pay out in interest . as rates rise even cd's will likely pay more than todays mortgage rates
 
Butterfly said:
I also worked very hard to get my mortgage paid off before I retired. I am very glad I did. I did not want to enter retirement with long term debt hanging over me.
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far to many retirees scramble to pay off that mortgage and leave themselves house rich and cash poor . they end up not being able to spend the the living room for a large bill and the money stays trapped in the house .

having that money in liquid investments rather than the house can provide cash flow if you need it without having to take on loans and interest at the worst time . in fact many found in the 2008 great recession that their equity lines of credit were closed and they needed money .

so , yeah , there is nothing wrong with not having a mortgage in retirement but with most people having the majority of their wealth in their homes it may leave them in a less than desirable position. the idea of no mortgage in retirement may be comforting to the mind but financially it may not be the best way to do things nor is it really that comforting when push comes to shove and you have no access to that tied up money without selling . .

if we buy next year i will certainly try to get a mortgage ,rather than tie up a few hundred thousand of my own invested money .

this year alone the markets returned enough to pay cash if we wanted to for that place we want to buy . i am so glad i had our investments working for us to do that .

many retirees are not going to be investors , i get that . but most retirees will likely pump to much liquid cash in to the home trying to get it paid off leaving to much allocated in to the house . .
 
IMO leveraging your assets is a very bad idea for the average retiree.

Not all investments and speculative ventures work out and when you are retired you don't get any do-overs so it's best to stay on rock solid ground with your finances.

Taking advantage of points on a rewards credit card is much different than taking on a long term debt for an investment.

If a person has substantial assets that is a very different situation and the use of leverage can be a viable tool or option.

We each need to do what we feel is best for ourselves and our situation.

I prefer to sit on a rock and watch the world go by at this point in my life, LOL!!!
 

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