Credit Advice

You should have informed this person that the MAJORITY of lenders use FICO scores - not freecreditreport.com, privacymatters.com, CreditKarma.com or any other of these credit score sites.

The one consistant score that a person should watch and guard are their FICO's because FICO's are the scores that mortgage lenders, auto dealers, bankers etc. are going to pull to evaluate one's credit.

Thank you mistyweather, that's true. It seems that my score is a lot lower on credit karma than elsewhere.

how do you find out what your fico score is.

First, remember that there are three credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion). Everyone else is just a reseller of their data. We use TransUnion for all of our credit scores. Between the difference credit bureaus, your score may vary by up to 50 points due to the fact that not all lenders reports to all bureaus.

Second, there are dozens of credit scores in use. All of them are slightly different and they may have difference score ranges. For example, freecreditreport.com uses a difference credit score than privacymatters.com which may be different than the one your lender users. This makes it very difficult to compare scores since there are multiple bureaus and multiple credit scores. But know that a good score from one is usually means a good score from another.

Third, timing of your credit scores matter. In your question, you mentioned that your score was lower than before you bought your home. Remember that a considerable amount has happened since you bought your home. You probably had multiple inquiries on your credit report as part of the mortgage applications and you probably took on $200,000-$500,000 in debt when you closed on the house. Those two things along could have significantly lowered your score. We as consumers also tend to pile on more debt after we buy a new home (furnishings, home improvements, etc). Keep this in mind when evaluating your credit.

We know this gets confusing. Here are a few tips. Don't worry so much about comparing across different scores. There are just too many to track. An excellent credit score on Credit Karma will most likely be an excellent credit score elsewhere so use one consistent score and use that to help you better understand credit.