Intuit Credit Karma
<strong>Check your credit score:</strong> I know you're itching to see where you stand, and CreditKarma.com offers instant gratification -- a free credit score without the gotchas that make other "free" score offers a pain (like the product trial you have to remember to cancel).
Rebuilding credit after a bankruptcy may take as much as five years of good payment history, said Ken Lin, chief executive officer of CreditKarma.com, a San Francisco-based Web site that allows consumers to monitor their credit scores. A secured credit card, which requires an upfront deposit, is a good way to start, he said.
Preserving your credit history is one reason that Kenneth Lin, CEO of Creditkarma.com, recommends that you don't formally close an account but let the issuer close it for lack of activity. The longer the account stays open, he says, the more you'll add to your credit history and the longer you'll benefit from the additional available credit.
Also, bear in mind that you may have other remedies, says Ken Lin, the chief executive of Credit Karma, a financial information company based in San Francisco. "There are often consumer protection laws at the state level regarding warrantees and refunds," he says.
<strong>Learn Your Score.</strong> You have three FICO scores, based on your credit reports at the three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The numbers tend to be in the same ballpark, so pony up $16 to get one representative score at myfico.com. You can get an estimate free at Creditkarma.com.
Better, they have a "Report Card" to show you how your score and its different components stack up to the rest of the population. (I did okay on most components but was surprised to learn that my score was hurt by not having enough accounts with different lenders. Consolidation makes keeping track of the family finances easier but apparently there are costs to that decision.)
You won't get your credit score with your free credit report, so this is something you're going to have to do separately. Two of the best options for obtaining your credit score are myFICO and Credit Karma. Credit Karma is free and provides some neat features to help you monitor your score and make improvements.
At any rate, tighter credit is now the case for marginal borrowers. In the recent past, someone with a credit score of perhaps 680 or above on FICO's 300-850 scale could get a top card with a low rate, said Ken Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com in San Francisco. But today, the best cards are being restricted to people with credit scores of 740 to 750 and up, he said.
"Kenneth Lin, CEO of Creditkarma.com, said he thinks the nationwide median would be lower now because of economic changes."
"With Illinoisan's credit card debt averaging $6,775 and an average mortgage loan of $189,443, it looks like the only good news for our state is that our average credit score is still above the national average of 673, according to Credit Karma."