(Editor's note: I am, once again, flying back to The Ranch for the weekend to attend to things. Responses may be delayed, for which I beg your indulgence.)
Last December when we were visiting my in-laws, the question of credit scores came up with my nephews and sister in law, who were chatting away and comparing them. They asked me what I thought mine was.
I literally had no idea.
To my mind, my credit score only mattered if I was borrowing money. And since I did not intend to purchase a house or buy a new car or open another credit card, I never really kept up with. If I needed to know, I was pretty sure that The Ravishing Mrs. TB would let me know.
Cue about two months ago when, due to a major information hack and breach, a rather large number of Americans were faced with the potential of credit theft. The recommendation? Sign up with each credit reporting service and put a freeze on your account. Which, as this was endorsed by The Ravishing Mrs. TB, was duly performed.
The great thing about "signing up" is that now I get almost daily e-mail updates telling me whether or not my credit score is rising or declining: "Congratulations, your credit score has gone up by 9 points!" or "Your credit score has declined by 22 points."
Looking at my credit score (which, apparently, is "Excellent"), I both have no idea what this means and am aggravated.
I suppose my fundamental problem is that credit scores indicate credit worthiness - which 90% relate directly to the ability to borrow money (the other 10% being rental application - which I have come to know) and certain job applications. The fact that, at least from where I sit today I have no interest and no need to borrow (so far as I am aware) does not enter into this calculation.
I would bet, were I to think about it more, that likely people with "lower" credit scores are the individuals more likely to borrow and people with "higher" credit scores are less likely to. It would be wrong to draw many conclusions from that - life happens and all - but I do not wonder that there is likely a correspondence between people that handle their money better and a higher credit score.
On the one hand, I suppose I could just unsubscribe to those e-mails. On the other, I might miss out on breathlessly awaiting my next "Credit Score Update".
Used to get a credit score when I received the monthly "Time to pay us" accounting of that card's use the past month but since I cancelled that card I have no idea of what it is now.
ReplyDeleteNylon12, the last time I cared was well over a decade ago when we bought the house innNew Home. Like you, up to this point I had zero idea and zero interest in what it was.
DeleteI have never borrowed money during this whole credit score era - I think it is another sham, and also another tracking device, and another method to control the population.
ReplyDeleteAnon - I certainly cannot disagree with you. It could bery easily be turned to less than honourable purposes.
DeletePart of the 1913 Satanic scheme/scam to control you. Other than that, it's a great system (snarc).
ReplyDeleteCertainly seems to be a method to throttle borrowing for certain, T_M.
DeleteHmmm... When we first froze our credit, I started getting emails from Equifax. Not believing I signed up for them, I suspected there were scamming emails. Now, TB, you're making me wonder if they were emails cheering on our good credit (assuming it is good as we've not done anything to muck it up - ever, but definitely not since we last checked into it). I probably should look into whether or not I blocked the email address before we find ourselves needing to unfreeze our credit.
ReplyDeleteBecki, you might check - I mean, I will say that I have received nothing useful from them at all, other than cheering me on/letting me down or thinking I could be a fit for these credit cards or these loans or these insurance products. I am tempted to see if I can just adjust the preferences in my account, but that also sounds like more effort than I might want to put in.
DeleteI'm ahead of you on this point as I have had my credit frozen for probably 20 years or more. In fact, when we went to trade houses 11 years ago, it had been so long that I had forgotten how to access those accounts to unfreeze them for the bank to pull a credit check. That involved a month of back and forth document swapping to get straightened out.
ReplyDeleteI have no need of a credit score anymore and likely the only way I'll unfreeze them is if I ever switch to another credit card. But I have learned the secret to dealing with that. I apply and subsequently get denied by the credit card since they can't access my credit score. They then mail me a letter telling me which credit bureau they failed to access and list a phone number to call if I have questions. With credit bureau known, I unfreeze that one, call up the credit card and have them rerun my credit score on the spot and then refreeze it. It saves me trying to access all of them and to keep them open for weeks on end while the credit card company does their thing.
Ed, I really had no idea this was a thing at all until now.
DeleteLike you, the only need I foresee at this point is the strange account I would need a new one. As so far as I am aware my credit score is not dependent on it being unfrozen, people can look if they need to.
Given the state of the world now, it just seems like cheap insurance.
Freezing your credit prevents people from opening credit under your name because the freeze prevents companies from doing a “hard pull” which shows them the names of credit you have had or do have, available credit limits and late payment histories. It is remarkably detailed and personal and stretches back a long way. I try to pull a free copy as guaranteed by federal law, once a year and review things. In the past, I have found still open accounts from a college car loan and old credit cards I no longer had. After seeing them on my credit report, I called and had them all closed for good. Then after around ten years or so, they finally disappeared from my credit report.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed. Likely that is the next step. Been a long time since I looked at my credit report.
DeleteI think I have frozen mine a time or two, but now I just take my chances when I'm made aware of a supposed security breach. As a banker, I am probably not setting a very good example, but I simply grow weary of all of it. Because of some youthful indiscretions, I became all too aware of what a credit score is. I don't know if I will ever again need one, as I don't plan to ever have another mortgage or, hopefully, finance a car again. I don't know that it's a scam, but it's certainly a racket.
ReplyDeleteBob - Given that they want to offer me products and try to charge me for upgraded service, like you I think "racket" is a pretty solid definition.
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