Fico 8 or 9 or any Fico score recommendation.

[Faith527]

Good Morning,
I was reading these forums from my phone last night and there appears to be ad's via my phone (but not my pc) so I thought I would ask here. Where is the best and cheapest place to go to find out your credit score? What service do you use? I don't have a credit card to report my score. FYI: We have pulled our free credit reports via annual credit report.com but they don't provide scores. From my phone, there is an ad "Go Credit.Com" for $1 to get your score. Wondering how others pull their Fico 8 or 9 scores before I sign up for a $30 service.
Kind regards,
Faith

[sophieanne]

I use both credit karma and credit sesame. I have a credit card with capital one which comes with credit monitoring (including score) from CreditWise.

[Faith527]

Thanks sophieanne . I was unsure about credit karma and sesame - thanks for letting me know they are ok to use! I've never heard of creditwise, I will google them. Thanks again.

[justbroke]

I think that both Capital One and Discover offer free FICO credit scores. I think they offer FICO 8 right now and will likely switch to FICO 9 sometime in the future. There are manu different FICO models, but FICO 8 is used by most banks with FICO 9 slowly making inroads. For Mortgages it's three different FICO models (FICO 2, FICO 4, and FICO 5) based on the bureau.

I know, confusing, right?

Most of the free ones, except the two I mentioned, only offer Vantage scores or some other non-traditional scoring model. Depending on why you need to track your score, will tell you on which "free" score you can depend.

Mortgage? Only FICO 2 for Experian, FICO 4 for Transunion, and FICO 5 for Equifax (AKA Equifax 4 / Beacon 5). Mortgage scoring is driven by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the so-called Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) which set the standards for conventional mortgages.

Car loans? It depends. Some lenders use a specialized scoring model known as the FICO Auto Score and there are different versions. Other lenders may use the "mortgage" scores, while others use the FICO du jour which is FICO 8 today and FICO 9 tomorrow!

Are you confused yet? I am!

[Faith527]

I think that both Capital One and Discover offer free FICO credit scores. I think they offer FICO 8 right now and will likely switch to FICO 9 sometime in the future. There are manu different FICO models, but FICO 8 is used by most banks with FICO 9 slowly making inroads. For Mortgages it's three different FICO models (FICO 2, FICO 4, and FICO 5) based on the bureau.

I know, confusing, right?

Most of the free ones, except the two I mentioned, only offer Vantage scores or some other non-traditional scoring model. Depending on why you need to track your score, will tell you on which "free" score you can depend.

Mortgage? Only FICO 2 for Experian, FICO 4 for Transunion, and FICO 5 for Equifax (AKA Equifax 4 / Beacon 5). Mortgage scoring is driven by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac the so-called Government Sponsored Entities (GSEs) which set the standards for conventional mortgages.

Car loans? It depends. Some lenders use a specialized scoring model known as the FICO Auto Score and there are different versions. Other lenders may use the "mortgage" scores, while others use the FICO du jour which is FICO 8 today and FICO 9 tomorrow!

Are you confused yet? I am!

OMG, am I even more confused lol! I just looked up mine at Sesame and Karma and it is 725 (which is probably wrong I am sure!). I know I was down at 580 pre BK but I cannot be at 725, we haven't closed yet. And, all the credit cards were in my name except for 2. The 2 that were in my husband's name are gone from his credit report - 1 card was closed before we filed and sold to a collection agency (and included in BK but it was written off before we filed). The second card was included in BK so he has always been an authorized user of my cards. I thought his score would be higher but he's at 581. I was certain he would be the high # and I would be the lower #. I think I will just get a secured card as you and our lawyer suggested and wait another 6 months or so before applying for a non-secured card. Too crazy! I never understood the Fico scoring system anyway. My brain hurts. Thanks for all of your help - appreciated. This is a good thread so I will bookmark it. Cap1 and Discover (and Amex) were included in our BK - I don't think they'll give us another card anytime soon anyway.

[justbroke]

By free, I meant that they offer them free to anyone; you do not need to be a cardholder. Capital One usually doesn't care about being burned in bankruptcy, but American Express never forgets!

Best wishes.

[sophieanne]

As I mentioned earlier, Capital one offers CreditWise to their customers...I don't know if it's available to everyone...but only one way to know

[Faith527]

Just an fyi, my credit has gone down since I posted this - not sure why.

I plan to get a secured card once our bank is open again - day 100 here in NYS since the first Covid-19 patient was diagnosed and over 30K dead.

Just grateful to be healthy. All else will come around when the time is right.
Thanks for all of your help getting through those dark months.

For anyone reading - don't wait like we did - 4 years of limping along making min. payments and getting no where. Utilize bankruptcy avenues available to the Regular Joe!