I’ve written several posts on credit scores, credit reports, and how to minimize your spending on them. While there are times when you might just have to plunk down your hard-earned money on a credit score, most of them time you can avoid it.
Here’s a flowchart that I just whipped up that will help guide you to what you need. No matter what, you’ll pay less than retail. Anything blue is a click-able link to more guidance and information.
The retail price for a FICO credit score from just one credit bureau is now $19.95. That’s a hefty chunk of change, given that there are three credit bureaus and thus three credit scores – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Before paying anything, you check out these ways to get a FREE credit score from all 3 bureaus. No trials required!
If you must have a score from myFICO.com, then here are some coupon codes that’ll save you some bucks. You enter the promo code relatively late in the buying process, right before entering your credit card information. Here’s what it would look like if you got a 25% off coupon code:
Currently Active myFICO.com Coupon Codes
none
Expired myFICO.com Coupon Codes
CPPSAVINGS
TWEET25
SW94608
FICO25
FICOHELP25
MYPOINTS30
DECEMBER26
26UNTIL2010
SURVEY30
NOVEMBER26
FINANCIALHELP25
Note: Experian no longer allows Fair Isaac to sell FICO scores to consumers at all. You can get a free Experian-based credit score from Credit Sesame.
Here’s a quick note for those considering applying for a Discover credit card, which came up after a few folks got rejected from the Discover More Card offering 0% interest on balance transfers for 12 months with no balance transfer fee. The limited time offer is scheduled to last until February 28, 2011.
On the upper right hand of the application, there is some light grey print that you might overlook that says “Offer Valid For New Cardmembers only”. However, it wasn’t really clear what this meant. You can’t have a current Discover More card? any current Discover card? any Discover card ever?
It turns out that there is a new Discover policy that anyone can only have one open Discover Card of any type at a time. As long as you don’t have an open Discover card currently, you can apply for a new card.
Below is the text from my Live Chat sessions with Discover. Basically, if you want this no balance transfer fee promotion and you already have a Discover card, you must cancel that card first, and then come back and apply for this new card. You can’t switch cards and still get this promotion.
Patricia: I appreciate your interest in the Discover Card. What questions can I answer regarding your application today?
Jonathan: Hello, I am interested in applying for this Discover More card. I don’t have a Discover More card, but I do have an old Discover Miles card. I am able to be approved for this card?
Patricia: I am sorry but we do have a one account policy at this time so we cannot open an additional account. Would you like us to switch the card type you have with us?
Jonathan: That would be okay, as I don’t use my Discover Miles card anymore. Would I still be able to get the 0% for 12 months with no balance transfer fee?
Patricia: Thank you for your business! This chat is to assist with applying for a Discover Card and we do not have access to any Account information. I will transfer you to our Customer Service chat for assistance with your Account. They will access that account and see what is available on it for transfer for you.
[Result: No, the offers in my account were much worse with higher fees.]
Patricia: I appreciate your interest in the Discover Card. What questions can I answer regarding your application today?
Jonathan: hello… if I recently closed a Discover card but currently do not have one, can I still apply for this new More card iwth 0% for 12 months? Do I still count as a new cardmember?
Patricia: You can apply for this card if that other account is closed.
Jonathan: So basically a person is just allowed to have one open Discover card, of any type, at a time now?
Patricia: Correct
Jonathan: Great, thank you for your help. That’s all for me today.
When you charge something on your credit card, the merchant usually pays about 2-3% in transaction fees for the convenience and benefit of accepting these cards. To get your business, issuers often rebate part of these fees in the form of % cashback rewards or frequent flier miles. Credit cards also offer handy conveniences like easily tracking spending, fraud charge-back protection, and extended warranties, but who doesn’t like cash? Extreme users treat them like Swiss army knives to maximize rewards. New customers also get incentives of up to $100.
Here’s an update for the offers during the first quarter of 2012. There is a slight lean towards a New Year’s resolution theme, but I like the inclusion of everyday spending like grocery stores, drugstores, and restaurants. You can often also see the rewards for the rest of the year on the applications.
Chase Freedom Visa – $100 Bonus Cash Back
Reward categories change quarterly. From January 1 to March 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent in the following categories:
From October 1 to December 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $1,000 spent in the following categories:
You must enroll at ChaseBonus.com. All other purchases do earn a standard 1%, with no tiers or expiration of rewards. Currently, the Chase Freedom Visa card has a promotion offering a $100 check if you sign up and make $500 in purchases in your first three months.
Citi® Dividend Platinum Select® Visa® Card
Reward categories change quarterly. From October 1st to December 31st, you can earn 5% cash back on
After you get your card, you must enroll by logging into your account or calling 1-800-231-0891. There is no cap on the 5% back, except for the $300 overall cap on all dividend rewards annually. All other purchases do earn a standard 1% with no tiers, and rewards do not expire as long as you have activity once every 12 months. Also, 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months with 3% fee and on purchases for 12 months.
Discover More Card
Reward categories change quarterly. From January 1 to March 31, you can earn 5% cash back on up to $800 spent in the following categories:
You must enroll online to activate the rewards each quarter. Discover card has a tiered cashback rate (1% unlimited Cashback Bonus on purchases after your total annual purchases exceed $3000; purchases that are part of your first $3000 earn .25%.).
PenFed Platinum Cashback Rewards Card
Bonus categories appear and change regularly for this card, but not on a set schedule. Currently I don’t see anything available. However, the best feature remains – the year-round rewards structure of 5% cash back on gas purchases (must pay at pump), 2% cash back on supermarket purchases, and 1% cash back on everything else. Rewards are credited monthly on your next statement.
Note: To get this card, you must also have membership to the Pentagon Federal Credit Union (you can apply for both at the same time). In general, membership is open to the military, US government employees, or the family or household of existing members. However, anyone can become eligible by joining the National Military Family Association (NMFA) for a $20 one-time fee.
It’s 2011, so why not a status check on your credit scores? In a previous post, I explained the relationships between credit reports vs. FICO credit scores vs. FAKO credit scores. Give it read if you haven’t already. You can obtain a free copy of your credit report from all three major credit bureaus once every 12 months from AnnualCreditReport.com, as mandated by the government.
As for credit scores, chances are you’ll have to pay up for a FICO Score. But even though I feel that such FAKO scores are only good as a credit score estimate, I’ll still take it if it’s free. Remember, there are three different credit reports out there for you, so there are also three FAKO credit scores you should track. It happens that there are websites that will either provide a free FAKO or a credit score range for all three credit bureaus with no credit card required. Pulling your own credit score doesn’t hurt your score either.
CreditKarma.com is an ad-supported site that offers you a free FAKO as often as you like, called a Transrisk score, based on your Transunion credit report. The score range is the same as FICO, from 300-850. Brave souls!
You don’t get your credit report details, but you do get a few tips on what recent changes to your credit report have impacted your score. CreditKarma recently added two new free scores as well – the VantageScore and Auto Insurance Risk Score, both based on your TransUnion data. VantageScore is basically a challenge to FICO and has a completely different scoring range system, and the other one is used by auto insurers to “assess your riskiness and to assist in pricing your premiums”.
The Equifax Credit Score Card comes directly from Equifax and provides a free credit score range of Low (280-559), Below Average (560-659), Average (660-724), Above Average (725-759), and High (760-850). It’s called the Equifax Risk Score. FICO has a range of 300-850, and this range is 280-850 so you don’t really have to do any scaling.
It doesn’t provide any specific data from your Equifax credit report, but it does include a short summary of any negative factors that you may have on your report.
Quizzle.com is a site owned by Quicken Loans that offers you a free FAKO score every six months, called a “CE Credit Score”, based on your Experian credit report. FICO has a range of 300-850, and this range is 350-850 so you don’t really have to do any scaling. They just seem to alter it just enough so FICO doesn’t sue them.
The site also provides access to the details of your Experian credit report, so this can be handy if you’ve already used up your freebie from government-mandated AnnualCreditReport.com.
One annoying part of the site is that they ask “required” questions about your home and mortgage that seem to imply that the answers are needed to access your credit score, but in fact are not. They just want the data to better target you for things like home equity loans or refinances (remember who runs the site).
Just for good measure, I filled out the FICO Score Estimator and got the following result:
If you really want your official FICO score, you can still get it with a free trial and immediately cancel with minimal hassle. Here are step-by-step instructions. The FICO is based on your Equifax report.
Note: Unless you’re going directly with a credit bureau (which already has your sensitive data), you’re going to have to give your personal information including Social Security Number to a third-party website. I am not a online security expert, so you’ll have to do your own due diligence as to whether you want to proceed. I have agreed to be the test monkey and have used all these sites, and am showing you real screenshots of my results above.
This year, I’m trying to make my posts more modular so I can interlink them more easily. I’ve mentioned several of these bits and pieces about credit reports and credit scores before, but I wanted to put it all together at least once. Here goes:
[Read more…]
You can also get 100 free Continental Airlines miles by reading about how you can earn miles with a Continental Airlines-branded credit or debit card, and entering your OnePass number by Feb 28, 2011.
Registration is required. Bonus miles will be deposited into the primary Cardmember’s OnePass® account within 4-6 weeks after the end of the promotion. Offer valid for existing Continental Airlines/Chase Credit and Debit Cardmembers.
One card they are promoting is the Continental Airlines OnePass Plus Card, which has improved their sign-up incentive to include a $50 statement credit, 30,000 free miles, and a pretty nice mix of perks for travelers including free checked bags for you and companions.
It’s actually a good time to apply for this card because Continental and United are merging in 2011, and the resulting airline will be called United. Since these Chase-affiliated cards usually only allow one sign-up bonus per lifetime, you might as well apply for the Continental now because it won’t be around anymore after a few more months.
The Slate from Chase has improved from just being a credit card with a not-really-clever “vertical” design to one that is now offering a competitive 0% introductory APR for both balance transfers and purchases for 15 months to those with good to excellent credit. $0 annual fee.
The fine print does show a balance transfer fee of 3% with a $5 minimum, which is I’m afraid the norm these days, but you should also consider one of the cards below first to see if they fit better.
Finally, the longest 0% balance transfer offer out there is the Citi Platinum Select MasterCard with 0% APR interest for 18 months on balance transfers. There is no annual fee and the balance transfer fee is 3% ($5 minimum). The card also includes 0% APR for 18 months on purchases.
Don’t use this as an excuse to fund any crazy holiday shopping sprees, but instead as an accelerant to pay down any balances or carefully-planned large purchases at a lower overall net interest rate. It’s really hard to find any offers with no transfer fees now, but a loan at 0% interest + a fixed fee spread out over 1.5-2 years can be much better than the current average credit card APR of 14.39%. Unfortunately, there are no longer any no fee 0% APR balance transfer offers to arbitrage easy money with.
The American Express Small Business Saturday promotion that was initially for Saturday, 11/27 has been extended all the way to the end of the year, 12/31/2010. Sign up at their special Facebook page if you haven’t already. Basically, enroll on their site, and spend $25 or more at any local small business that accept American Express and you’ll get a $25 credit back on your statement. Registration is now open to the first 300,000.
To be eligible for this offer, you must register your eligible American Express Card between November 8, 2010 and December 31, 2010. You may only register one Card for this offer. Using your registered American Express Card, you must spend $25 or more at one or more participating small business merchants between 11/27/2010 and 12/31/2010 to receive the $25 statement credit.
Eligible merchants include any independently owned small businesses that accept the American Express Card. Purchases made online, at large, national chains, at franchised business locations and at government agencies are not eligible.
I know a lot of folks have some version of the Chase Freedom Visa or Mastercard, whether from farther back or recently for their $100 cash promo offer or their rotating 5% rewards.
Just got a note that they are offering 8% cashback on select stores from 11/26 to 11/30. The Apple store usually only discounts prices on Black Friday, so in combination this could be a good deal if you were planning a Mac purchase anyway. Some other big names on their list as well. (Insert warning about not spending too much during holidays here.)
We are excited to announce a special, limited-time promotion for existing Chase Freedom cardholders!
For 5 days only, Chase Freedom cardholders can earn 8% bonus cash back for every dollar spent when shopping at the following select merchants: Apple Online Store, Gap, Toys “R” Us, Barnes & Noble, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sears and Macy’s. This promotion is valid from November 26th through November 30th.
The following is a guest post from reader Daniel Gershburg, Esq., who writes about the inner workings of debt settlement agencies. Daniel is a bankruptcy attorney in New York and New Jersey.
Over the past several years, our economy has gone into the tank. Rampant unemployment, underemployment, in fact a near collapse of the financial system have completely reshaped our financial lives. Millions of Americans are in credit card debt over their heads and can’t afford to pay even the minimums. And the creditors have, in many cases, several cut credit lines and hiked our interest rates. In a situation like this, a debtor basically has three options.
The first option is to file for Bankruptcy. While I think it’s the soundest option, both with regards to ones credit and future financial well being, I’m also a Bankruptcy attorney, so of course I feel that way.
The second option is to try and settle with credit card companies and bring down your interest and pay off your debt….good luck with that. They’re about as interested in settling with you now as you are in buying an investment property in Las Vegas.
The third option, and the option I’d like to discuss in depth here, is employing a Debt Settlement company to try and settle the debt for you. This not only, in my opinion, is the worst option of the lot, but based on what these companies claim, may border on fraud. Literally, fraud. Here’s why:
Turn on the radio or the TV and you’ll hear absolute nonsense about how debt settlement companies can reduce the amount you pay to your creditors by up to 80%. One, called the Obama Credit Card Relief Program (I’m serious) promises to Cut Up To 70% Off Credit Card Debts under “Bailout Relief”. Again, absurd. The claims that many of them make aren’t even mathematically feasible based on most people’s budgets.
Many of these companies also make claims that they are Not for Profit companies. You hear that and you think of people planting trees, feeding the homeless in soup kitchens, and you begin to almost subconsciously trust these companies. The IRS did a little research into these feel good claims. Here’s what they found:
Over the past two years, the IRS has been auditing 63 credit counseling agencies, representing more than half of the revenue in the industry. To date, the audits of 41 organizations, representing more than 40 percent of the revenue in the industry, have been completed. All of the completed audits have resulted in revocation, proposed revocation or other termination of tax-exempt status. [Source: IRS.gov]
There are plenty of “FAKE-O” credit scores out there, but the only place to get your real FICO score is myFICO.com. Problem is, usually these cost money and even if they are free due to some promotion, it’s during some random time of the year. If you want a free FICO Score on demand, you’ll have to agree to a free 10-day trial at MyFICO.com:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: When you order your free FICO Score here, you will begin your 10-day trial membership in Score Watch®. If you don’t cancel your membership within the 10-day trial period, you will be billed $12.95 for each month that you continue your membership. You may cancel your trial membership anytime within the trial period without charge.
Pain in the rear, right? Well, not really. Two things make this a 5-minute operation:
Here’s how I did last week. First, when you go through the process to buy your free score with trial, you will have to provide your credit card information but nothing should be charged.
After that, you should receive your credit score and the related Equifax credit report. Print it out. You’re going to cancel right afterward so you won’t have access to the information anymore. Print – or at least print/save to PDF – anything you want to keep. This was the first time I’ve ever seen a score above 800!
Now, don’t go anywhere. To cancel, click on Support on the top right of the page, then Contact Us by email. Choose “I would like to cancel my product subscription” and for the product mark “Score Watch® – Free Trial”. Here is a screenshot of what it should look like. Finally, type in your personal information and submit. There is a blank for the order number, but it is not required. I didn’t bother to fill in anything optional, and my cancellation still worked fine.
myFICO should e-mail you back in about 24 hours. It took 25 hours for me. Here is the response you should get. The title of the e-mail was “Score Watch(R) Cancellation”:
Your order for Score Watch® (monthly payment option) has been cancelled. You will not be charged in the future for this product.
If you have any questions, please call myFICO Customer Support at 1-800-319-4433, Monday – Friday 6:00 AM – 6:00PM (Pacific Time) or Saturday 7:00AM – 4:00PM (Pacific Time).
Thank you,
myFICO Customer Support
That’s it, a free credit report and score with minimal hassle direct from MyFICO.com. Remember, when you request your own report, it doesn’t affect your credit score at all.
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