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Free Credit Report and Credit Score from American Express and Experian

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American Express is offering card holders a free look at your credit score and report. They’re giving you a free look at your Experian PLUS credit score, which is Experian’s proprietary credit score. Experian no longer makes your FICO score available. A little more detail is available at My Money Blog. You have to enter some information to verify yourself, but it’s very straight forward. I always jump at an opportunity to check out my credit score whenever a free opportunity presents itself.

Credit Profile

amex_credit_score_2The best place to start when evaluating your credit report is the credit profile. According to the credit profile I have 9 satisfactory accounts and 0 past or present delinquent accounts. Additionally, I have 6 credit inquiries, which seems high to me.

My debts summary is pretty straightforward. I have my mortgage, revolving debt and installment debt. My revolving debt is from three different credit cards. My installment debt is from my car loan.

Credit Inquiries

My credit summary stated that I had 6 credit inquiries in the past two years. I thought this number was a bit high, I was right and wrong. A more detailed credit inquiry section shows that I had 6 inquiries in the past two years. One inquiry came when I opened my AMEX card. One inquiry came when I was working with Wells Fargo to refinance my mortgage. The other four inquiries came from my crappy lender at BancGroup. Apparently, they pulled my credit score when I got pre-approval, signed for my condo, closed on my condo and when they tried to get me to refinance through them. Was it really necessary to pull my credit when I was pre-approved and when I signed just two months later? Also, they pulled my credit score when they tried to con me into refinancing through them, even though I never agreed to continue with the process. Not cool.

Account History

I have 9 accounts in my account history, 4 of which are closed. I have two closed student loan accounts. I paid off one student loan before it was given to me because they were going to start charging interest immediately. I paid off the second one 8 months after I graduated, the day before it was going to start accumulating interest. The other two closed accounts are credit card accounts. One account I never used and had a credit limit of only $250. I only opened that account to ensure I had a credit card for traveling to school.

My five open accounts are my mortgage account, auto loan and three credit cards. My AMEX account is not in the account history, which is interesting, although it is a business card. The account history for my bassett card is inaccurate as I paid off the balance a few days ago.

My capital one credit card does not have a listed credit limit. I should investigate this as your credit balance to credit limit ratio is one of the factors in determining your credit score.

Credit Score

My PLUS credit score is 762, which is on a scale of 330 – 830. The following are factors that benefit my credit score:

  • Paid my bills on time
  • Low credit balance to credit limit ratio
  • Have at least 2 or more major credit cards

The only factor that lowered my credit score was the number of inquiries.

Final Thoughts

I always find it interesting to check my credit score and report. It’s important to keep track of your score and all of the information on your report. You need to make sure everything is accurate. Inaccuracies can lead to denied credit requests or higher interest rates. Sometimes you might find something very interesting, like your major credit card doesn’t report a credit limit.

Random Thought

Now that my Bears have a franchise QB for the first time since Sid Luckman, it’s time to find some receivers. As much as I want some good receivers for Cutler to throw to, I don’t want to see Burress in a Bear uniform. He shot his own leg!

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