boltonreddave

Hi,
To all those who ask about building a credit score, here are mine from Credit Karma after a year.

Equifax 733
Transunion 737

I have 2 Credit Cards, an auto lease with IAS and a Mortgage. Although the length of credit history and number of accounts is low, it is building nicely.

I started off with one CC with a $500 limit, increased that to $2000 after 6 months of use (always paid in full, just bought gas) and applied for a second with Amex a few months ago and got a $2000 limit right away.

Small steps everyone but you will get there!

petitefrancaise

Well done!

Just as a note to any spouses out there who may not have their own income....

When you apply you can use the income of anyone who pays all or part of your bills. So, you can put in your spouse's income as your income when applying for cards.

My mortgage broker told me that 4 lines of credit - as Boltonreddave has - is the optimum number.

Jack8602

Same here, building up slowly.

FWIW - Credit Karma's scoring model is BS - virtually no lenders use their 'Vantage Score 3.0'. You'll probably find if you check your FICO score, it may be a bit higher - mine is.

That said, it's a good free way of getting your accounts and balances etc.

petitefrancaise

I get my experian and equifax credit score through credit karma.

Jack8602

As do i, to monitor my accounts - but they way they calculate your score using the Vantage Score 3.0 model isn't necessarily reflective of the major lenders, most of which use FICO algorithms

boltonreddave

FICO is actually a little lower at 719 but I'm still please with that after 12 months

mrken30

There is so much difference between these FAKO/FICO credit scores, I think mine vary between 790 and 840 . That's a huge difference. My wife has not worked for years and has a higher credit score than me.

tom169

When I view my credit karma report it doesn't show my employer.

Does anyone know what can trigger the employer section to be populated? Or if it even matters?

mrken30

Sign up to quizzle and get a full report. However my report still shows my old employer, so maybe it depends on the employer reporting back.

PetrifiedExPat

Credit Karma doesn't list my employer, either.

Additional note, too, is that Credit Karma had both scores listed around 770 (ish), however, when I applied for mortgage pre-approval, two scores were in the 780's, another was 800+ (cant remember the name of the last).

mrken30

This appears to be the answer, it appears to make sense.

Employment is usually only updated when you apply for credit and list an employer and even then it does not update all of the time. Employment has no bearing on your credit scores or profile. It is very common for employment to be missing or inaccurate on many people's reports, so it is typical and won't throw any red flags with most lenders. If you want to update your employment you can contact the three credit bureaus and ask them to make the update, but do not expect them to predate the employment, the date you add it will be the date shown on your reports that it was added. The three credit bureaus are Transunion, Equifax and Experian.

Pulaski

So do I, but my actual credit scored as used in loan applications comes in at 20-40 points more than Credit Karma is telling me. .... So I agree with Jack, the KC numbers are BS.
I am not at all surprised.

mrken30

It seems that some people get higher credit scores than KC when applying for credit. That is not always the case mine tend to be 10-20 points lower. I think KC might just be good for an indicator and credit alerts.

tom169

Thanks for the replies regarding employment.

As is the trend with other posters, Discover FICO currently puts my credit score about 40 more than credit karma.

MidAtlantic

Not BS, just a different scoring system, just as there are many FICO scores, not just one.

I don't say Centigrade is BS just because I think and work in Fahrenheit.