A few months ago the bank had to run a credit check on me. My score was 718 now i was looking at buying a home so i applied for pre approval through my bank and my score came back as 682. I grew concerned and signed up for freecreditreport dot com and my scores on there came back as 721 721 708. Whats going on i miss no payments and have not taken out any new loans or anything since my last check so why would they say its dropped almost 40 points when it hasnt. Is it possible my bank is just trying to give me a higher interest rate.
anywhoo2011-04-20T00:49:14Z
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The scores from freecreditreport.com are considered fako scores, they are not true FICO's. Fako scores can, and usually do, vary widely from true scores. If you want to spend money on scores then go to myFico and get the real ones. (edited to add.. you can usually find promo discounts for Fico, just do a Google search for the Fico promo codes)
Have you ordered all of your credit reports and looked at them, if not you should (a person should 'always' check their reports before considering a major purchase). Check to see if anything is on there that shouldn't be reporting on your report, and, that what is reporting is reporting correctly. If you'd ever had bad credit then mortgage shopping is a magnet to collectors. If you have any bad debts in the hands of collectors they would be quick to add the negatives back on your reports, if they are still within the reporting period.
Check the balances on your credit cards to see if you're over utilizing them. Ideally when mortgage shopping the majority of your credit card accounts should be at a zero balance and on any that are reporting should be below 10% utilization, the closer to 1% utilization you are on them the better. Over utilizing your accounts can drive your scores down.
You had the bank run a credit check on you a few months back and that could ding your credit anywhere from a couple points on up to possibly 15 points, depending on how thick or thin your credit file is. You should never apply for credit within 6 months of applying for a mortgage. If you weren't applying for anything but rather just had them check your score then you got dinged for having them do that, when you should have just gone to myFico and bought your scores.
If you were aware of what was reporting on your reports when you had that credit check run a few months ago and nothing had changed except for that one inquiry, then I would be suspicious of that bank.
Anyway, those are a few things to check out before you start pointing fingers at the bank. If something had landed on your reports that is not yours, was a negative, etc., and, if your balances are higher then they were a few months ago, then it's something that you would need to work on and not the bank trying to gouge you. If you have your credit reports from around the time that they had run that credit check on you, and order your reports now after the pre approval and nothing had negatively changed on them, then you might consider filing a complaint with the Offices of the Comptroller of Currency about it .. as long as you can prove what you are complaining about.
Just call Trans Union toll free @ 1-877-322-8228 for all 3 free reports. I believe there is a fee of $16.99 for the true credit scores.I never requested to see what my credit score is because it would give me something else to worry about.