So my wife and I are looking at buying a new car right now, and ran into a very frustrating and confusing aspect of credit reports which I am hoping someone here can explain.


When we applied for our loan at our local credit union they pulled our credit report and we found that there was an innacuracy. We were able to have it quickly taken care of and now we have a clean report. The annoying part started when I called the credit union back and told them that our report had been fixed. She told me that unfortunately this would not help us because pulling our report twice in such a short amount of time would bring down our credit rating again.

What I want to know is why the amount of times my credit has been pulled should be any indication of what kind of credit risk I am? I sort of understand the idea that people who have their report pulled often are probably applying for a lot of credit, but it could just as easily mean I am a careful shopper who wants to get the best interest rate as possible by having lenders compete with each other.

Can anyone explain this in any way so that it will make sense to me?

I don't know the actual answer, but a clean report is going to increase your "credit score", no matter what. Apparently, having your credit checked often drops your credit score (I wouldn't count on that actually.) I do think it takes quite awhile for the cleansing to actually affect your credit score though. What you can do is get a free report off the Internet (everybody gets one a year; that includes you and your wife, so you can space them out) and check it. Usually they want to charge you money to get your credit score unless you sign up for some "free" trial membership which you have to remember to cancel in 90 days.

This is a lot of hot air which probably won't help, but can't you get credit from the dealer or some other place? At least, after you double check your report? I once had a mistake and it took about a year for it to be expunged from everything, but even then, it had no effect on me buying anything or getting credit.

quote:

This is a lot of hot air which probably won't help, but can't you get credit from the dealer or some other place? At least, after you double check your report? I once had a mistake and it took about a year for it to be expunged from everything, but even then, it had no effect on me buying anything or getting credit.

It won't be a problem to get credit from the CU, it will just be a matter of the interest rate being slightly higher. The problem with going someplace else now is that they will have to pull my credit also, which will hurt my rating. Essentially I'm stuck taking a less than optimal interest rate no matter what I do. I'm getting more convinced that this rule was put in place to keep people from shopping for the best interest rate. If not, then it certainly has that effect at least.

Sorry, this is no help, but maybe you should take Randy Moss's advice.



Exchange between Moss and a Minnestota reporter on the subject of his $10,000 fine by the NFL:

Reporter: "Write the check yet, Randy?"

Moss: "When you're rich, you don't write checks."

Reporter: "If you don't write checks, how do you pay these guys?"

Moss: "Straight cash, homey."

Reporter: "Randy, are you upset about the fine?"

Moss: "No, cause it ain't s---. Ain't nothing but 10 grand. What's 10 grand to me?"



Straight cash homey, straight cash.

Capitalism at its finest.