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My son, almost 21, applied through our local bank for his first card to establish credit. Given that he made $18k last year, pays no rent, lives at home, And has $12k in the bank, wasn’t super surprised that he was approved. I was SHOCKED that they gave him a $3k limit! He said “I’ll never need that!” Well, I’ve raised this kid to be smart & frugal with money, so let’s hope not, but ya’ never know.
Your son has $12K in the bank? He doesn’t need a credit card. Dave Ramsey all the way! Look him up, you won’t regret it!
Sounds like he is on the right track!
Just know the credit score you get from these 3 parties is different from what banks actually get. Some can be very close but other way off.
Same with credit karma, they were off by 100 pts. And when trying to invest in a large purchase- those 100pts make all the difference.
It’s not so much that banks use a different source for your info or that anyone can be “off” per say – everyone gets your info from the same sources which should have the same info on your credit report. The discrepancy is because there is no universal standardized way of calculating the actual score. For example maybe Credit Karma weights “on time payments” to be 10% of your credit score. Your bank meanwhile may use a completely different formula for calculating a score (though again using the same info) and weight “on time payments” to be 40% of your score. This can result in a substantially different score between the two places. A different bank may weight that item at 20%, so your score in their eyes could be different yet. Some methods of calculating the score will result in higher scores than others depending on the weak and strong points of your credit report, but no score is ever really right or wrong despite being different.
Thanks for the explanation David. 🌺
Capital one or Discover IT (Transunion) also provide credit score to non customer.
You are allowed to get one free copy of your credit report every year from the big reporters – experian, transunion and equifax
I believe it’s one free report from each one. So 3 free per year.
If you get the free credit report from the big three, I have read you should stagger it. Get 1 every 4 months from 1 of them and pull another 4 months later from the other, etc. This way you are checking more frequently and can spot a problem before and entire year has passed.
Great Idea Leah! Thanks.
Does it effect your credit score when using these sources?
Credit Karma it does NOT affect your score. In fact, they encourage you to check it monthly. I don’t know about Credit Sesame.