Elisabeth Leamy Answers Your Questions

Nov. 16, 2009 — -- This week, as I often do, I am answering questions from readers. Correction: I am answering questions and comments from readers. A month ago I started writing about ways to SAVE BIG, the title and topic of my upcoming book. The premise is that there are lots of ways to save more than $1,000 in less than a year by focusing on our top 5 costs instead of on what I call "Small Stuff Savings' -- like giving up your daily latte. I'm happy to say that my first few columns have generated an interesting dialogue. So below, I answer the comments -- and also criticisms -- you've posted or e-mailed me. Hey, I can take it! I was a rhetoric major in college -- the art of argument. I think vigorous debate is a pathway to good decisions and great ideas.
~EL

Question: I would like to get my credit score without having to pay for it since I'm a senior. Can you tell me how to obtain my score? Thank you.
~BB, San Pablo, CA

Answer: BB is probably thinking of credit reports, which are now available for free. You can get one freebie from each of the big three credit bureaus each year, by going to www.annualcreditreport.com. There are ways to get free credit scores, but I don't recommend trying it unless you want to subject yourself to a blizzard of sales pitches. Fortunately, ordering your credit score is not expensive. It costs $16. Get it directly from Fair Isaac, inventor of the credit score by clicking here.

Comment:People, you can work for years to build your credit score, it goes up very slowly. But miss a payment and it will drop like a rock. So she could have saved a lot of time by just making the headline say "Pay your bills on time."
~rh2199

Answer: This comment came in response to my article on the "Don'ts" of having a good credit score. Rh2199 didn't bother to read the previous week's article on the "Do's" of credit scoring. In that article, "Pay on Time" was one of the top tips. So rh2199 is right -- just not very thorough!

Question: "You said in "Don'ts of credit score" that one's FICO score will be affected even if the person has a small balance like $25 on an account and it was not paid and went into collection. Well, I just read in Consumer Reports Web site a few weeks ago that FICO2009 does not take into consideration any balance smaller than $100. Who is right? You or the Consumer Reports Web site?"

~PH, Two Rivers, WI~mchrisman63

Comment: I agree. Everyone should pay cash and let this "credit score" BS go. If you have cash to pay for everything, why do we want to be slaves to the credit card companies. If everyone would close their accounts, they might be crying the blues for our business one day, and my reply will be "stick it." Pay cash and let 'em go will make for a much happier population. I have canceled all mine with a balance and could care less about my "credit score" and if I cannot pay cash, house car whatever, then I simply cannot afford it. It is all a game and consumers have no control, except to pay cash and be on our own. This puts us in the driver's seat. PAY CASH OR YOU CAN'T AFFORD IT!
~russianbluemom

Comment: "This "pay cash for everything advice" does NOTHING for a person's credit score because cash payers do not get any brownie points with credit bureaus. People with NO DEBT, who pay cash for everything, are certainly "debt-free", but that doesn't mean that the credit bureaus hand them great credit scores."
~maicde

Answer: My two columns on how to raise your credit score generated a lively thread in which people were debating whether to even use credit cards. As I said in my original columns, there are two ways to save on credit: by using less of it or getting it for less. Having a high credit score is how you get credit for less. Canceling your cards is a way to use less credit. The third commenter was right that canceling your cards will not help your credit score. A good credit score depends on having credit and using it responsibly. If you were a multimillionaire and paid cash for everything, you would have a poor credit score because there is no record of how you handle credit. That record is the key to future credit offers. We could all live without credit cards, but most of us cannot manage to buy a home without a mortgage. When it comes time to apply for a mortgage, the biggest loan of your lifetime, you will want to have a good credit score. (I'm aware that my consumer colleague Dave Ramsey counsels people to pay cash for a home, and if you can pull that off, fantastic. Many people can't -- or won't.)~BackHomeCO

Answer: Lenders look at credit score ranges, not each point in a score. To get the best mortgage rate, you need a score over 720 these days. (The cutoff was 680 in the bubble days.) Having an even higher score of 800 doesn't get you anything extra. But trust me, BackHomeCO would notice the difference with a score below 720. People in that range pay substantially higher interest rates. These days, if your score is below 620, you probably can't even get a mortgage. On a related note, I just learned this past week that most credit card companies are now requiring a higher score before they will even issue you a credit card. Equifax tells me that most cards are going to people with scores of 760 and above.

Comment: Who can afford to "just let the cards go dormant" when banks are starting to charge annual fees? You'll really be paying something for nothing! I just canceled my Bank of America card for that reason, even though I never carry a balance.~plet39

Comment: Most of this information is very good, very timely, and very necessary to save some money, but I do have to disagree with one point: Transferring balances between accounts can be a very costly tip. Most banks charge a transaction fee for making the transaction, and then charge a cash rate, a much higher rate than for that of purchases. If you're going to use this trick, it would be advisable to find one of your lower balance cards and make sure it has a balance transfer offer. Many offer 0% on balance transfers, usually for a very limited amount of time, like 6 months or 12 months. This can be very helpful when attempting to pay down balances on accounts with higher rates. Thanks for the good information!
~thomasaab

Answer: Thank you for these two well considered comments. These writers make great points. The first comment was in response to my suggestion that canceling credit cards can hurt your credit score, so it's better to let them go dormant by cutting them up and not using them. The second was about the tactic of moving money around among your credit cards so that no card is too near the limit. Regarding transfers, the idea is to do this just once, but, yes, you should be careful. Regarding dormancy, of course, you will want to consider what to do with each account on a case-by-case basis. ~anonne

Answer: I understand "anonne's" frustration, but -- come on now -- do your homework! I have been covering the issue of credit card companies lowering limits and how that affects people's credit score for months now. To see one of those stories click here.http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=6993495&page=1

Comment: Good credit score equals slavery and bondage. The credit card companies just upped their rates on people who have been great customers for years and years. Mine went from 8 to 16 percent. they're trying to beat the new regulations -- thanks guys. Every time the government tries to help me -- I pay for it.~putneyvermont

Answer: I continue to cover the issue of higher rates and lower limits, including a story on ABC News' "World News" just last week. As part of that story, I posted helpful hints for fighting back, including how to find a credit union you are eligible for. Click here.

Find more consumer news from Elisabeth Leamy here.