Credit Report

I just checked my credit score at Experian.... 770.

So, that's cool. I'd like to get over 800 just for kicks, but I'm not going to worry about it. Because I was checking my score, I also took the time to buzz through my account records, as displayed on the credit report. I've been working hard to get out of debt, and in the process I took a lot of 0% credit card offers so as to eliminate my formerly horrendous interest payments (looks like I got out of debt just in time, as most of those wonderful offers for "1 year, 0% APR w/ no balance transfer fees" seem to have dried up).

I was SHOCKED at how much credit I had available.

I thought I had somewhere around $20-30K in credit (I know I should have had a better grasp of that number, but I just kept a loose tally in my head). It turns out I have $51,300 in available credit.

I'm not worried about having all that credit floating around; I'm not going to spend it. I was actually going through the records to figure out which cards I should eliminate, however--partly why I'm posting right now--but another thing that came up that complicated this: phantom cards.

I've posted some information below to give you an idea of what I'm dealing with. I've made the information ambiguous enough that I'm comfortable sharing it, and I changed some of the information that is there, in order to further obscure the facts.

So, here's my credit cards, with their "available credit" and the "open date".


CARD....LIMIT.........DATE OPENED
1.......2,000.00......2006
2.......7,500.00......2008
3.......12,500.00.....2008
4.......6,500.00......2002
5.......Non Active....1999
6.......10,500.00.....2007
7.......6,500.00......2006
8.......2,500.00......2008
9.......Not Active.....2004
10......3,000.00......2005

Two of my oldest accounts are those "phantom" cards, opened when I was really bad with my credit. Those are Cards 5 and 9. I checked with both banks and both gave me the same answer: these accounts aren't "active", meaning they can't find them. Each bank gave me the address for their credit score dispute department. For a while, I thought of just ignoring the error and leaving them on my report, because I figured their long history would serve to my score's advantage. Two things stopped me: 1.) it's irresponsible to have accounts just floating out there and 2.) I don't think it's helping my score.

I say this because the part of your credit score that takes your credit cards into account uses these variables: length of time your cards have been open, percentage of available credit on your individual card, total credit available. It might also take the actual number of cards into account, I'm not certain. I don't know this equation, and I can't find it on the net. Anyway, my point is this: I don't think a card with a "0" in the "available credit" column can help my credit score. It could actually drag it down (but again, I don't know).

If anyone's listening, I'd love a little advice.

1.) For my "phantom" cards, I'm thinking of writing the companies to see if I can revive these accounts. If they'll put some actual credit in them, so much the better. If not, I'll have them axed.

2.) Does anyone know of a calculator that would allow me to view credit score scenarios relating to which cards I should keep and which cards I should eliminate? Does anyone have a rough formula that allows you to figure this out? Does anyone have a professional "guestimate" or a gut call they would like to make?

The only cards I need/want to keep are:

#2, because I'm carrying school loans at 0% until my company reimburses me.
#8, because I get cashback for buying gas with it (I have a reoccurring payment going to it)
#10, because it's attached to my checking account

Any thoughts? Either way, it's been good to frame the issue for myself!

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Bank Of America Ethics?

I've been waiting for a LONG time to get a bill from Bank of America, and I finally called them to ask when my first bill was due. It turns out it's due on September 16th.

Here's the basic gist of my conversation with the customer service rep, who was very nice, and very understanding, and very limited as to what she was able to say, obviously.

Me: Excuse me? The 16th? But where is my bill?

CS: We processed that yesterday, it should be in the mail today.

Me: But...

CS: We suggest you mail the bill 10 business days before it's due.

Me: But... if you guys figure it takes 5 business days for the bill to show up, that means it lands in my mailbox on Monday. If I'm supposed to take into account the 10 business days, I would have to mail it out that day. In fact, [pulls up a calendar] that won't even work! I would have to mail it out the day before I get the bill for it to make it to you on time.

CS: I would be happy to give you the mailing address and minimum payment over the phone.

Me: But...

I'm sure it's just on the edge of legal, but it grates on my nerves. Here's what is running through the heads of the penny pushers at Bank of America:
1.) Give the payee as little time as possible to get their bill in, so they get more money from late fees and increased interest rates.
2.) Make the bill due right after the 15th, because that's when people get paid. If they do this, they get a lot of people who wait until the very last minute, and then have to pay by phone, which I assume costs $15-$20 a transaction.

Again, I'm not going to be a victim anymore! I acted proactively and called the company, I got the payment details and sent out a check (via Bill Pay). However, I'm not impressed with Bank of America's number crunching. It smells nefarious.

Anyway!

No news today concerning the mass firing (I blogged yesterday about how my company has announced a "head count reduction," you can read about it here). I'm sure we'll get information by the end of the week. People are keeping pretty cool about it, right now. There's a new kid who sits across from me who's worried, however. I talked to him for a while and tried to assure him he probably wouldn't land on any list. He works hard, he's young, and he does crucial work. He's being groomed to be the new model for writers in our area--I actually spend a good deal of time with my management discussing what we can do to build his skills, and he rises to every challenge we give him.

So, no news is good news? We'll see!

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Locking In The Budget

I have budget problems. You know this. I know this. I am a budget misfit. I don’t think I’m unusual, and I’m trying to get better—that’s why I have this blog.

I’ve analyzed my spending habits, and I’ve talked to a few other budget misfits, as well as read some good advice from the experts. After a lot of introspection, and a lot of examination of my spending habits, I’ve discovered where my financial problems lie. I now know what gets me in Credit Card Trouble!

It seems to be bacon and eggs.

Not just that, of course. It’s also flour and sugar, underwear and socks, gasoline and oil changes. All the necessities in my life get charged at the end of a month. Here’s the thing: I can’t fault myself for putting $100 worth of groceries on my Visa. Sure, I feel a little bad for buying the iPod earlier in the month, but that’s in the past. And besides, I paid CASH for that.

But I need my bacon and eggs, and underwear and socks. I don’t think I’m unusual. I know a few people who got themselves in trouble by coming up short, month after month, and while they’re quiet willing to slip by on the bare necessities (after they’ve splurged for a few weeks, beforehand) they have to eat. So out comes the credit card, and the macaroni and cheese gets charged. And, well, as long as we’re charging, we may as well stop over at a restaurant.

This is my problem. What’s my solution?

I’m going on a spending spree!

A careful spending spree, every month. I already mentioned in this post that I budget for gas by buying pre-paid cards (which also gives me a nice rebate on the gas). I’m expanding. I’m buying $200 gift cards online from Target, every month, through the Discover program. I am absolutely surrounded by Super Targets, and I do most of my food shopping there, anyway. As with the gas, if I use my Discover card, I get 5% cashback, which comes to $10. With the purchase of my gas and Target gift cards ($100 and $200, respectively), every month I will get $15 cashback on my Discover, which comes to $180 a year. AND, no more charging my groceries and gas at the end of the month, because I’ve not only budgeted, I’ve locked myself into the purchase by buying cards that have a specific use. As with the gas, I pay the card off at the same time as I make the purchase.

More rock star financing? I'll let you decide.

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My Credit Card Number Got Out On The Internet

Some GREAT customer service... finally!

Chase called me the other day to tell me that I had some odd charges on my account that they don't think I authorized. Which makes sense, because I used my Chase card for a 0% APR transfer, paid it off, and never put anything on it again. Somehow my card number got on the internet, and I had a few illicit charges. The representative was nice, and she didn't want to say the names of the companies that my card had been charged to. She said they would send me a list. I'm assuming it can't be good. Rest assured none of the charges were real! :)

Chase, however, showed the best customer service I have run into in recent days. They denied the charges, didn't make me pay for anything, cancelled that card, and sent me a new one that arrived in three days.

As I'm typing this, I guess one question does raise itself in my mind: I seriously never used my Chase card. I cut it up and threw it away. So how did my number get out there? Do companies use random number generators to attempt credit card transactions? That wouldn't work, would it?

Either way, it was taken care of quickly, and with no hassle, so I'm not complaining.

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Some Good Credit Card Advice, And Happy Friday!

I was cruising through Blogging Away Debt's weekly wrap-up, and Tricia pointed out a great post over at Single Ma's Fabulous Financial. Single Ma seems to have a good grasp on credit scores (a much better grasp than I!), and she wrote an article on how to close credit cards without affecting your credit score. It give some insight on credit score math. Very intuitive information.

I set up a subscription service and I'm thinking of writing an article for the Carnival of Personal Finance, but I'm still thinking of something to record.

I've been writing so much I'm starting to get a migraine! Gotta' go rest in a dark room. Catch you on the flip side!

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I created a budget calculator!

Wow. I never would have considered doing this a year ago. Last night, I stayed up until 1AM and created a simple budget spreadsheet on Excel, which helps me calculate my debt and expense payments over the long term. I can use this to shift numbers and perform "what if" scenarios. It's really helped me forcast my budget for the next year. It looks like I can have all my loans except my big school loan paid off by next APRIL! (And this includes a big trip to San Fran that I'm planning in March.)

Here's my tentative scenario, below. I'm still working on my "what if" for next October, but this helped a lot. I also still have to plan for the every-other-week payments, but this is a big step!

I'm happy to share a copy of this calculator if anyone wants it.

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Experian Customer Service And A New Credit Card

First, Experian Customer Service
Experian, one of the three big credit reporting agencies, has a really bad customer service model. If you email them, your email goes into a pool and is picked up by a random service agent, who obviously has a list of pre-arranged messages they can choose from in their replies. When you email that representative back, however, it goes BACK to the giant pool, and a completely different agent replies, usually just wasting everyone's time. I emailed them to explain that when I got my report today, it timed out when I was researching my score, before I had a chance to print it out. Here's the rather odd back and forth. Note that I never speak to the same agent twice. I removed my name but left theirs, as they don't really identify the person:

Hey Guys,
I was looking at my report when it timed out, and I hadn't printed it yet. How do I get access to my credit score again, or get a refund?
- Starving Artist


Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We were able to locate your transaction and have found that your transaction has been successfully processed. However, we regret to inform you that the Vantage score you ordered with your free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com was only available for one-time viewing. Once you closed the browser window, the score was automatically deleted from our system.
We also wish to inform you, that as much as we would like to provide you with your Vantage Score, we are unable to, because it is no longer in our files.
To re-order your Vantage score, please go to www.Experian.com and click on "view credit report again".
Please enter your Experian credit report number and fill out the necessary form. Click on the tab that indicates you wish to buy a Vantage score. You should be able to immediately see your Vantage score.
Please be reminded to make a copy of your Vantage score, for future reference.
Thank you for your kind understanding regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Mark U.
Customer Care Representative


Dear Mark,
You seem to be laboring under the assumption that I'm offering you my kind understanding. As your page timed out without any warning that I was made aware of, and as it does not state on your page that I should be aware that the site will time out, I fully expect you to offer me another glimpse at my score and report, for free.
I would also encourage you to pass along, to your supervisors or higher management, that your company should resolve this issue, for future users.
Regards,
Starving Artist

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Rest assured that your comments and suggestions will be taken into serious consideration to help us improve our products.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Lowell S.
Customer Care Representative

Lowell,
Is it really that difficult to issue me a free report? Your system timed me out--I did not close your system down. Please explain to me why this should affect me, and why I should pay to view my score again.
I look forward to your reply.
- Starving Artist

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
We have initiated a refund to your account. This refund should appear on your next billing cycle.
Thank you for your patience regarding this matter.
Sincerely,
Joseph R.
Customer Care Representative

Thanks! I appreciate it.
- SA

Dear Starving Artist:
Thank you for writing.
It is our pleasure to have served you.
Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Ralph T.
Customer Care Representative

It's actually kind of amusing to get these repetitive responses. They aren't any better than a machine. I kind of want to keep responding to collect all the possible ways they can reply.

Second, the credit card
I've been dinking around today, trying to help mitigate an upcoming budget crunch. In October, my pay period will change from the 15th of the month, which I'm used to, to an every-other-week schedule. In a feat of awesome corporate planning, my company will pay me for two weeks on the 15th, when I'm accustomed to a full month's salary. For a short period of time, I'm going to be shifting around funds, as I'm currently set up to pay all my bills on the 15th.

Eh.

I don't exactly know what I'm going to do, but I've been thinking about putting my groceries and gasoline on my Discover card, not only to help float those expenditures for two more weeks, but because I get 5% cash back on most purchases. This is not, by any means, the sum of my October plans! It's a small part of a rather large puzzle.

I'm currently holding a balance on the ol' Discover card, however. As I mentioned in my last two posts, I considered getting an Orbitz card to transfer the balance, erroneously believing the funds transfer was free, and thinking it would be cool to get the free mileage offered with the card. After reading the fine print, I saw my error in both the fees and mileage, and tossed the Orbitz application. I went online after work, however, and used the Smart Credit Choice's credit card search engine and found a card that suits my purposes: THE BANK OF AMERICA® PLATINUM PLUS® VISA® CARD. It has a no fee balance transfer, and a 0% APR for six months. I transfered most of the balance for the Discover card onto the Bank of America card, $3,400, and received a $6,900 line of credit. The normal APR is about 12% which isn't great, but I'm using it for the transfer, not the credit. The balance for the Discover card was currently 0%, however I had to make 3 purchases a month to keep that up--I was buying random songs from various vendors to do this (iTunes, etc), but this was getting annoying, and I wasn't listening to the songs. Even if I don't pay the balance on the B of A card by the end of the six months, which I think I will, I'm getting a large bonus in February (we're hearing whispers of over 18%!), and that will take care of the remaining balance.

This means I can start using the Discover card, and get the rewards. I'll set it up so I can quickly and easily pay off the balance for this card, on a reasonable basis.

Anyway.

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No Orbitz!

On my previous post, I contemplated getting an Orbitz credit card to flatten my debt, increase my credit line, and hopefully increase my credit rating. I scanned and re-scanned the offer over lunch and finally found the usual 3% transfer fee in some muddy fine print. It was on the back of a "terms and conditions" sheet, which was seperate from the main offer! Oh well. It's not worth it for me to pay $50 to transfer a loan already at a very low rate.

I'm getting nervous about October. My company is offering a 0% loan to make up for the gap in pay, but I'd rather not take it. I'm going to need some spreadsheets. I can't just figure this out in my head. It was going to be close, with me moving in October, but this damn pay change is really throwing a monkey wrench in my calculations. To top it off, I really doubt my current landlord will give me back my deposit without a fight. See my "landlord" posts to understand why--he's a bit unstable.

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My Credit Score Is 740. I'm Thinking Of Getting An Orbitz Credit Card.

I just used Experian to get my credit score.

My credit score is about 740.

I say “about,” because the damn report timed out when I was viewing it, and I have a crappy memory. They want me to pay $6 to generate another report. I sent them an email and I expect they’ll help me out. Anyway, 740 is pretty good. I’m a “Prime” borrower and about 19 points away from being “Prime Plus” (“Super Prime” is too far away to contemplate right now—I think I need a mortgage under my belt to get there.)

A few things that worked against my credit score:
- no mortgage
- my available credit is too low
- I think my credit card balances are too high, with respect to my available credit
- I have credit card balances

Also, about four years ago I had a few “past 30 day” payments, from my REALLY dark days of personal finance. They aren’t mentioned on my “negatives,” but I’m guessing they don’t help. During college I stopped paying for a card for about six months, but that was off my record before I even looked at my credit report! I’m sure that’s why I got such a crappy interest rate on my car.

None of this is too worrisome, as I don’t expect to buy a house in the near future, but I’m thinking of opening an Orbitz Visa card and transferring portions of my AMEX and Discover to them. That would increase my line of credit, and also lower my other debt ratios. Maybe not. I don’t see much value in the Orbitz card, except for the 0% APR, no balance transfer fee. The rate would last 6 months, but I will pay it off by then. It would be interesting to see what would happen to my credit score if I do the transfer. Would it go up or down? I was originally intrigued by the bonus points on the card, but I only get $100 per 10,000 points ($1=1point) which comes to 1%, which my Discover card blows away. Orbitz gives you a few thousand points to start, but still. Even in the dark days I never cycled $10,000 through a card, so I would never see the points, anyway.

Hmmmm... I'm just thinking. I’m going to have a small cash-flow problem come October, when my work re-finagles my pay period, and it might help to have my Discover card open at that point, to take on my miscellaneous grocery bills and gas. As I want to start using the 5% cash back they offer (Carefully! Blogging about it conscientiously!) this would be an ideal time to start.

I think I’ll open the card, transfer about half my Discover balance, maybe some of my AMEX balance to get it below the 50% credit limit. Then I’ll pay off the rest of my Discover balance (around October, after the car is paid off), and start using that for groceries and gas.

That’s my tentative plan.

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