Carnival of Credit Report Stories #6: Museum Tour Edition

Hello all, and welcome to the Money Museum’s Credit Reporting Tour, here as part of the Carnival of Credit Report Stories. I’m your tour guide, Stephanie, and I’ll be taking you through the mysterious world of credit reports! Who’s excited?

*Tour group mumbles, shuffles their feet*

Super! Let us begin with a very special specimen… the origins of the mighty FICO score itself:

Amy Pedersen presents Fair Isaac Corporation, What a Wacky Bunch of Statisticians Dedicated to Credit posted at Your Credit Score Secrets, saying, “Credit Cards, Credit Reports and Credit Scores. These terms are not exactly new to any of us. Neither are the implications when our own cards, reports or scores are not at their ‘best.’ Credit scoring, first created by a group of wacky statisticians at the Fair Isaac Corporation, affects everyone out there at some point or another.”

Try to keep up, please! And remember, no gum chewing or drawing on the FICO scores. Thank you! And now we’ll have a presentation by Professor Abdulrasool Sumar, who will break down how your FICO score is calculated in the Importance of Your Credit Rating & FICO Score posted at 3 Debt Consolidation Community.

Super! Thanks, Professor!  Let’s move on, lots to see! If you’ll turn to page 7 in your tour book, you’ll see Colin Robertson’s How to Read Your Credit Report | Credit Help and Tips posted at The Truth About Credit Cards.com, saying “Most people order a credit report from one of the three bureaus, look at their credit score, and then either surmise that they have poor credit or great credit based solely on the three-digit score. To this effect, very little gets accomplished. You need to understand how to read your credit report to ensure your credit is in good shape.”

Now, group, if you’ll take a peek behind this black curtain here, KMC will let you in on What Suze Orman doesn’t tell you about FICO posted at Advanced Personal Finance. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone outside of this tour, though! It’s a big secret! Promise? Super!

*Kevin raises his hand* “I recently ‘enjoyed’ a quick scare thanks to the process to get my credit report on annualcreditreport.com.”  *Kevin shows the rest of the tour group his Credit Report Scares posted at KMull.*

Thank you for sharing your story with our group! Does anyone else have an experience to share?

*Save Money steps forward. and shares Equifax hates me, posted at How I Save Money.net.*

*1MansMoney shares his own credit score tracking in Credit Reports and Credit Scores posted at 1MansMoney.*

Super! Thank you all for sharing your own experiences with our tour group! But now it’s time to move on to our next exhibit:

Steve Leung presents Credit Surprises That Damage Mortgage Applications posted at 1SiliconValley.com, saying, “Suppose you were just a month late paying a bill a couple of months ago (the bill got lost in your desk). When it comes to your mortgage application, that’s not such a big thing, compared to a bankruptcy or people who have a history of late payments, is it?”

Thank you for taking the Credit Reporting Tour here at the Money Museum. Behind this door is our activities room! In here, you can find lots of exercises and tips for improving your own credit score!

Avo presents Top 10 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score posted at myCreditSecurity.com – Credit Reports, Credit Score, and Identity Theft.

Juan Millon (1mil) presents Ask 1mil: How Can I Increase My Credit Score? posted at Millionster.com.

Kelly Cho presents Improving Your FICO Score posted at Catch a Falling Star.

And while you’re working on improvement, you can try out one of the 10 Alternatives to Credit Cards (for Those Who Can’t Get One), posted at Frugalist.

That concludes our tour, and this edition of the Carnival of Credit Report Stories. Submit your blog article to the next edition using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.