credit score things I have learned

(I wouldn’t normally talk about money stuff publicly, but other people should know, so feel free to share. This is in the US.)

• your bank or credit card shows you a free FICO credit score; there’s at least four different formulas and the one used for mortgages is not the same as the one the bank shows you

• I ignored getting and reviewing my annual free credit report because that score looked so good. It’s not a substitute, I apparently have a small medical debt on my report that I wasn’t aware of that I could have researched and handled a couple years ago

• we’re debt-free. It was a lot of work, I’m proud of it, and it lowers my credit score. i knew about this bullshit “problem” but I learned from a Slack comm today that it’s possible to take out a small installment loan (under $1000) every so often and pay it off to improve your credit (this is a thing you can still get with bad or no credit)

these three things added about 0.25% to my mortgage pre-approval interest rate. fortunately it’s not make or break for us, but over 30 years that will add up, please learn from my mistake

anyway, still got approved, interviewing a realtor on Monday. Excelsior!