TransUnion Credit Report

Another year has gone by and it is time to request my annual free credit report from TransUnion. Last year, I had a couple of corrections to make on my report and a few on my wife's. This year, I was pleased to see my report looked 100% correct. I also paid $7.95 and got my credit score. Normally, I don't do this since I know my credit is good and don't really care about an actual number. This time however, I was curious to see my score for a couple of reasons: I plan on buying another property fairly soon and my current home equity line of credit is close to being maxed out. (If you recall, this is where I got my money for the Louisiana investment. I'm pocketing the difference in interest between what the HELOC charges me and what I get from the investment.) When the credit score number first flashed on the screen, I was quite surprised! 894! I thought the max score was 900, but after further reading, I discovered that, with TransUnion, their max score is 1000. They gave me a "B" rating - but an "A" rating starts at 900 points, so I'm really close. My score ranks higher than 84% of the nation's population. The report also gave some tips on how to raise your score. As expected, my score is low because I have little available credit on my real estate account (HELOC) and my balance is too high relative to the credit limit. (The two seem to go hand-in-hand, so why they list them separately is beyond me.) Anyway, I'm not worried about it. My score is still pretty darn high and should allow me to qualify for the best interest rates on loans.

I also checked my wife's credit report and that is a different story altogether. All her accounts are OK, but for some reason, they list her current name as her name from a previous marriage. They also list her current address as her ex-husband's current address - which is in a state that she has never lived in. The report states the address was reported to them in February of 2006. I was able to correct the address issue via TransUnion's on-line website, but the name change requires proof to be sent in via mail. I will be doing that tonight.

All in all, this provides a good example of why it is important to check your credit reports each year, even if the last check showed everything was looking good.