fiatmoney Posted October 24, 2002 Report Share Posted October 24, 2002 I know I can get an individual report from each agency but I've seen several services offering a merged report containing all three, plus your credit score. Does anyone know how these work or which one is best?What about disputing any errors, if found, on a merged format vs. a single report from the CRA itself?Thanks for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted October 24, 2002 Report Share Posted October 24, 2002 The best is through a mortgage company who has access to tri-merge services. On the web, I recommend TrueLink or TrueCredit. They advertise on this site (see link below and note I get a commission), but I have looked at their reports and they really do do a nice job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatmoney Posted October 24, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2002 Don't see the link? The banner below at the bottom of the page is for "Free Credit Report". I looked around to find a banner link for the co's. you mentioned but didn't see any. There was a link on the bottom of Credit Reports page but it was for Monitrust.com and they charge $35.00. Is that typical? The CRA's charge around $8.00 apiece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted October 24, 2002 Report Share Posted October 24, 2002 I may be wrong here, but doesn't the merged report act as a hard inquiry on each report since it's an outside agent and not you requesting the information? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiatmoney Posted October 24, 2002 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2002 Good point. I never thought about that. I also don't like the idea of passing out my SS number through a third party either, but I guess it's no different than applying for credit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted October 24, 2002 Report Share Posted October 24, 2002 You are right, a merged report counts against you if you go through a mortgage company. Not sure about the ones you order for yourself over the net - where did you hear it was a hard inquiry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted October 24, 2002 Report Share Posted October 24, 2002 Well, like I said I may be wrong, but it would seem to me that anyway you slice it an outside agent is an outside agent. Even if that means that Equifax, in their effort to line their pockets further, offers a merged report. The inquiries to Trans Union and Experian would be hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted November 5, 2002 Report Share Posted November 5, 2002 Be careful on tri merged reports...not all give you the scores, which is an important part of the picture. I just paid for one off of Equifax's site. Big mistake. The idiots don't give you the score - you have to BUY that separately. Big ripoff! When I go through an outside outfit for a tri merge, I get three different scores, but when I buy the report directly from them, I get the same garbage I know is wrong with it in the first place!never buy a tri merge from Equifax....that's my $30+ mistake/advice to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted November 5, 2002 Report Share Posted November 5, 2002 You can request a credit report on yourself from the major credit bureaus or a service such as true credit or monitrust.com. The report will not appear as a hard hit on your report. Since you are pulling the report for your own review the pull code is for informational purpose only and counts as what's called a soft hit which does not factor in to your credit score or hurt your credit rating when being reviewed by a lender. It would be really stupid to penalize consumers for verifying their personal reports.As far as scores go Equifax is the only comapny to offer a real credit burea score with the report. FICO is the standard scoring model used by most lenders and yes Equifax does make you pay for it but for $5 it is worth knowing what your score is. Sites like true credit who offers a score with their report are giving you a credit xpret score which is a simulation of FICO but not the exact same model. I hope this helps some of you. I will check back to see if anyone has further questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swede Posted November 5, 2002 Report Share Posted November 5, 2002 <blockquote>Originally posted by creditguySince you are pulling the report for your own review the pull code is for informational purpose only and counts as what's called a soft hit which does not factor in to your credit score or hurt your credit rating when being reviewed by a lender</blockquote>This is, or should be true. But sometimes when pulling a tri-merge it does end up as a hard on reports. I ordered from EQ's Intersections tri-merge and ended up with a hard on TU that they refuse to remove.<blockquote>Originally posted by creditguyAs far as scores go Equifax is the only comapny to offer a real credit burea score with the report. FICO is the standard scoring model used by most lenders and yes Equifax does make you pay for it but for $5 it is worth knowing what your score is. </blockquote>TU now offers FICO scores on their sites. There's 2 versions, one FAKO version with their own score and the lender version for $12.95 with the FICO score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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