Installed the Bank of America App; Got A New Source for A Free TransUnion® FICO® Credit Score.

Free TransUnion® FICO®
Credit Score.

I just installed the Bank of America (BofA) App on my "goto" mobile devices, and was very pleased to discover that BofA offers free access to my TransUnion® FICO® credit score.

The free score that I used to check @ Citi® no longer works -- and I have no idea why -- so this is a good thing.

Installation was easy on my iPad 4 Mini and my iPhone 7 Plus.  I didn't bother installing the app on my old Samsung phones because I only use them as backups and for some gaming; they are both way too slow anyway. And I can't stand slow machines.

So my FICO score is 721, as of March 23, 2022.  I thought  my score would be lower, since I've been going through some very major life changes lately... And big changes tend to be expensive.

I still use Credit Karma too; in my life, in general, I like to use as many free resources as possible. One reason for this is to monitor things for consistency.

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Credit-Card Promotions Improving, And Here's The Proof...

Citi® Credit Cards

The Fed lifted the U.S. Prime Rate from 3.25% to 3.5% at the end of last year.

While the U.S. economy is still not as healthy as it should be this far into the post-Great-Recession recovery, the Federal Reserve may still opt to raise short-term rates again as soon as the December 14, 2106 FOMC monetary policy meeting.

And when the Fed demonstrates confidence in the U.S. economy, big banks tend to respond by making their loan products more attractive.  American banks are more profitable when the short-term interest rates controlled by the Federal Reserve rise.

In the credit-card zone, I'm seeing the return of some very consumer-friendly promotions, including extended zero percent introductory APR offers, on both balance transfers and new purchases, and balance transfer offers that don't charge balance transfer fee.

I'm old, and I'm a very responsible borrower, so I always expect the banks and credit unions with which I have an established relationship to offer me nothing but the best. 

According to Equifax®, my FICO® credit score is 814 out of a possible 900.  A brief, FICO credit-score history is a new feature I noticed when I logged into my Citi® credit card account today.

My FICO® Credit Score - Brief History

What My 814 FICO® Score Means To Lenders

FICO® Scores At A Glance

Right now I'm taking advantage of three concurrent Citi promotions with my Citi® Dividend World MasterCard®:

• 0% APR on all new purchases until June 1, 2017.
• 5% cash back on purchases I make at department stores (Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Dillard’s, Kohl’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.) and includes the electronics retailer Best Buy, which suits my geeky lifestyle just fine.  This particular promo lasts from October 1 through December 31, 2016.
• And last, but certainly not least, I am currently getting 5% cash back on all online purchases I make with my card, until November 30, 2016.

I understand the timing with the above incentives, with the holiday shopping season in the offing, but I won't be doing much spending.  I'm not rich, and I never spend for the sake of spending. 

Move Free® ULTRA

But I did use my Citi card to purchase some Move Free® ULTRA Triple Action Joint / Cartilage / Bone supplements, which the CVS.com website had discounted at buy one, get one free.  I'm an avid quad skater, and my knees have been complaining so much lately that I had to find a solution.  Move Free ULTRA has lots of very positive reviews online.

I like to use my Citi card every once in a while, just to let the folks and computers at Citi know that I'm interested in keeping the card alive.  The card offers the kind of value I appreciate, so I don't want some algorithm and/or employee to close my card due to inactivity. 

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Credit Card Popularity Rankings for February, 2007

Here are the popularity rankings for the cards we recommend here at www.FedPrimeRate.com for February, 2007:

Credit Card Rankings

The Discover Platinum card does it again, with the combined varieties taking the number one spot.

On a personal note, the number of credit card solicitations I'm getting in the mail has spiked in a serious way; probably has something to do with the fact that my credit score recently jumped into the 790+ zone. Most of these offers are very tempting, from 0% intro APR for 18 months, to 0.79, 1.99, 2.99, 3.99 and 5.99 from 6 to 12 months. Even though my zero APR surfing days are just about over, and opting out of receiving solicitations is really not that difficult, I still like to receive these offers, just in case I decide to keep some extra cash in the bank and transfer my business credit card debt to a zero percent offer at some point.

It's really all that waste that bothers me. All that paper. These days, I need to empty my paper shredder on a daily basis, because I'm shedding so much unsolicited mail. And I'm not even getting all of it: I still have a rather large mound of stuff I need to shred on my second desk, and it's slowly growing larger. I need to take a small vacation just so I can get rid of all of it. Of course, I can't just throw it out without shredding it, because most of these solicitations contain my some of my personal info, you know: the stuff the identity thieves look for.

I paid close to $4,000 yesterday to get rid of my personal credit card debt. Letting go of that much cash wasn't easy, but it was the right thing to do. I could very easily qualify for another great 0% offer right now, but I've been surfing 0% offers for years, and it's starting to feel like I'm using them as a crutch: being in debt is still being in debt, even if you're not paying any interest on it. I may buy a home soon, so being debt free when I'm ready to get my own place would be optimal.

Don't get me wrong: I don't regret surfing zero percent offers at all, not for one second. In fact, I recommend 0% offers to everyone and anyone I know -- well, to clarify, anyone who has a great credit score and who doesn't have problems keeping up with bills. It's important to remember that credit card debt is unsecured, so even if -- God forbid -- you make a mistake, no one will come and take your house or car away from you. And even the worst credit score can be repaired with time and patience (writing from experience here!)

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TransUnion Unveils New Credit Scoring System: VantageScore

Here's today's big news: TransUnion, one of the nation's big 3 credit reporting agencies, has recently come out with a new credit reporting system called VantageScore. As if there isn't enough confusion with all the different credit scores already, right? Well, VantageScore aims to bring clarity to the world of credit reporting.

VantageScore credit scores range from 501 to 990, with scoring groups that mimic the intuitive scale that we all know from school: A through F. According to the folks at TransUnion, VantageScore will bring consistency to credit scoring, thanks in part to the system's ability to analyze data from all 3 credit reporting agencies at the same time. TransUnion also claims that VantageScore is better at predicting short-term delinquencies better than any other commercially available credit rating system.

More details can be found below in the snippet from yesterday's press release:

"New Score to Fill Void of Consistency and Choice in the Industry

TransUnion today released an industry first in the area of scoring models - VantageScore^SM. The new score is the first of its kind to leverage a consistent scoring methodology across all three national credit reporting companies. VantageScore brings clarity to businesses and consumers through an easily interpreted numeric score, and choice to the marketplace with a new, highly predictive scoring option.

Extensive testing throughout the VantageScore development process has shown that it outperforms and is more predictive than other commercially available models in the marketplace today in projecting short-term delinquencies. With its introduction, TransUnion has established a dedicated implementation team to work with customers to analyze and test VantageScore with their portfolios and to assist them in activating it with their internal processing systems.

'As markets have matured, so have customers' needs,' said TransUnion's Chet Wiermanski, one of the creators of VantageScore and vice president of Analytics for the company. 'VantageScore represents TransUnion's on-going commitment to proactively address the needs of our customers by developing highly predictive risk models.'

The score is unprecedented in that it looks at and analyzes data at the same point in time on the same consumer records from all three national credit reporting companies. VantageScore was developed using a national sample of anonymous credit information of approximately 15 million consumers and uses a score range of 990-501 and score groupings that approximate the familiar academic scale:

• 901-990 A
  
• 801-900 B
  
• 701-800 C
  
• 601-700 D
  
• 501-600 F
  

'By developing a patent-pending approach to consistently interpret the credit information stored within each credit repository, also referred to as characteristic leveling, any credit scoring differences between the credit reporting companies can be attributed to data differences in a consumer's credit file rather than data interpretation - as is the case in most scoring models today,' said Wiermanski. 'With VantageScore, a significant achievement is accomplished by creating this consistent scaling across the credit reporting companies; an approach we believe is long overdue and will be universally embraced.'

One of the leading experts in the industry in the areas of scoring and analytics, Mr. Wiermanski was responsible for implementing TransUnion's first scoring systems for a variety of industries. He has done extensive work in the areas of predictive modeling and the use of event-based triggers and is the author of numerous white papers and studies on the subject. He also is an active member of Georgetown University's Credit Research Center.

To learn more about VantageScore or to schedule an interview with Chet Wiermanski, please contact Clifton M. O'Neal at 847-722-4843, Jason Nierman at 312-985-3059 or Jeff Bodzewski at 312-729-4270.

About TransUnion

TransUnion is a leading global information solutions company that customers trust as a business intelligence partner and commerce facilitator. TransUnion offers a broad range of financial services that enable customers to manage risk and capitalize on market opportunities. The company uses advanced technology coupled with extensive analytical capabilities to combat fraud and facilitate credit transactions between businesses and consumers across multiple markets. Founded in 1968, Chicago-based TransUnion employs 4,100 associates that support clients in more than 30 countries. Visit us at TransUnion.com."

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