Credit scores

Recently I had a friend pass away. The only family he had was a brother and they hated each other. The brother asked me to be the administrator of the estate which I accepted. It is a pita job but my friend would have done it for me. So I go to the bank with the paperwork and they asked for my drivers license and they were going to run a credit check on me. I told them that I thought that was odd but they said it was standard procedure. My credit score came back as 806.....

Mine was 814 last year.

It would be interesting to know the exact formulas the credit agencies use to calculate scores. Discover provides you your score every month using a link to your online statement, so I check it monthly. I’ve never missed a payment or ever am late with bills, and my score was always been very high, even showing perfect 850 several times.
Still paying all my bills in time, yet lately my score has fallen 30-35 points. I paid off my mortgage about a year and a half ago, and what was left on my HELOC balance around this time last year. Did paying off what was left of my debt hurt my rating?

Similar experience here. Paying off the mortgage hurt the score, never had a HELOC. Paying the credit card balance on a revolving basis rather than let it roll a month and pay a balance also hurts the monthly score. We get ours from experian, I recall once I saw a blurb about a minor score (9 point) drop not hurting your credit rating, I don't know what to make of that.

So to keep it real, I understand the lowest score is 300?, wonder how they decided on that number, rather than 0?

How does one get that number?

Must be a secret, never heard of anyone yet to share that achievement.

There are many things that factor in, some of which might be proprietary (or embarrassing if they let the info out). I do know that debt/income ratio is involved. Not sure if zip code has anything to do with it, but a single friend of ours lives in a bad neighborhood and her credit score is very high. Payment history, etc.

I do know that the credit agencies do not like debt-free individuals...

Credit card companies call people like me who pay off their balance every month and reap rewards credits “deadbeats”!
Tell the car salesman you are dealing with that you intend to pay cash for your new ride, and their interest in making a good deal for you will instantly fall off a cliff.
Interesting world we live in where managing your money responsibly is considered a negative by so many!

My wife and I are usually in the 8-teens to 820s.

Even if you choose to live on cash only, it doesn't hurt to maintain a good credit score in case an emergency happens and you absolutely have to borrow money. Ease of approval and low interest rate are worth the minimal effort required to maintain a good credit score.

I don't owe anybody anything. Everything I own is paid for. I don't even have a credit card!

That probably has earned you the 300 score jcc was asking about!

If your credit score has dropped recently, you are probably paying more for your auto and home owners insurance. The world runs on debt, if you're not among those in debt, you are a bad person. Our credit score has dropped since we became debt free. I believe retirement also cost us a hit on the credit score, they don't like the fact that we are living on a fixed income either, regardless of what that fixed income might be. Gene

Okay, my question is why they need your credit score, as administrator of the estate? And doesn’t having your credit score ran, adversely affect your score?

The credit score trolls don’t care about why something happens, just that it did. Slimy devils.

I probably would have told them to stuff it. I would want to honor my friend but the necessity of a credit check would have to be explained to me.

Just did a quick google search, and came up with this. Rather than make you read thru the whole page, I'll just post what I think applies in your situation..........

If you Dad did not leave a Will, then an administrator must be appointed and if the estate is in excess of $10,000 in value, then a bond will need to be appointed. A bond is an insurance policy and the insurance company will want to make sure that if the administrator does anything wrong in administering the estate and it has to pay a claim, they have someone from whom they can collect for the payment of the claim. So good credit may be essential for getting a bond, but often times even with poor credit, if you have assets or a co-signer, a bond can be issued.

So, it looks like the score has to do with getting a bond. Lawyer Linky

I'm executor of my brother's estate. No credit check on me.

Sorry to hear about your brother Dennis. My friends estate is more than 10 grand but probably less than 20. The credit xcheck is no biggie like I said but I thought it wass odd. He did not have a will.

Different state may make a difference?

Not really, the salesperson doesn't get any money from financing but the finance guy does. Salesperson couldn't care less where the money comes from.

Because you were appointed Executor in his Will.
An Executor is appointed in the Will and distributes the Estate according to the directions and wishes of the deceased outlined in the Will.

In the other cases, you can read above, there was no Will. So an Administrator is appointed and acts to distribute the Estate.
An Administrator has no Will to guide them, so is at higher risk of being challenged by unhappy heirs, family, creditors, etc... so the insurance or bond is put in place.

Fun stuff.
- Art

So true...

Wife and are top notch credit clean.

No mortgage for decades, no car payments since the 1980 ‘s, pay credit card off every month for a 2 % kickback, charge everything we can to increase kickback. Got approx $1700 back in rewards last year.

FICO score never breaks over 815...

The only loan I've ever had was for my first and current house. It was paid off 35 years ago. Never had a car payment and have never paid a fee on a credit card. I have always paid total balance and use them for almost every purchase I make every month. Score is never a perfect 850 and can range from 750-825.
What makes it go lower is when I have charged several thousand for a major project on the house. Even though I pay the balance in full when they check sometimes it will show to be an outstanding balance even thou it isn't due yet. Crazy

As far as an estate a lot of people don't know the administrator can be held personally responsible for 2 times the cost of estate if they are deemed to have made a mistake and wrongly handed out the money to the wrong party.

That reminds of a citation decades ago I received for driving without my DL on my person, I was given no other ticket, my DL was in good standing at the time, the requirement was I simply produce it later, no fees involved. When I missed their deadline, they suspended my DL. makes sense to me.

If you have good credit score...take advantage of their currently cheap finance deals to get the discounts that come with them. Then pay the loan off as soon as you can. Last one I did was minimum 6 months at really low interest...then wrote a check for the balance. I saved way more in incentives than I paid in interest. Done that more than once!

I finance a lot of my purchases, with a 100% down payment, guarantees no late fees.

The cash only crowd gets all bent out of shape about this kind of thing, and I have no idea why. Nothing wrong with cash only, but nothing wrong with playing the credit game to your advantage, either. I charged $75k on 2 credit cards last year, didn't pay an annual fee on either, didn't pay a penny of interest, got over $2k back. Once financed a new Ram at 0% for 5 years. Cash only crowd still found fault with that, lol.

That is why your COL Moparts moderator compensation package is so advantageous for you.

I’m not seeing any good interest rates now, at least with Ram. They were well into the 3% range.
Guitar said salesmen don’t care how a car buyer will pay but I question that. Once I was really interested in buying an Audi. I was naive walking into the showroom as I’d never bought a new car before. The salesman was really pushing me to get a lease rather than buy the car. When I told him I was about to close on a home equity loan to use to buy a car, it seemed like he couldn’t get rid of me fast enough. It was apparent he didn’t want to sell me a car, only lease or use their financing otherwise I was worthless to them.
I didn’t need an Audi anyway, so just as well!

Maybe now would be a good time to buy a new house...

As long as it’s not in Illinois....

Well that is different then paying cash for a car. Sometimes the manufacturer offers incentives to the dealer for leases and the dealers may pass some of that on to the sales guy. I've never known a dealership to pass any financing incentives on to the sales guy. Sales guy gets paid for the sale, finance guy gets paid for financing and any other warranties and such he can sell you.
Things have changed in the past couple of decades though. Sales guy used to get paid a percentage of the sale over invoice, these days most just get a flat rate like $300 per sale. Dealers often offer sales incentives for selling X amount, or certain models or older stock vehicles though so this may be why you find them pushing certain vehicles.

Salesmen like leases because it's 1 guaranteed sale plus 2 potential future deals wrapped up together.

He gets another crack at you to lease/sell you another one when you return the car plus he will have somebody lined up to buy the return.

Kevin

Lease returns aren't typically sold again by the dealer. They go back to the leasing company that owns them and then on to auction.

That IS funny on its face!

Yet, missing a court date initiated a whole new offense... “Failure to Appear”

I’m curious as to the circumstances of how you received a “no DL on person” without a co-violation.

Possible? Yes

Weird, strange, different? Also yes...

There are MANY forms of credit scores used by various lenders and insurance companies. What one source uses may be different than others. Generally the big credit agencies will have differing scores. Debt makes the world go round. So achieving an 850 score with no debt is not easy but you can get really close. Since it is a measure of ones ability to handle credit one would need credit to obtain a score. As sad as it is bad credit is usually as good as none. I have helped my kids and son in laws with this and they are doing awesome. Something I wish someone had helped me with way back when

Leasing company? Any dealer I worked for cleaned up the lease return and it went onto the used car lot and was sold "again" within a couple weeks. The only cars they would send to auction would be leases that went way over mileage or they were wrecked and repaired. That's why I'd never buy a lease return that came from an auction.

I was not listed in the will. The first person declined, and the second person named passed away a week after my brother. The lawyer wanted my brother's son to do it, but he is way too much of an idiot to handle it, and has really screwed things up already.

Ted, thanks man, hope yours goes better than mine has so far.

It has been a pain Dennis...But so far,so good. Just a lot of running and keeping a good account of sales of items and paying bills. See ya at the track!