Because the whole credit scoring system and credit reporting agencies are a scam!

My score was higher than I thought it might be, which is a plus. I know it most likely isn't totally accurate, but it is nice to have a ballpark figure.

I'm about to send a lovely letter to a collection agency trying to validate a debt that isn't mine soon, so hopefully I'll see it continue to rise.

although, i do always have fun playing around with those slider "what would happen if your score was..." tools.

some lenders also purchase score models that are tailored for specific information (for example, a car dealer might weight previous auto loan history heavier than credit card or mortgage history) - these scores are not available to consumers (afaik).

I've seen my Credit Reports in the last couple of weeks, and have spent a bit of time disputing things. They can never tell my father and me apart and for some reason an account of my -Grandmother's- is on my credit report now. And not in a good way, I swear I think they put a negative on everyone who's ever shared an address with her. Surprising to see that my credit isn't as bad as I thought, though it needs a lot of work

@AngelofMotrin: And now I might know where to get help, thanks for this.

@nightsweat: As far as I know, a "soft inquiry" like checking your own report, does NOT affect your score.

I can not use these services because I am not in the US at the moment so I would like to know what kind of info do you have to provide and submit to these websites?

Do they get their figures by gathering data from other agencies or do you have to manually input how much debt you think you are in?

gives a score for each report.

The only way that's ever going to change is if one could convince legislative bodies that it's too important to keep commercial... which SHOULD be doable, given the one-free-report-a-year.

We have always used TU scores. A common misconception is that there is only one credit score. In reality, there are dozens of different scores and those scores change by the bureaus that you use.

The point of any credit monitoring service should be to track how your score chances over time. It should also help you understand how your everyday actions affect your score and how you rank against others.

I can certainly understand your frustration. One of our primary goals is to help consumers understand the sometimes confusing credit score landscape. We hope to not exacerbate the situation and therefore have switched our model.

www.creditboards.com is a great credit card forum for helping people fix their credit problems.