What's Not in Your FICO® Score
FICO scores consider a wide range of information on your credit report. However, they do not consider:
• Your race, color, religion, national origin, sex and marital status. US law prohibits credit scoring from considering these facts, as well as any receipt of public assistance, or the exercise of any consumer right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
• Your age. Other types of scores may consider your age, but FICO scores don't.
• Your salary, occupation, title, employer, date employed or employment history. Lenders may consider this information, however, as may other types of scores.
• Where you live.
• Any interest rate being charged on a particular credit card or other account.
• Any items reported as child/family support obligations or rental agreements.
• Certain types of inquiries (requests for your credit report). The score does not count “consumer-initiated” inquiries – requests you have made for your credit report, in order to check it. It also does not count “promotional inquiries” – requests made by lenders in order to make you a “pre-approved” credit offer – or “administrative inquiries” – requests made by lenders to review your account with them. Requests that are marked as coming from employers are not counted either.
• Any information not found in your credit report.
• Any information that is not proven to be predictive of future credit performance.
• Whether or not you are participating in a credit counseling of any kind.
What’s in your FICO® score
FICO Scores are calculated from a lot of different credit data in your credit report. This data can be grouped into five categories as outlined below. The percentages in the chart reflect how important each of the categories is in determining your FICO score.
These percentages are based on the importance of the five categories for the general population. For particular groups - for example, people who have not been using credit long - the importance of these categories may be somewhat different.
Payment History
• Account payment information on specific types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.)
• Presence of adverse public records (bankruptcy, judgements, suits, liens, wage attachments, etc.), collection items, and/or delinquency (past due items)
• Severity of delinquency (how long past due)
• Amount past due on delinquent accounts or collection items
• Time since (recency of) past due items (delinquency), adverse public records (if any), or collection items (if any)
• Number of past due items on file
• Number of accounts paid as agreed
Amounts Owed
• Amount owing on accounts
• Amount owing on specific types of accounts
• Lack of a specific type of balance, in some cases
• Number of accounts with balances
• Proportion of credit lines used (proportion of balances to total credit limits on certain types of revolving accounts)
• Proportion of installment loan amounts still owing (proportion of balance to original loan amount on certain types of installment loans)
Length of Credit History
• Time since accounts opened
• Time since accounts opened, by specific type of account
• Time since account activity
New Credit
• Number of recently opened accounts, and proportion of accounts that are recently opened, by type of account
• Number of recent credit inquiries
• Time since recent account opening(s), by type of account
• Time since credit inquiry(s)
• Re-establishment of positive credit history following past payment problems
Types of Credit Used
• Number of (presence, prevalence, and recent information on) various types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage, consumer finance accounts, etc.)
Please note that:
• A FICO score takes into consideration all these categories of information, not just one or two. No one piece of information or factor alone will determine your score.
• The importance of any factor depends on the overall information in your credit report. For some people, a given factor may be more important than for someone else with a different credit history. In addition, as the information in your credit report changes, so does the importance of any factor in determining your FICO score. Thus, it's impossible to say exactly how important any single factor is in determining your score - even the levels of importance shown here are for the general population, and will be different for different credit profiles. What's important is the mix of information, which varies from person to person, and for any one person over time.
• Your FICO score only looks at information in your credit report. However, lenders look at many things when making a credit decision including your income, how long you have worked at your present job and the kind of credit you are requesting.
• Your score considers both positive and negative information in your credit report. Late payments will lower your score, but establishing or re-establishing a good track record of making payments on time will raise your FICO credit score.The three major credit bureaus used by most lenders in the United States are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. Credit providers report account activity to the bureaus so it can be filed and shared with others. The bureaus then provide the collected information to requesters who are considering whether to give you loans, open accounts or offer related financial services.
The files at the different bureaus aren't always identical because not all credit sources report to all three. There are also entry errors, identity confusion and, sometimes, fraud that cause different information to be provided by the different credit bureaus. In fact, a 2004 California Public Interest Research Group study revealed that 25% of all credit reports had errors significant enough to cause credit to be denied. Later in this guide we will show you how to identify and correct these errors so you can increase your credit score and get more favorable terms.
About credit scores
When you apply for credit – whether for a credit card, a car loan, or a mortgage – lenders want to know what risk they'd take by loaning money to you. FICO® scores are the credit scores most lenders use to determine your credit risk. You have three FICO scores, one for each of the three credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Each score is based on information the credit bureau keeps on file about you. As this information changes, your credit scores tend to change as well. Your 3 FICO scores affect both how much and what loan terms (interest rate, etc.) lenders will offer you at any given time. Taking steps to improve your FICO scores can help you qualify for better rates from lenders.For your three FICO scores to be calculated, each of your three credit reports must contain at least one account which has been open for at least six months. In addition, each report must contain at least one account that has been updated in the past six months. This ensures that there is enough information – and enough recent information – in your report on which to base a FICO score on each report.
About FICO scores
Credit bureau scores are often called “FICO scores” because most credit bureau scores used in the U.S. are produced from software developed by Fair Isaac and Company. FICO scores are provided to lenders by the major credit reporting agencies.
FICO scores provide the best guide to future risk based solely on credit report data. The higher the credit score, the lower the risk. But no score says whether a specific individual will be a “good” or “bad” customer. And while many lenders use FICO scores to help them make lending decisions, each lender has its own strategy, including the level of risk it finds acceptable for a given credit product. There is no single “cutoff score” used by all lenders and there are many additional factors that lenders use to determine your actual interest rates. However you can now see what interest rates lenders typically offer consumers based on FICO score ranges.
Other Names for FICO Scores
FICO scores have different names at each of the credit reporting agencies. All of these scores, however, are developed using the same methods by Fair Isaac, and have been rigorously tested to ensure they provide the most accurate picture of credit risk possible using credit report data.
Credit Reporting Agency
FICO Score
Equifax
BEACON® Score
Experian
Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model
TransUnion
EMPIRICA®
More than one credit score
In general, when people talk about "your score", they're talking about your current FICO score. However, there is no one credit score used to make decisions about you. This is true because:
• Credit bureau scores are not the only scores used. Many lenders use their own credit scores, which often will include the FICO score as well as other information about you.
• FICO scores are not the only credit bureau scores. There are other credit bureau scores, although FICO scores are by far the most commonly used. Other credit bureau scores may evaluate your credit report differently than FICO scores, and in some cases a higher score may mean more risk, not less risk as with FICO scores.
• Your credit score may be different at each of the main credit reporting agencies. The FICO score from each credit reporting agency considers only the data in your credit report at that agency. If your current scores from the credit reporting agencies are different, it's probably because the information those agencies have on you differs.
• Your FICO score changes over time. As your data changes at the credit reporting agency, so will any new credit score based on your credit report. So your FICO score from a month ago is probably not the same score a lender would get from the credit reporting agency today.
What does your credit report contain? Credit reports contain the following types of information about you:
- Your personal profile, including your name, address and Social Security number
- A summary of your accounts, both open and closed, going back several years, showing credit limits, balances and your payment history
- Histories of your accounts, such as the balances, any past-due amounts, the duration, type of accounts, date opened, date of the last payment, payment amounts, charge-off amounts, high credit, comments and payment record for the past seven years
- Any public records of bankruptcies, tax liens, court judgments or child support information. Charge-offs or collection accounts stay on record for up to 7 years and bankruptcies show on your report for up to 10 years.
- Credit inquiries, other than your own, from creditors and others you've given permission to, including employers and insurance companies.
What is not recorded in your credit report? Your credit report will not contain your gender, race or ethnicity, national origin, religious preference or any other personal information that does not apply directly to your financial history. Nor will it contain checking/savings account information, charge-offs or collections from more than 7 years ago, or bankruptcies from more than 10 years ago.
How credit works - for or against you? Credit is simple. Better credit typically translates into lower interest rates and it's based on straightforward business principles: companies who give loans want to be paid back and they want to earn a fair return for lending their money.
When you apply for credit, the interest rate that you get can increase with the risk that you may default and not pay off the loan as agreed. Banks and other lenders base rates and loan amounts on your history of paying off loans and making payments on time because they view your past behavior as a reliable indicator of how you will behave in the future.
What are different types of credit? There are two forms of credit: secured and unsecured.
Secured credit includes loans such as your home mortgage and car loan that are "secured" by collateral, such as the house or vehicle involved in the loan. If you default, the lender can take possession of the collateral and sell it to somebody else to try to collect the money still owed on the principal.
With unsecured credit, there is no collateral, just your promise to pay, usually by signing a note or agreement. Unsecured credit includes credit cards, personal loans and retail store cards. Since unsecured debt does not have an asset behind it that can be repossessed and sold to recover principal, it is riskier and one that commands higher rates.
How is credit reported? Credit bureaus create unique credit records and collect information about the credit exposure and behavior for anyone who applies for credit. The bureaus collect information from creditors nationwide and update your credit record with how you pay their loans and how much of your credit limits you use. They then provide this information to banks, consumer finance companies, insurance companies, employers, landlords and government agencies that request it for legitimate business purposes.
Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian are the top three credit bureaus that maintain your credit reports.
What are the consequences of bad credit? Creditors view your credit report as an indicator of your level of responsibility with debt and the risk associated with offering you credit. Therefore, if you have not been consistent in making your payments on time, it is likely that you will get credit at a higher interest rate in the future.
Other parties also look at how you manage your debt obligations as an indicator of your how responsible you are likely to be in other areas of your life. For this reason, many landlords and employers run a credit check before entering into an agreement with you. In addition, bad credit can also impact how much you pay in auto insurance. Since studies have shown that there is a relationship between your credit score and your auto insurance claims rate, over 90% of auto insurers use credit data in part to calculate your risk, and therefore, your premiums.
Why is your credit score important? Here's why your credit score is so important; it helps determine whether you can get credit cards, car loans and mortgages, and what interest rates you will pay.
The three major credit bureaus may report different credit scores to characterize your creditworthiness because they have different information in their files and they use different models to calculate the scores. Credit Scores are generally between 300 at the low end and 850 at the high end depending on which bureau you get the score from.
Lower scores are associated with higher risks of defaulting, so banks and other lenders demand high interest rates for taking risks in offering loans to these "subprime" customers. With higher scores, loans and credit cards are easier to get at lower interest rates because they are associated with successful repayment.
Personal Credit Scores - Your Credit History in a 3-Digit Number? It is important that you know your approximate credit score when you apply for new loans. Your Personal Credit Score on the CreditKeeper website is based on the CreditXpert scoring model which varies between 350 to 850 and rates your score between Very Poor and Excellent. It is provided to help you better understand how lenders evaluate your credit report. It is calculated based on many of the same criteria considered by the leading consumer credit scoring companies, producing in most cases a consumer credit score that duplicates or closely approximates the typical consumer credit score used by banks, mortgage lenders, and loan companies when determining credit worthiness.
What is a Credit Score?
A credit score is a numerical ranking system that lenders use to determine how much of a credit risk you are. A credit score is a numeric indication of how likely you are to repay debts such as loans or lines of credit. Lenders use this number to determine how much of a credit risk you are.
Credit scores also are designed to indicate your creditworthiness in comparison with other consumers.
Credit scores are based on the data in your credit report and are generated by computers using artificial intelligence. Usually a credit score is between the numbers 300 to 900. The higher your score, the more "creditworthy" you are to lenders.
What is my credit score based on?
Credit scoring is based on many factors that may include:
- Amount of available credit Payment history
- Recent requests for credit
- Amount of credit currently being used
- Length of credit history
Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, credit scoring may not use gender, martial status, national origin, race, or religion as factors
Mathew Joseph cell no.
847-208-8508
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