FICO Credit Scores: What Do They Mean?

Since our society is so automated, it should come as no surprise that your ability to repay virtually any loan boils down to a single number. All the years you've been paying your various bills: your mortgage, car payments, and credit card bills are analyzed, sliced, spindled and mutilated into a single indicator of whether you're likely to meet your future obligations.

The three agencies use slightly different formulas to build a credit score. The original FICO was developed by Fair Isaac and Company. While Experian still calls its score "FICO", TransUnion calls its score "Beacon" and Equifax uses "Empirica." While each of the models considers a range of data available in your credit report, all of the agencies use the following to build your score:

• Credit History - Have you had credit for years, or for a short time?
• Payment History - Do you have any payments later than 30 days?
• Balances on your Credit Cards - How many accounts? How much do you owe on your accounts?
• Requests for Credit - How many times have you had your credit checked for a loan?

Each of these is assigned a value and a weight. The result is a single number: your credit score. Credit scores can be as low as 300 and as high as 800. Higher is better. Most home buyers these days have a score above 620.

Your FICO score greatly affects your interest rate

Did you know? FICO scores affect more than your ability to get a loan. They also affect your interest rate. Lenders give lower interest rates to individuals with higher scores.

Improving your score

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot you can do to immediately improve your credit score. Some companies promise quick fixes, but they can't do anything different than what you can do — for free. You must, of course, appeal for the credit agency to remove any incorrect reporting from your credit report; this is the only way to quickly improve your credit score.

How do I find out my credit score?

Before you can improve your FICO score, you have to know your score and make sure that the credit reports from each reporting agency are correct. Fair Isaac has created a web site (www.myFICO.com) that lets you do just that. It's inexpensive, fast, and easy to get your credit score along with credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies. They also provide information and tools that help you analyze what actions might have the greatest impact on your FICO score.

You can get a free credit report once a year from the three major agencies at AnnualCreditReport.com. These reports do not include a free score, but it's very inexpensive to get one at the same time.

Now that you have all the facts, you will be a more informed consumer and you'll be better positioned to obtain the most favorable mortgage.

Curious about your credit score? Call us at (773) 774-9040 Ext 121.