About the FICO Credit Score

Since we live in an automated, it's probably not that surprising that your creditworthiness comes down to one number. Credit reporting agencies use your payment history to compile this score.

Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, the three major credit reporting agencies, each have a proprietary formula for building your credit score. Fair Isaac and Cooriginally developed this score. . While Experian still calls its score "FICO", TransUnion calls its score "Beacon" and Equifax uses "Empirica." While the formulas vary from one agency to another, all of the agencies use the following to determine a credit score:

• Credit History - How long have you had credit?
• History of Payments - Have you paid more than 30 days late?
• Your Credit Card Balances - How many credit card accounts do you hold, and how much do you owe?
• Credit Inquiries - How many times have you had your credit checked for a loan?

These factors are weighted a little bit differently depending on the formula being used. The results are added up and distilled into a single number. Credit scores range from 300 to 800. Higher is always better. Most people who want to get a mortgage loan score 620 or above.

Your score greatly affects how much you pay in interest every month

FICO scores affect more than your ability to get a loan. They also affect your interest rate. Higher scores indicate you are probably a better credit risk, and thus may qualify for a better mortgage rate.

Raising your credit score

Is there any way to improve your credit score? Despite what you hear from "credit repair" companies, the FICO score is built on your lifetime credit history, so you can't turn it around right away. You should, of course, appeal for the credit agency to remove any incorrect data from your credit report; this is really the only "quick fix" for credit problems.

Know your FICO

To raise your score, you've got to have the reports that are used to build it, and of course, you need the score itself. Fair Isaac, the company that invented the original FICO credit score, offers credit scores on myFICO.com. It's inexpensive to quickly get your FICO score from all three reporting agencies, along with your credit report. Also available are helpful information and tools that can help you analyze what actions might have the greatest impact on your FICO score.

You can get a federally-mandated free credit report once a year from the three major credit reporting agencies when you visit AnnualCreditReport.com. These reports do not include a free credit 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? Give us a call: 610-565-3600.