Your FICO Score
FICO Credit Scores: What Do They Mean?
Since our world is so automated, it’s probably not that surprising that your creditworthiness comes down to a single number. The years of paying your various bills: your mortgage, car payments, and credit card bills can be analyzed, sliced, diced, spindled and mutilated into a single indicator of whether you’re likely to meet your future obligations.
The three credit reporting agencies use slightly different formulas to build a credit score. The original FICO model 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 calculate your credit score:
- Your Credit History – How long have you had credit?
- History of Payments – Do you have a history of late payments?
- Your Credit Card Balances – How many accounts? How much do you owe on your accounts?
- Credit Inquiries – How many times have lenders pulled your credit report for the purpose of lending you money?
These factors are weighted slightly differently depending on which formula the agency uses. The results are added up and distilled into a single number. FICO scores can be as low as 300 and as high as 800. Higher is better. Most home buyers have a score above 620.
Not just for qualifying
Did you know? FICO scores are used for more than just determining whether or not you qualify for a mortgage. Lenders give lower interest rates to individuals with higher scores.
Raising your FICO score
What can you do to raise your FICO score? Unfortunately, not much. Some companies promise quick fixes, but they can’t do anything different than what you can do — for free. You should, of course, appeal for the credit agency to remove any incorrect data from your credit report; this is the only way to quickly improve your credit score.
Know your FICO
In order to raise your FICO score, you’ve got to have the reports that the agencies use to build it, and of course, you need the score itself. Fair Isaac has created a web site (www.myFICO.com) that lets you do just that. It’s inexpensive to quickly get your FICO from all three reporting agencies, along with your credit report. They also provide information and tools that can help you understand how to improve your FICO score.
You can get a federally-mandated free credit report once per year from all three agencies by visiting 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 get the most favorable mortgage.
