You Credit Score- How's Your FICO?

Because we live in a computer-driven world, you're probably not surprised to hear 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, diced, spindled and mutilated into a single indicator of whether you're likely to meet your future obligations.

TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, the three major credit agencies, each have their own proprietary formula for building 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, each agency uses the following to determine your score:

• Your Credit History - How many years have you had credit?
• Payment History - Have you paid more than 30 days late?
• Credit Card Balances - How many accounts do you hold, and how much do you owe on them?
• Inquiries on Your Credit - 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 result is one number. FICO scores can be as low as 300 and as high as 800. Higher scores are better. Most borrowers getting a mortgage these days have a score above 620.

Your FICO score affects your interest rate

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

Improving your score

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot you can do to immediately improve your credit score. So called "credit repair" companies advertise quick fixes, but the score is formulated from your lifelong 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 troubles.

Getting your credit score

To improve your score, you must get the reports that the agencies use to build it, and of course, you need the score itself. Fair Isaac, the company that invented the original FICO score, offers credit scores on its website: myFICO.com. It's inexpensive, fast, and easy to get your credit score along with credit reports from all three agencies. Also available are information and online tools that help you analyze what actions might have the greatest impact on your FICO score.

You can get a federally-mandated free credit report once per year from the three major agencies when you visit AnnualCreditReport.com. While this report does not include a free credit score, the cost to "upgrade" your report to include a credit score is very reasonable.

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.

Want to know more about credit scores? Give us a call: 630-717-3600.