How is Your Credit Score Measured?

By Pat Johnson

While there is no guarantee that past performance is indicative of future behavior, this is the model lenders have employed with respect to credit worthiness. They use your credit score, which is a summary of your past loans, as a measure of how likely you are to repay your debts.

There are three main credit reporting agencies. They collect all of the details of your credit accounts and compile them for easy reference. The data includes payment history, balances, and number of accounts. Then lenders can access this information as part of their loan adjudication process.

Your credit score and credit report are not the same thing. You can get a copy of your credit report once a year at no cost, simply by requesting it from the credit bureaus. However you will have to pay a small fee if you want to know your credit score.

You may sometimes encounter your credit score being referred to as your FICO. This is because the Fair Isaac Corporation was among the first to create a credit scoring system. Lenders use this system differently in their adjudication of risk, but it is certainly near universally applied to some extent.

You should get a copy of your free credit report once a year to make sure that no mistakes have been made with it. While it is uncommon, it certainly does happen. Check the report to make sure that all of the accounts are indeed yours and that your name, address and birthday are correct. If you do find a mistake get it fixed right away. The sooner you do so they easier it is.

There is no denying that a high credit score makes it easier to be approved for credit and obtain better interest rates. In this light it is crucial to protect your credit rating. Be certain to make your loan payments on time, because late payments are the fastest way to bring down your score.

There are a few more things you can do to help yourself in this area as well. Lenders frown an applicants that have a great number of open accounts on their bureau and more so if they are maxed out. They also do not like credit seekers so you should try to keep bureau inquiries to a minimum. It is difficult to bring your score back up once it falls, so do you best to keep it in good standing.

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For more information on the rating credit score scale and increasing your average FICO score check out The Credit Camp.