About the FICO Credit Score

Because we live in an automated, you're probably not surprised to hear that your creditworthiness boils down to one number. The years of paying your various bills: your mortgage, vehicle 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.

The three agencies use slightly different formulas to build a credit score. Fair Isaac and Cooriginally developed this score. . Experian uses this model and calls its score FICO. Equifax's model, based on FICO, is called BEACON, while TransUnion, which also uses a slightly modified FICO, calls its score EMPIRICA. While these methods vary from one agency to another, all of the agencies use the following to calculate your score:

• Your Credit History - Have you had credit for many years, or for just a short time?
• Payment History - Do you have a history of late payments?
• Credit Card Balances - How many credit card accounts do you hold, and how much do you owe?
• Requests for Credit - How many times have lenders pulled your credit report for the purpose of giving you a loan?

These factors are assigned weights based on the formula being used. The result is one number. Credit scores range from 300 to 800. Higher scores are better. Most home buyers have a score above 620.

Your score greatly affects your interest rate

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.

Can I improve my FICO score?

Is it possible to improve your FICO score? Some companies promise quick fixes, but they can't do anything different than what you can do — for free. (Of course you must appeal incorrect items on your credit report.)

Getting your FICO score

Before you can improve your credit score, you must know your score and make certain that the credit reports from each agency are correct. Fair Isaac, the corporation that offered the original FICO credit score, offers FICO scores on myFICO.com. For a reasonable fee, you can quickly get your FICO score 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 free credit report once a year from all three agencies at AnnualCreditReport.com. These reports do not include a free credit score, but it's very inexpensive to get one at the same time.

Armed with this information, you will be a more informed consumer and you'll be better positioned to get the right mortgage for you.

Want to know more about credit scores? Give us a call at (813) 200-7931.