Understanding Your Credit Score

Bad or low credit score? We all know how important our credit scores are. Potential landlords, creditors, employers, lenders and many others are interested in your credit score. A high score can demonstrate to possible creditors that, should they lend you credit, you'd be able to repay it. A low score, on the other hand, can be a sign to an employer that you might not be a reliable job candidate.

Despite financial and credit problems in the past, there are helpful solutions ranging from credit report repair, debt counseling, debt help, tax debt help, home loans and auto loans, to savings and retirement solutions.

Your credit score is the biggest determining factor lenders look at when assessing your risk for any type of loan. This 3-digit number affects the outcome of you getting an auto or home loan; not to mention if you want to refinance your mortgage, manage your debt, and save for the long run. And if you are able to qualify for a loan, your credit score affects the rate you will be offered. Because of this, having a healthy credit score may save you hundreds of dollars every month because you'll be paying much lower interest rates.

Mistakes and other inaccurate information on your credit report aren't your fault and in a perfect world, wouldn't affect you.

Because the credit bureaus collect and distribute your personal information, you have the right to check that what they are distributing is in fact correct.

Credit is scored as a point system. This rating system is meant to develop a snapshot of the risk you currently represent to a lender. Several parameters in your credit file, including length of credit history, number of open accounts, loans, mortgages, public records, and others are formulated to produce a three-digit score between about 300 and 950.

There are other scores used by lenders and insurance companies (some of which are developed by FICO) such as Application and Behavior scores. These other scores take other information into account. Usually a lender will use a combination of your credit score with other factors when determining your risk. They all have the same objective, to determine the borrower's potential risk. Regardless of whether the score was generated by FICO or a system based on FICO parameters, they all yield an industry standard three-digit score. This score places the borrower in one of three main categories.

Click here to learn how to fix your credit score.