FICO Credit Scores: What Do They Mean?

Since we live in an automated, you're probably not surprised to hear that your creditworthiness comes down to a single number. All the years you've been paying your various bills: your mortgage, car payments, and credit card bills are analyzed, diced, spindled and mutilated into a single indicator of whether you're likely to meet your future obligations.

All three credit agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) use a slightly different system to arrive at a 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 each of the models considers a range of data available in your credit report, each agency uses the following to build your score:

• Your Credit History - How long have you had credit?
• History of Payments - Do you have any payments later than 30 days?
• Your Credit Card Balances - How many accounts do you have? How much do you owe?
• Requests for Credit - How many times have you had your credit checked for a loan?

Each of these factors is assigned a value and a weight. The result is one number. Credit scores range from 300 to 800. Higher scores are better. Most home buyers probably find their credit scores falling above 620.

Not just for qualifying

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. Despite what you hear from "credit repair" companies, the score is based on your lifetime credit history, so it's not possible to raise it significantly in the short term. (Of course you must have incorrect items removed from your credit report.)

Know your FICO score

Before you can improve your credit score, you must get your score and make sure that the credit reports from each credit reporting agency are correct. 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. Also available are helpful information and online tools that 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. 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'll be a more informed consumer and you'll be better positioned to get the right mortgage for you.