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Basics Beginner: Credit

Introduction to Credit What Is Credit? Get Your Credit Report Periodically How Lenders Rate Creditworthiness: The Three Cs How Lenders Rate Creditworthiness: Your FICO Score Fair Credit Practices Credit Regulations Designed to Protect Consumers Responsible Use of Credit Summary of Credit
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How Lenders Rate Creditworthiness: Your FICO Score

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How Lenders Rate Creditworthiness: Your FICO Score

Your FICO score

The credit report represents a long list of a person’s payment history, credit accounts, and other information. The credit report itself is available free, but the credit score is not included. Perhaps more important is one’s FICO score, which is named after the company that developed it: Fair Isaac and Company (www.myfico.com). This score is a three-digit number that falls between 300 and 850. The higher the number, the more confidence lenders have that a person will be able to repay their debt on time. Although other companies provide credit scores, the FICO is the dominant score used in the industry. There are now several varieties of FICO scores available.

Things To Know

  • The higher your FICO score, the more confidence lenders have in you.
  • At 670 or higher, a person is considered a safe risk.

How your FICO score is weighted

At 670 or higher, a person is considered a safe risk and typically receives a loan without a problem and at a low interest rate. The FICO score is weighted as follows:

  • 35% payment history. Having a long history of making payments on time and no missed payments on all credit accounts is one of the top things that creditors look for.
  • 30% amount owed. This area measures the amount someone owes relative to all of the credit they have available to them. If a person is very close to the limit on all lines of credit, they can be deemed a potential risk in the ability to repay their debts on time.
  • 15% length of credit history. In general, a credit report containing a list of accounts opened for a long time will help a person’s credit score. The score considers one’s oldest account and the average age of all accounts.
  • 10% new credit. Opening several new credit accounts in a short period of time can result in a lowered credit score. Multiple credit report inquiries can represent a greater risk, but this does not include any requests made by the individual, an employer, or a lender who does so when sending the individual an unsolicited, "pre-approved" credit offer. In addition, to compensate for rate shopping, the score counts multiple inquiries in any 14-day period as just one inquiry.
  • 10% types of credit in use. A person’s mix of credit cards, retail accounts, finance company loans, and mortgage loans is evaluated.