Free Credit Repair Report: Understanding Your Credit Score
A Credit Article Contributed by Brandie King
You will never be able to start fixing your credit if you don't understand how your score is calculated, but this free credit repair report will help you understand it.
Free Credit Repair Report: Understanding the Words
Following are definitions for some of the words you will come across.
Credit Score (FICO score) - credit score (FICO score) - A specific score made available by credit bureaus that is used as a prediction of how likely somebody is to pay their debts in the future.
Credit Report/ Credit Report - A record of how you have paid credit accounts in the past. This report is used to analyze whether or not you are likely to pay accounts you obtain in the future on time and may be used by prospective creditors or employers.
Credit Bureau - Company that gathers information about your credit for use by prospective creditors, employers and others who may legally request information about your credit worthiness. The three largest credit bureaus are Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union.
Inquiry - An entry on your credit report that results from a creditor, or possible creditor, requesting your credit report. Too many inquiries can look bad, especially if you weren't granted the credit you were trying to get that resulted in the inquiry.
Free Credit Repair Report: Credit Score Ranges
Your credit score can be anywhere from 300 to 850. The lower it is the worse your credit is and anything below 500 is considered absolutely horrific. In addition, the lower your score is the higher your interest rates on approved credit will be. Here are the possible ranges: 559-500, 619-560, 674-620, 699-675, 719-700, 850-720.
Free Credit Repair Report: What Your Score is Comprised Of
Your score is comprised of whether or not you pay your credit card balances in full each much, whether or not you pay bills on time, exactly how many credit cards you own, the length of your credit history, how many inquiries your credit report shows, and the amount of your credit card limit that you spend each month. There are other factors used in determining your credit score but these are the main ones.
Free Credit Repair Report: Additional Helpful Information
You may or may not know this, but you actually have three (3) FICO scores. This is due to the fact that creditors do not have to, and usually don't, report to all three of the major credit bureaus. This results in your credit reports with the three agencies being different and therefore having different credit scores.
If you have the need to apply for a whole lot of credit in a short period of time, make sure that you keep all of your applying to a two week period. As long as you do so then all of the resulting inquiries will have to be lumped together into one single inquiry.
Did you know that your FICO score can affect whether or not you get hired by a prospective employer? It is becoming more and more common for employers to check credit reports and scores to help them determine the reliability of a prospective employee.
