Credit Scores

Here is some information on credit scores courtesy of our business affiliate:

FICO is the nickname of the "Fair Isaac & Company", a credit reporting bureau originated by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac. They designed a statistical model of behavior that assigns a score from 300-850 as an overall indicator of person's overall credit.


This score is made up of five major indicators, with a weighed percentage of influence on the final score.

Payment History

TYPE OF LOAN

• Credit card, Installments, Mortgage, ect.

ADVERSE PUBLIC RECORDS

• Bankruptcy, Judgment, Collection
• Past due items

SEVERITY OF DELINQUENCY

• How long past due

AMOUNT PAST DUE, DELINQUENT OR IN COLLECTION

• Time since last derogatory item
• Number of past due items
• Number of accounts paid as agreed

Capacity/amount owed

• Amount owing on accounts
• Amount owed on specific types of accounts
• Lack of specific types of accounts ex-all revolving, no installments
• Number of accounts with balences
• Proportion of balence to credit limit

Length of credit history

• Time since accounts opened
• Time since account activity

New Credit

• Number of recently opened accounts
• Number of recent credit inquires
• Time since an account was opened
• Time since credit had an inquiry
• Re-establishment of positive credit history following past negitive history

Types of Credit Used

• More finance company loans results in lower score
• Installment (raises) vs. Revolving (lowers)
• Current to 12 months-accounts

WHAT ACTIONS WILL HURT THE SCORE?

Missing Payments

Credit cards at capacity

Closing credit cards

Shopping for credit excessively

Having more revolving loans

Borrowing from finance companies

Here are some suggestions on how to improve your score:

Pay down

Do not close credit cards

Continue to make payments on time

Slow down

Move revolving debt

If you are in need of assistance or additional information please feel free to call:

Sharon Lintault at 678.631.1741