If you’re trying to boost your credit score, it pays to know everything you can about how the scores are figured, what affects them and how you can improve your own credit score as quickly as possible. Below are 24 facts you need to know.
1. A credit score ranges from 300 to 850.
Your score is calculated using information in your credit reports, one from each of the three credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Creditors use it to determine the chance that you will repay a debt as agreed.
2. Good credit can save you money.
When you have a good credit score, which starts at around 750, you might be offered better interest rates for mortgage loans, car loans and credit cards. Lenders also use the scores to disqualify consumers for the best, most competitive terms and rates.
3. FICO is the most commonly used score.
The FICO Score, created by the Fair Isaac Corporation, is the most-often used credit score by lenders to determine whether to lend you money. You have a slightly different FICO score for each of the three credit bureaus based on information in each credit report.
Naomi Mannino is a long-time freelance consumer personal finance, health, newspaper and magazine reporter who has covered smart spending, saving, credit, debt, shopping, banking, student loans, health insurance, medical and health news and how it will affect you today.
What prompted her interest in covering personal finance was her early experiences with credit cards and the successful completion of a debt management program in her mid-twenties when her credit card balances got out of control. What she learned during that process was priceless and now she shares those positive, tough lessons with you.
Naomi has a BBA in Marketing from Pace University in New York City with a minor in Consumer Behavior, which started her on a path as a retail industry copywriter and reporter. What she learned as a retail industry insider makes her a specialist in smart shopping and finding or taking advantage of deals and discounts.
She never writes about anything if she has not taken the advice from experts herself first! You can follow Naomi on Twitter @naomimannino.