How's your FICO Score?

Since we live in an computer-driven society, it's not surprising that your ability to repay your mortgage loan boils down to just one 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.

The three reporting agencies use slightly different formulas to build a credit score. The original FICO model was developed by Fair Isaac and Company. While Experian still calls its score "FICO", TransUnion calls its score "Beacon" and Equifax uses "Empirica." While each of the models considers a range of data available in your credit report, each agency uses the following to determine a credit score:

• Your Credit History - Have you had credit for many years, or for a short time?
• Payment History - Do you pay your bills on time?
• Credit Card Balances - How many credit card accounts do you have, and how much do you owe on them?
• Requests for Credit - How many times have you had your credit checked for a loan?

These factors are assigned weights based on the formula being used. Each formula produces a single number which may vary slightly by agency. FICO scores can be as low as 300 and as high as 800. Higher is always better. Most home buyers these days have a score above 620.

Your FICO score affects your interest rate

Did you know? 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.

Raising your FICO score

What can you do about your FICO score? Unfortunately, not much. Some companies promise quick fixes, but they can't do anything different than what you can do — for free. You must appeal for the credit agency to remove any incorrect reporting on your credit report; this is really the only "quick fix" for credit troubles.

Getting your credit score

Before you can improve your FICO score, you have to get your score and be sure that the credit reports from each agency are correct. Fair Isaac, the corporation that offered the original FICO credit score, offers credit scores on myFICO.com. It's inexpensive, fast, and easy to get your credit score along with credit reports from all three reporting agencies. They also provide helpful information and online tools that help you analyze what actions might have the greatest impact on your FICO score.

You can get a federally-mandated free credit report every year from all three agencies when you visit 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 most favorable mortgage.

Want to know more about your credit score? Call us at (562) 693-5048.