Fico

FICO® Credit

Information on FICO Scores

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What is a FICO score?

Do you know what your FICO credit score is or even what FICO stands for? FICO is, in a nutshell, your credit score. It stands for Fair Isaac & Company. Credit scoring got its start back in the 1950’s and is now the most reliable means for lenders to evaluate your credit worthiness. File that away in your trivial pursuit folder and lets move on to the importance of your FICO score.

Did you know that no one but FICO and the credit bureaus know how they compute your credit score? Yep, it’s their little secret and the FTC says that is totally acceptable. We might not know how they come up with the score but we do know what a good and bad score mean.

The following are the criteria considered when analyzing your credit history and thereby your score.

Timeliness of payments (the late payments ding you)
The length of time since credit has been established (did you just open your first credit account?)
The amount of credit used versus the amount of credit available (are your cards run up to the maximum or do you have some room to play with?)
Employment history (are you a job hopper or have you held the same job for at least 2 years?)
Length of time at your present address (same concept here-are you always moving?)

Negative credit information such as judgments, charge-offs, collections and the whopper-bankruptcies.

Can you increase your FICO credit score? You can but you can’t do it over night. You must think ahead and allow your self time to build it up. The following are some basic tips that if followed routinely can increase your FICO score over time.

Pay your bills on time. (duh, right?)
Don’t apply for credit willy nilly (be selective)
Reduce your credit balances (especially if you are maxed out)
If you don’t have very much credit get some more (remember be selective)

It can seem hard to get credit when you don’t have credit but it can be done. Time, again, is on your side. Once you have credit keep it looking shiny and bright so the FICO gods will continue shining upon you. Oh yeah, don’t forget to protect your beautiful credit from identity thieves. Check out our menu for more information.