Understanding Credit Scores
If you’ve attempted to take out a loan or open a new credit account recently, you realize that the days of easy credit are gone. Lenders, insurers, landlords and even many employers are more diligently analyzing your credit history to see if you are a beneficial risk.
A low credit score can be costly over the course of a lifetime. It’s harder to qualify for a mortgage, you will need a bigger down payment and you’ll pay a larger interest rate, which adds up over time. Someone with poor credit might pay an extra $100,000 in interest over the life of a typical 30-year, $300,000 mortgage.
Similarly, someone with a poor score might pay an additional $10,500 in interest on a 60-month, $25,000 auto loan. Credit card interest rates can be 10 or more percentage points higher and credit limits are commonly much smaller.
Upon request from you or a potential lender (and, increasingly, employers and landlords), bureaus put together a report showing your credit history to date. Along with other things, it contains a summary of open and closed accounts, outstanding balances, recent inquiries and negative items (late/missed payments, bankruptcy, tax liens, etc.)
When you apply for new credit, the lender will ask a credit bureau to compile a three-digit credit score, based on information in your credit report – essentially a snapshot of your credit profile at that moment. The lender uses your credit score to add its own selection criteria to decide whether you are a worthy credit risk.
Five factors are used to determine your credit score: payment history (commonly around 35 percent of your score), amount owed (30 percent), length of credit history (15 percent), newly opened credit accounts (10 percent), and types of credit used (10 percent). These five categories could be weighted differently depending on your individual circumstances.
A good strategy is to rotate ordering a free report from one bureau every four months; that way, you can keep year-round tabs on what’s being reported about you. You can also order individual credit scores for around $15.
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June 16, 2011 | Posted by Takara Alexis
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