How's your FICO Score?

Since we live in an computer-driven society, it should come as no surprise that your ability to repay your mortgage loan comes down to a single number. All the years you've been paying your various bills: your mortgage, vehicle payments, and credit card bills are analyzed, spindled and mutilated into a single indicator of whether you're likely to meet your future obligations.

TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, the three major credit reporting agencies, each have a proprietary formula for building a credit score. Fair Isaac and Cooriginally developed this score. . Experian uses this model and calls its score FICO. Equifax's model, based on FICO, is called BEACON, while TransUnion, which also uses a slightly modified FICO, calls its score EMPIRICA. While the formulas vary, the differences aren't huge; each agency uses the following factors to build your credit score:

• Credit History - Have you had credit for years, or for just a short time?
• Payment History - Do you have a history of late payments?
• Your Credit Card Balances - How many credit card accounts do you hold, and how much do you owe?
• Requests for Credit - How many times have you had your credit checked for a loan?

Each of these factors is assigned a value and a weight. Each formula produces a single number which varies slightly by agency. FICO scores can be as low as 300 and as high as 800. Higher is always better. Most home buyers will probably find their credit scores above 620.

Not just for qualifying

Did you know? Credit scores are used for more than just determining whether or not you qualify for a mortgage. Higher scores indicate you are probably a better credit risk, and thus may qualify for a better mortgage rate.

Improving your score

What can you do to improve your FICO score? Very little in the short term. So called "credit repair" companies advertise quick fixes, but the score is based on your lifetime credit history, so you can't turn it around right away. (Of course you can and should have incorrect items removed from your credit report.)

Getting your credit score

Before you can improve your score, you must get your score and be sure that the reports from each agency are correct. Fair Isaac has created a web site (www.myFICO.com) that lets you do just that. For a reasonable fee, you can quickly get your FICO score from all three agencies, along with your credit report. Also available are 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 once a year from the three major agencies at AnnualCreditReport.com. These reports do not include a free score, but it's very inexpensive to get one at the same time.

Now that you have all the facts, you'll be a more informed consumer and you'll be better positioned to get the right mortgage for you.

Curious about your credit score? Give us a call: 4104614043.