5 Things you may not know about your fico score
July 10th, 2008Some basic facts that make up your credit score:
35% payment history
30% amount of $ owed
15% length of credit history
10% new credit
10% types of credit used
That being said, there are some things about your credit report that you may not know that affects your score. I have compiled a list of the top 5.
1. Inaccuracies like the spelling of your name and address. Most people don’t even think about this as an issue but any inconsistencies will have an affect. Other examples include your job, nicknames, and different birthdates. 3 different credit reporting bureaus can report 3 different credit reports and believe it or not, will affect your score. I have personally viewed thousands of credit reports and have never seen the same score for all 3 bureaus. Just like disputing an inaccuracy of an account on your report, you can just as easily dispute the inaccuracy of your personal information.
2. Settling Debts. How many times have you seen a commercial on tv about a non-profit organization offering to help negotiate with your creditors? This could be a better interest rate, a lower balance or a combination of the 2. As good as all of it all sounds, it can often times come back to bite you. Anytime you agree to change the terms of your “original” loan, it will affect your score. It then becomes a trade off as you may have lower payments but if your scores drop, your rates will likely be higher for future loans.
3. Closing accounts. You would think this is a good thing and that you should actually be rewarded for paying off an account and closing it. Not the case. Remember that 35% of your score comes from your payment history and closing an account ends your history. Its best to just maintain a zero balance or a very low balance and continue to make the payments. Anything less than 15% balance to limit would have the best impact on your score.
4. Parking tickets, library fines and other type of municipal agencies that have the ability to report items on your credit report. The last thing you need to show up on your report is some “Mickey Mouse” overdue library book penalty. This will affect your score just as much as a collections account.
5. Transferring credit card balances. One thing that is factored into your FICO score is the Credit Utilization Ratio. Without going into great detail as to what and how the CUR works, I’ll just cite an example. The scoring module would rather see you have 5 accounts with $1,000 balances than to have 1 account with a $5,000 balance. Balance transfers can hurt your score in 3 ways: 1. Opening a new account/usually an inquiry associated. 2. Immediately having a “maxed out” card because you transferred everything to 1 card and 3. Closing the account you transferred the balance from. Yes, you might have a better rate and lower fees but it might hurt you in the long run.
So, its a given to pay your bills on time and control your balances
But now, you realize that there are other factors that affect your score-negatively. And that preventative maintenance can raise your scores or keep them from dropping. For more information on how to completely eliminate your negative credit, check out www.CreditFixedNow.info you’d be surprised as to the simple things you could do to raise your scores.