How Is Your Credit Score Calculated?

March 16, 2009 — -- A young reader asked me last week how your credit score is calculated, how it's related to your credit report and how you find out your score. It was a great reminder that a lot of the consumer vocabulary I use is just mumbo-jumbo to folks who don't work in this world every day like I do. So here goes: Credit Scoring 101.

Your credit score is simply a three-digit number that predicts whether you'll pay back your loans and pay them on time. Scoring formulas are closely guarded but a typical scale ranges from 300 to 850. Before the economic crisis , a score of 680 or more qualified you for the very best mortgage interest rates. Now, credit has tightened up, and lenders are only offering the best rates to people with scores of 720 or even 740 and above. Your credit score is not static. It changes with every single payment you make or fail to make.

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Keep in mind that every bank does it differently, so your score could vary depending where you apply for credit. That's why if you are turned down for credit at one institution, you should apply to others. They may have different data on you or different standards.

So how is your credit score calculated? Statisticians studied peoples' payment patterns for years. They looked at things like late payments, kinds of credit, home ownership, how long you'd had credit cards, and the ratio of debt to available credit. They learned which factors are good predictors that you're likely to pay your bills. Then they assigned numerical values to those predictors and created statistical models.

Where does the raw information come from to create a score? From the credit reports kept on you by the big three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and Transunion. If that raw data is inaccurate, it will hurt your score. That's why it's so important to order your credit reports regularly at www.annualcreditreport.com, the only truly free source of credit reports. Check the reports and if you find mistakes, fill out the simple form to dispute them. But I digress.