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What Is A Credit Score
To help lenders make those decisions faster and more objectively, they utilize a decision-making tool called a credit score. A credit score is a summary of the information in a credit report at the moment it is reviewed. A credit score is not part of your credit history and does not appear on your personal credit report.
There are many sources of credit scores. Divisions of some credit reporting companies develop credit scores, and other companies develop credit scores for credit grantors. Some credit grantors develop their own credit scoring systems. Different systems may measure different types of risk such as bankruptcy, profitability or collectability. In addition, there are scoring systems for different types of lenders or lending, such as auto loans, mortgages and banks. Different credit grantors may not view the same credit score in the same way.
To better understand how lenders view your risk level, you can purchase a credit score and report from experian.com, nationalscoreindex.com, vantagescore.experian.com or annualcreditreport.com.
- Credit scores don’t just look at the last two years of credit history
- Experian and myFICO.com
- Insurance scores are different than other credit scores
- There is more than one FICO score
- VantageScore grade of “B” is very good
- Why a credit score by itself is meaningless
- Why there isn’t just one credit score