Credit Score Research Paper

What is a Credit Score?
Credit scores influence the credit that’s available and the terms (interest rate, etc.) that lenders may offer. It’s a vital part of credit health.

When a consumer applies for credit – whether for a credit card, an auto loan, or a mortgage – lenders want to know what risk they'd take by loaning money. When lenders order a credit report, they can also buy a credit score that’s based on the information in the report. A credit score helps lenders evaluate a credit report because it is a number that summarizes credit risk, based on a snapshot of a credit report at a particular point in time.

It is important to understand that not every credit score offered for sale online is a FICO® Score.

How scoring helps me

About …show more content…
90% of top lenders use FICO® Scores to help them make billions of credit-related decisions every year. FICO® Scores are calculated based solely on information in consumer credit reports maintained at the credit reporting agencies.

By comparing this information to the patterns in hundreds of thousands of past credit reports, FICO® Scores estimate your level of future credit risk.

What is a good credit score?

Base FICO® Scores have a 300–850 score range. The higher the score, the lower the risk. But no score says whether a specific individual will be a “good” or “bad” customer.

While many lenders use FICO® Scores to help them make lending decisions, each lender has its own strategy, including the level of risk it finds acceptable for a given credit product. There is no single “cutoff score” used by all lenders and there are many additional factors that lenders use to determine your actual interest rates.

What’s in my FICO® Scores

How to improve my FICO® Scores

Reasons for your credit …show more content…
FICO® Scores at each credit bureau

You have FICO® Scores for each of the three credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Each FICO® Score is based on information the credit bureau keeps on file about you.

FICO® Scores from each credit bureau consider only the data in your credit reports at that bureau. Your credit scores may be different at each of the credit bureaus. If your current scores from the credit bureaus are different, it’s probably because the information those bureaus have on you differs. If your information is identical at all three credit reporting bureaus, your FICO® Scores from the same version from each bureau should be relatively close.

Why are my scores different for the 3 credit bureaus?

Your FICO® Scores will change over time

As the information in your credit report changes, so will any new credit score based on your credit report. So your FICO® Scores from a month ago are probably not the same score a lender would get from the credit bureau

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