Similar to
the FICO formula, you need to understand why each factor is important, and what you need to do in order to help improve your credit score.
The FICO formula changes occasionally, most recently in December 2016.
Your credit mix — which forms 10 % of
the FICO formula — is simply the range of credit account types that appear on your credit report.
• Developed a few years ago by the major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to compete with the industry - leading
FICO formula.
The company that develops FICO scores, for example, doesn't ding you (or not much) for mortgage inquiries made within 30 - 45 days of scoring, depending on which version of
the FICO formula the lender uses.
This is thanks to an ongoing dispute between the Fair Isaac Corporation (keeper of
the FICO formula) and Experian.
One little - known provision in
the FICO formula is specifically designed to encourage you to find the best credit deals possible by shopping around for the lowest interest rates.
The exact
FICO formula is a closely guarded secret, but in 2014 I had a conversation with one individual who seemed to have cracked the code.
Each reporting agency uses the same basic
FICO formula to score the information that they collect.
The FICO formula rewards consumers who have a good mix of credit accounts — credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, etc..
Furthermore, there is a special «rate - shopping» provision in
the FICO formula that says that all mortgage - related inquiries that occur during a normal shopping period (generally defined as 14 days), will only count as one inquiry for scoring purposes.
The credit bureaus us the basic
FICO formula to score the information they collect about you.
These other credit scores are similar to the true FICO score, but are calculated using formulas that differ from
the FICO formula.
It's true that too many credit inquiries can have an adverse effect on your credit score, but there's a special provision in
the FICO formula designed to encourage rate shopping.
This is certainly something to keep in mind, but most people don't know that there's a rate - shopping provision in
the FICO formula.
Specifically, if you apply for a mortgage or auto loan with several different lenders within a «normal shopping period» — which ranges from 14 to 45 days, depending on the version of
the FICO formula — it will count as a single inquiry for credit - scoring purpose.
FICO formulas require at least six months of credit history before a score can be generated, and at least one account must have been updated by the issuer in the previous six months.
Not exact matches
«Fair Isaac Corp., or
FICO, the company behind the widely used scoring
formula, and data provider CoreLogic recently announced a collaboration that will result in a separate score that will be available to mortgage lenders and incorporates information that will include payday loans, evictions and child support payments.
Your
FICO credit score is calculated using the information on your credit report and a proprietary
formula.
That said, the fundamental
formula used to calculate your
FICO score is pretty straightforward and universally used:
In 1989, the
FICO Score was introduced as the
formula banks and other lenders started using to evaluate the creditworthiness of a potential consumer.
Lending Club uses a somewhat complex
formula that takes into account various factors that appear on a borrower's credit report, such as
FICO score, number of recent credit inquiries, length of credit history, the total number of open credit accounts and revolving credit, to name a few.
Although
FICO is pretty secretive with its magic
formula, CreditCards.com was able to lay out a rough outline of what's most important.
This
FICO score was fed by a
formula that looked only at a borrower's finances — mostly his or her debt load and bill - paying record.
The precise
formula used to derive your
FICO score — the most widely used credit score — remains unknown; however, Fair Isaac Corp., which generates
FICO scores, has said five factors go into your score:
Although the exact
formula for calculating the score is proprietary information and owned by
FICO, here is an approximate breakdown of how your credit score is formed:
CoreLogic has teamed up with
FICO, which has been tweaking the
formula of their credit score to accommodate the extra financial information, which is also expected to be able to predict how a consumer would act with different loan terms.
Your
FICO credit score is calculated using the information on your credit report and a proprietary
formula.
FICO simplified the process by using a mathematical
formula to distill that information into a three - digit number that indicated how likely you were to pay a loan on time.
Equifax Credit Score, like
FICO, Vantagescore, and others, is based on a proprietary
formula that is not publicly available.
As the most widely used credit score among consumer lenders, the
FICO score's
formula matters.
For the average person who doesn't want to pay for a
FICO score but remains curious about how they fare, each of the three CRAs developed their own credit score
formulas for your muse.
On August 7
FICO announced
FICO Score 9, a revision in the
formula that underlies its popular credit score.
The specific
formula used to calculate your
FICO score is a well - guarded secret, but maintaining a good debt - to - credit ratio is an effective way to boost this category's contribution to your credit score.
To more accurately gauge your risk of nonpayment, the widely used
FICO scoring model not only looks at overall debt in comparison to total credit limits, «the scoring
formula also looks at utilization on the individual cards that make up the overall utilization percentage,» says Barry Paperno, consumer operations manager at myFICO.com.
When I interviewed perfect
FICO score achiever David Howe a few years ago, he said that part of his magic
formula was a small credit card balance.
The term credit score usually refers to your
FICO score, a number based on a
formula developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation, which looks at a summary of all your credit accounts and payment history.
To obtain a
FICO credit score, you must purchase it directly from
FICO but there are other free credit score alternatives that don't use the same exact
formula as
FICO.
The
FICO score is calculated using a secret
formula created and owned by the Fair Isaacs's Company.
That said, the fundamental
formula used to calculate your
FICO score is pretty straightforward and universally used:
The newest versions of the
FICO scoring
formula allow for a 45 - day «rate shopping» period.
How
FICO 9 will reduce collection's negative effect on scores Along with some other consumer - friendly changes brought on by the National Consumer Assistance Plan, such as the removal of most tax liens and civil judgments from credit reports, some relief also awaits collection - burdened consumers with the latest
FICO scoring
formula:
FICO 9.
To see why, let's take a look at how credit utilization is calculated by the
FICO scoring
formula, keeping in mind that there are two major card utilization measurements: overall and individual card utilization.
This score uses a
formula that is a little different than the one used to calculate the
FICO score.
The
formula used by
FICO can not be disclosed because of a decision made by U.S. Congress.
By employing a «30 - day buffer» and «inquiry deduplication» process, the
FICO scoring
formula sets out to ignore duplicate inquiries per purchase and count only the number necessary to help do its job of predicting future risk.
To discourage for - profit piggybacking schemes in which authorized user trade lines are «sold» to strangers looking to repair their credit, the latest versions of the
FICO scoring
formula, beginning with the
FICO 8 model, provide less of an incentive for exploitation by reducing the positive scoring impact from an authorized user account than for one held as the primary account holder, either individually or jointly.
FICO then uses secret
formulas to squeeze all of this information into a single number, which can range from 300 to 850.
Unfortunately,
FICO does not reveal the
formulas used to generate its credit scores.
As for credit accounts you don't use, Jeff Richardson of VantageScore and Sprauve of
FICO say their respective scoring
formulas currently do not penalize people for having «too many» cards.