Credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus collect and store your credit record and sell the information to financial institutions that are interested in
learning about your credit history.
In fact, they care so
little about your credit history that they do not bother to run a credit check or do any type of credit inquiries into your previous credit performance.
With increased bad debt cases, banks and other financial institutions have become really
cautious about your credit history and will conduct detailed background checks before lending you loans.
It might seem odd to answer questions
about your credit history when applying for life insurance, but to an insurance company, your credit history can indicate risk.
Items that affect your credit score include payment history, outstanding obligations, the length of time you've had outstanding credit, the types of credit you use, and the number of inquiries that have been
made about your credit history in the recent past.
But other scores, including a newer version of FICO called FICO 9.0 and the VantageScore, incorporate more information than FICO scores, which can help consumers who have «thinner» files with less information
about a credit history in them, said Brian Riley, the director of credit advisory services at Mercator Advisory Group.
Think of a credit score as a mathematical formula that takes
facts about your credit history and spits out a number that's used to assess the likelihood that you'll make payments on time.
Some key misperceptions remain and the lending industry as a whole needs to stress to consumers to become more
educated about their credit history and what they can do to improve it: ► Fewer than half (44 percent) understand that a credit score typically measures risk of not repaying loans rather than amount of debt (22 percent), financial resources (21 percent), or other factors.
It also tells you in black and white that a Credit Reporting Agency (CRA) can only remove accurate information
about your credit history if it is more than seven years old.