How is credit determined?
Your personal credit rating is determined by your spending habits, your reliability with paying your bills, and how much debt you have overall. 1
| Rating | FICO Score | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Excellent | 720 and above | I have a long, established, positive credit history. |
| Great | 690-719 | I use my credit wisely and never miss a payment. |
| Very Good | 670-689 | I have a positive credit history with no recent late payments. |
| Good | 650-669 | I am responsible with my credit and usually make my payments on time. |
| Fair | 630-649 | I try to be responsible with my credit but have had some recent credit challenges. |
| Poor | 610-629 | I have a number of issues with my credit. |
| Very Poor | 580-609 | I have significant credit issues or have only very recently established credit. |
| Extremely Poor | 579 and below | I have an extremely poor credit history or I have no credit history at all. |
What is your credit made of?
Credit Report
A credit report is issued by an independent credit reporting agency and includes personal information; credit information like accounts, dates opened, account numbers, terms, amounts borrowed and payment history; how many creditors have requested your credit report; and public records of tax liens, bankruptcies and court-awarded judgments.
Credit reports are generated by each of the three major credit-reporting bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. What is reflected in your credit report may be used to compute your credit score.
Credit Score
Your credit score, sometimes referred to as a FICO score, can range from 300-850. Good credit scores can make it easier and less expensive to get credit for the things you want. Credit scores have become a way to see how an individual's credit compares to hundreds of thousands of other consumers. They are used by financial institutions to decide how likely you are to honor your financial commitments.
Actually, you have more than one credit score. Each of the three bureaus uses a different score for its own purposes, and they're not all the same for each person. These scores will also fluctuate from time to time, and may differ based on how each bureau calculates scores based on its stated criteria. To keep your credit in good standing it's important to be proactive.
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This information is provided for educational purposes and does not represent financial or legal advice.