credit score

Credit Score - What Does My Credit Score Mean? - Free Article Courtesy of ArticleCity.com

What Does My Credit Score Mean?
by: Don Blackhurst

Lenders are using credit scores more and more to make decisions about who they will lend to. The main developer of these scores is called Fair, Isaac Co (FICO), thus these scores are often called FICO scores. Scores range from 300-850 with a lower score indicating a higher chance of defaulting on a loan and a higher score representing a better chance that the lender will get paid back. The national average score is approximately 680.

Every lender sets up its own score cutoffs but generally speaking, you can expect to receive the following treatments based on your score:

300-549: Extremely difficult to find any lender that will offer you credit.

550-619: You may be able to find credit, but very high interest rates and fees will likely apply.

620-679: You should be able to obtain credit, but you will probably be offered a higher interest rate.

680-749: You should have no problem getting credit and you will receive good interest rates and repayment terms.

750-850: Lenders are happy to offer you credit and provide you with their best rates and terms.

These scores are becoming even more important to us as consumers over time. For example, most insurance companies also check your score when you apply for car or home insurance. If your score is too low they might not even offer you insurance or they may offer it to you with higher premiums.

Many companies will also check your credit when you apply for a job. They look at how well you handle your personal finances as an indicator of how well you will take care of your professional responsibilities.

With so much at stake with your credit score it makes sense to know what your score is. TrimYourDebt.com has negotiated with the credit bureaus to offer consumers a free look at their credit report and credit score. It is a 30-day free trial offer, so you get the information right up-front and you can cancel free of charge within 30-days. To check your credit score for free, visit to find out now.

About The Author

Don Blackhurst has been working in the banking and finance industries for over 15 years and has an MBA with an emphasis in Finance. He is the co-founder of TrimYourDebt.com ( ), which provides free budgeting tools, debt planning, and credit help.

Many people nowadays are concerned about good status of their credit history and high value of their credit card score. Still, many of us have got no idea of what the credit score is and how it is calculated. So what is a credit score? I would define a credit score as a component of credit history. It is a number representing anybody’s creditworthiness. Creditors, use your credit history to evaluate the possible risk of lending money to you.

Your credit account score is calculated by means of three different algorithms by the three major American credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. This fact means that you may have three different credit scores at the same time. These three major credit bureaus provide data for your FICO score. FICO, in its turn, is the name of a Minneapolis company that invented credit scoring. It is the abbreviation for The Fair Isaac Corporation.

These three big companies track, month by month, anything that is related to your operations with money. They analyze your creditors, the sums you owe to them, your payment history and balances. Using all the data they can get they define your score.

Your score can be some number in a range between 150 and 950; the higher it is the better. Your score increases when you do anything to improve your creditworthiness. And vice versa, debts and bankruptcy reduce your credit score. If you do not know anything about “good debt” or “bad debt” I would suggest you either learn some financial education basics or use debit cards instead of credit ones in order to protect your credit rating.

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