What is your Fico Score

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WHAT IS A FICO SCORE?

Your FICOŽ score is the numeric representation of your financial responsibility, based on your credit history. Based on a scale of 300 to 850, there are three FICOŽ scores - one from each national credit bureau. These three FICOŽ scores are the measure that most lenders will look at when evaluating your credit or loan applications.

Along with the credit report, lenders can also buy a credit score based on the information in the report. That score is calculated by a mathematical equation that evaluates many types of information that are on your credit report at that agency. By comparing this information to the patterns in hundreds of thousands of past credit reports, the score identifies your level of future credit risk.

In order for a FICOŽ score to be calculated on your credit report, the report must contain at least one account which has been open for six months or greater. In addition, the report must contain at least one account that has been updated in the past six months. This ensures that there is enough information - and enough recent information - in your report on which to base a score.

About FICO scores
Credit bureau scores are often called "FICO scores" because most credit bureau scores used in the US are produced from software developed by Fair Isaac and Company. FICO scores are provided to lenders by the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The chart below shows the national average of FICO scores in the country.

FICO scores provide the best guide to future risk based solely on credit report data. The higher the score, the lower the risk. But no score says whether a specific individual will be a "good" or "bad" customer. And 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.

Other Names for FICO Scores
FICO scores have different names at each of the three credit reporting agencies. All of these scores, however, are developed using the same methods by Fair Isaac, and have been rigorously tested to ensure they provide the most accurate picture of credit risk possible using credit report data.

CREDIT REPORTING AGENCY	FICO SCORE
Equifax	BEACONŽ
Experian	Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Model
TransUnion	EMPIRICAŽ

More than one score
In general, when people talk about "your score", they're normally are talking about your current FICO score. However, there is no one score used to make decisions about you. This is true because:

Credit bureau scores are not the only scores used.
Many lenders use their own scores, which often will include the FICO score as well as other information about you.
Your score may be different at each of the three main credit reporting agencies.
The FICO score from each credit reporting agency considers only the data in your credit report at that agency. If your current scores from the three credit reporting agencies are different, it's probably because the information those agencies have on you differs.
Your FICO score changes over time.
As your data changes at the credit reporting agency, so will any new score based on your credit report. So your FICO score from a few month ago is probably not the same score a lender would get from the credit reporting agency today.