When reviewing mortgage applications the information lenders look for first and count on the most heavily is the applicants FICO score. This score is what a loan officer uses in deciding how credit worthy an applicant is. It also has great influence over the terms offered with a loan. Lenders look for a high FICO score because they know that higher scores generally mean less risk for them. Low-risk applicants can count on better rates and loan terms.
The precise formulas and methods used to calculate a credit score are closely guarded proprietary secrets. Nevertheless, the FICO corporation, the leading developer of credit scoring processes, has made the general outlines of their process available to the public. Knowing this can help the consumer understand what factors are used to formulate their credit score and what items to correct or appeal to get a higher FICO score. The following list of factors provide a general outline of what the FICO looks at and what weight it assigns to these factors:
Payment Habits: Everyone knows it is important to make payments on time, and now you know why: this is 35% of your overall FICO score. Slow payments lower your score and conversely on-time payments raise the score.
Credit Used and Available Credit: This is an important ratio to a lender and it makes up 30% of your FICO score. Having plenty of available credit will raise your score. Also, paying down loans regularly but not closing them, and paying down your open revolving credit cards will increase the score. However, closing revolving credit accounts will lower the score.
Duration of Credit History: The FICO score is a tool to give creditors insight into how a person will behave if credit is extended. The longer the credit history the more information is available to indicate how a person will handle future loans. The longer your credit history the higher this part of your score will be. At 15%, it ranks third in weight for the scoring process.
Two additional factors weigh in at about 10% a piece. These are the number of types of credit one has successfully managed and the number of recent credit inquiries. The FICO score generally considers the successful use of diverse types of credit as a positive factor. FICO also looks at the number of recent queries into a persons credit and considers this indicative of the persons current financial situation. The more queries made ” meaning the more credit the person has applied for recently ” the lower the score.
This overview of how FICO scores are calculated can help and empower consumers as they learn how to take care of and monitor their credit and help them obtain more favorable loan terms.
Wendy Polisi is the owner of Finance the Dream which offers Rent to Own Houses and Lease Options throughout America. To find out more about how they can help you get into your dream home, please visit them at financethedream.com. To learn more about Improving Credit Score, please visit her blog.