Customer Service

Score Power FAQs

Why did my credit report receive the score it did?

Your credit score is based on information contained in your credit file. By reviewing the key negative and positive factors that impact your score, you can gain a better understanding of your score.

No derogatory information was reported on my credit report. Why did I receive a negative factor relating to derogatory data?

Delinquency may be indicated on any account that is currently delinquent or any account that is currently in good standing but has delinquency in the past.

To locate evidence of current or historical delinquency on your account, go to the Equifax Credit Report™ and click 'Negative Account History' under section 2 'Credit Summary' in the navigation bar on the left side of the page. This area will summarize the delinquent account information. Evidence of current or historical delinquency may appear in the following fields:

• The 'Account Status' of the account (30 or more days past due, chapter 13, repossession, bad debt, placed for collection, foreclosure, included in bankruptcy, etc.)
• An indication of any 'Past Due' amount
• The 'Times Past Due' and 'Previous High Status' of the account or other historical payment indicators showing previous 30, 60, or 90 days delinquent status on the account, or previous derogatory status, and when it occurred
• 24 Month Payment History indicating the number of times an account has been 30 Days, 60 Days, or 90 Days past due during the life of the account
• 'Description' associated with the account, containing narrative codes (comments) attached to accounts, if they contain any comment that is categorized as a derogatory event (for example, account placed for collection, paid by garnishment, etc.)

Note that accounts that have gone into derogatory status but were subsequently satisfied (for example, paid charge-off, account paid after foreclosure started) still have a derogatory event associated with them, which results in a reason code indicating derogatory data.

Why Lenders Use Scores

Typically, lenders want to see how you have fulfilled your credit obligations in the past to help them determine if they should approve your request for credit now, and to help them determine the terms of that credit.

A FICO® score is a valuable guide to future risk based solely on credit file data. The higher the score, the lower the risk to lenders when extending new credit to a consumer. The score is an objective measurement of your credit risk at a particular point in time.

Lenders may also evaluate other types of information -- such as data you provide on the credit application (for example, income, how long you have lived at your residence, other banking relationships you may have) in their loan evaluation process.

How can I understand my score?

It takes time and there is no quick fix for eliminating past aspects of your credit history that may be affecting your score. In fact, quick-fix efforts usually don't work. Be sure to avoid "credit repair" clinics that offer to remove late payments or bankruptcies from your credit record. Such clinics are often disreputable, preying on vulnerable consumers who are often desperate for help. It is illegal for these clinics to offer to remove accurate and timely negative items from your credit history. If you are unsure about a clinic's credibility, contact the Better Business Bureau before signing up. The best advice is to monitor your credit responsibly over time.

Scores can change gradually over time as one's overall credit picture gets better. That happens by engaging in creditworthy behavior going forward, such as paying your bills on time and using credit conservatively. In addition, you should focus on the key factors provided with your score. We will sell you your credit score and include an explanation of the factors affecting your score. These are the main elements or factors affecting your credit score. Here are some illustrations of the "dos" and "don'ts" of creditworthy behavior:

Do

• Pay your bills on time. Delinquent payments and collections can have a significantly negative impact on your score.
• If you have missed payments, get current and stay current.
• Pay off debt rather than move it around.
• Re-establish your credit history if you have had problems. Opening new accounts responsibly and paying them off on time may help in the long term.
• Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.
• Keep credit cards but manage them responsibly. In general, having credit cards and installment loans (and paying timely payments) may help in the long term. Someone with no credit cards, for example, tends to be a higher risk than someone who has managed credit cards responsibly.
• If you are having trouble making ends meet, contact your creditors or see a legitimate credit counselor.
• Keep balances low on credit cards and other revolving credit.

Do Not:

• Close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score.
• Open a number of new credit cards that you do not need, just to increase your available credit. This approach could backfire and actually lower your score.
• If you have had credit for a short time, do not open a lot of new accounts too rapidly. New accounts could lower your average account age, which will have a larger effect on your score if you do not have a lot of other credit information. Also, rapid account build-up can look risky if you are a new credit user.
• Do your rate shopping for a given loan within a short period of time. FICO® scores distinguish between a search for a single loan and a search for many new credit lines, in part by the length of time over which inquiries occur.

How do I set up a fraud alert?

To set up a fraud alert, simply call our Consumer Fraud Division at 1-888-766-0008. You will be presented with an automated voice response system that will ask you to input your personal information. This process should only take a few minutes.

If you prefer, you may also write to the Consumer Fraud Division at the following address:

Can I get a free score after revisions to my credit file?

You will need to order Score Power® to see if your score has changed. The Score Power® product provides you with your Equifax Credit Report™  information on the day it is pulled, and your FICO® score calculated from that information.

You have access to the report and score online for 30 days, but the information is not updated during that time. Keep in mind that your score may not change or may only change a little after revisions are made to the credit file. This is because the importance of each factor depends on the overall information in your credit report. In scoring, what is important is the mix of information, which varies from person to person and even for any one person over time.

Will I be penalized for shopping around for the best rate?

Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries for your credit score from auto or mortgage lenders within a short period of time. The FICO® score treats these as a single inquiry, which will have little or no impact on your credit score.

The FICO® score ignores all auto- or mortgage-related inquiries that occur within the 30-day period previous to an inquiry from an auto or mortgage lender (called the buffer period). And prior to that buffer period, the scoring software also notes when earlier inquiries were made, if any, and counts back 14 days from each one. The score then counts all auto- or mortgage-related inquires made within any 14-day period as just one inquiry.

For example: John Doe is shopping for a mortgage loan and a lender gets his credit report on November 30. John's credit report also lists three other mortgage inquiries that were made earlier that month. The FICO® score ignores those previous mortgage inquiries because they all fell within the 30-day buffer period.

Now let us say that John also purchased a car three months before he began shopping for a mortgage loan. His car shopping resulted in three inquiries from different banks and credit unions over several days. Since they occurred within the same 14-day period, those three inquiries are counted as just one inquiry by the FICO® scoring model.

Do all lenders use the same FICO® score cutoffs?

The simple answer is no. Each lender may consider a number of factors (including your FICO score) and employ its own risk management strategies in connection with its decisions whether to approve an application for a loan or credit and on what terms. When you obtain a Score Power® report, you should review the explanation of what your score means to understand how lenders are likely to view you.

Equifax Credit Report™ 

When you purchase Score Power®, you receive access to your Equifax Credit Report™  at no extra charge. It reflects the information in your credit file as of the date you purchase the product and is available to review for a full 30 days. To learn more about your Equifax Credit Report™ , Click here.

FICO® Score Ranges

FICO® scores can range from 300 to 850, but the majority of scores usually fall within the 600s and 700s. Since there is no one universal score cutoff used by all lenders, it is hard to say what a good score is outside the context of a particular lending decision. For example, a score of 750 may qualify you for a platinum credit card, whereas a score of 675 may indicate you are a better match for a standard card.

Your lender may be able to give you guidance on the criteria that it uses for a specific credit product. Based on the general population's FICO® scores, the ranges and percentages of scores are:

• 20% are above 780
• 20% are in the range of 745 - 780
• 20% are in the range of 690 - 745
• 20% are in the range of 620 - 690
• 20% are below 619

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 specific credit product.

FICO® Score Simulator

The FICO® Score Simulator is a powerful tool to help you determine how actions can affect your FICO® score -- both for better and worse. There are two options for simulating how certain actions might affect your FICO® score:

Suggested Best Action
Assuming that all accounts and account balances remain the same, this option helps you determine which action may have the biggest impact on your FICO® score.

Choose Your Own Action
This option presents several possible actions for you to choose from, and then simulates how taking that action might affect your FICO® score. Keep in mind that the results of different simulations are not necessarily cumulative. In other words, taking two separate actions, each of which could impact your FICO® score 20 points, does not necessarily mean that your FICO® score will change by 40 points.

How to Read Your Score

Your FICO® score is divided into the following sections:

Summary
The 'Summary' page shows your actual score as of the date it was generated, along with a description of what your score means. More detailed explanations of what your score means to you are available in the following sections.

Top Positive Factors
The positive factors listed in this section reflect areas of your credit behavior that are better than average, translating into a higher FICO® score.  These factors are provided in order of impact -- the first listed has affected your FICO® score most positively and so on.

Top Negative Factors
If your score is high, these reasons may seem picky and you should not consider them to be serious flaws in your credit history. They are simply factors on which you did not score the absolute maximum possible points and have some room for improvement. If your score is low, these factors are likely heavy indicators that are negatively affecting your score.

How Lenders See You
A majority of lenders use FICO® scores as one method to estimate an applicant's credit risk. People with high FICO® scores are likely to repay loans and credit cards more consistently than people with low FICO® scores. Although FICO® scores are remarkably predictive, no one can predict with certainty whether or not an applicant will repay a credit account.

Printable Version

For your convenience, your FICO® score is available in a printer-friendly format. Simply select 'Printable Version' in the upper right side of the FICO® score page.

What are the most common score reason codes?

Here are the top, most frequently given score reasons. Note that the specific wording given by your lender may be different:

• Serious delinquency
• Serious delinquency, and public record or collection field
• Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown
• Level of delinquency on accounts is too high
• Number of accounts with delinquency is too high
• Amount owed too high on accounts
• Ratio of balances to credit limits on revolving accounts is too high
• Length of time accounts has been established is too short
• Too many accounts with balances

I checked my credit score at another credit reporting company and it was different from my FICO® score. Why?

There are several reasons for variations of credit scores. First, there are other credit reporting company scores, although FICO® scores are by far the most commonly used. Other credit scores may evaluate your credit file differently than the FICO® score, and in some cases a higher score may mean more risk, not less risk as with FICO® scores.

Second, many lenders use their own scores, which often will include the FICO® score as well as other information about you.

Finally, your score may be different at each of the three main credit reporting companies as the FICO® score only considers the data in your credit file from that agency. If your score from the three credit reporting companies is different, it is probably because the information those agencies have on you differs.

What information is NOT used in calculating my FICO® score?

• Your race, color, religion, national origin, sex, or marital status
• Your age
• Your salary, occupation, title, employer, date employed, or employment history
• Where you live
• Certain types of inquiries such as promotional, account review, insurance, employment-related inquiries, or inquiries when you request your own credit report
• Any information not found in your credit file
• Any information not proven to be predictive of future credit performance

What information is used in calculating my FICO® score?

Payment history (approximately 35% of your score is based on this category):

• Payment information on accounts such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover; retail department store accounts; installment loans; finance company accounts, and mortgage loans
• Public record and collection items such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, wage attachments, liens, judgments, and delinquencies reported to collection agencies
• Details on late or missed payments, public record items, and collection items (particularly how late the payments were, how much was owed, and how recently and frequently it occurred)
• How many accounts show no late payments

Amounts owed (approximately 30% of your score is based on this category):

• The amount owed on all accounts
• The amount owed on different types of accounts
• Whether you are showing a balance on certain type of accounts
• The number of accounts with balances
• How much of the total credit line is being used on credit cards and other revolving credit accounts
• How much of the installment loan account is currently owed, compared with the original loan amount

Length of credit history (approximately 15% of your score is based on this category):

• How long your credit accounts have been established (the score considers both the age of your oldest account and an average age of all your accounts)
• How long specific credit accounts have been established
• How long it has been since you used certain accounts

New credit (approximately 10% of your score is based on this category):

• How many new accounts you have
• How long it has been since you opened a new account
• How many recent requests for credit you have made, as indicated by inquiries to credit reporting companies, in connection with transactions initiated by you (the score does not take into account requests a creditor has made for your credit file or score in order to make a pre-approved credit offer, or to review your account with them, nor does it take into account your request for a copy of your credit file)
• Length of time since creditors made credit file inquiries
• Whether you have a good recent credit history, following past payment problems

Type of credit used (approximately 10% of your score is based on this category):

• What kinds of credit accounts you have and how many of each

How do I interpret my FICO® score?

The FICO® score is accompanied by positive and negative factors that help to explain your score. These factors -- sometimes called "reason codes" -- are more useful than the score itself in helping you understand what the score means about you. If you already have a high score (for example, in the mid 700s or higher) some of the factors may not be very helpful, as they may be marginal factors related to the last three categories described previously (length of credit history, new credit, and types of credit in use).

How do I access and use the FICO® Score Simulator?

The FICO® Score Simulator is included with your purchase of the Score Power® product. It can be accessed by clicking the "Summary" link at the top of your Score Power® report or by selecting section 9, View Score, from the left side navigation of the credit report. Once there, you can find the link to the Score Simulator in the box on the right side of the Score Power® report.