
Your financial life represented in one number
A credit score (aka: FICO score) ranges from 300 to 850. It’s a number that rates your risk to a lender and it indicates how likely you are to:
- Pay your bills on time
- Pay your debts as agreed
- File bankruptcy
Do you know what your credit score is?
If not, let’s find out, shall we? Everyone gets a free copy of their credit report each year. Go here to do it. You can pay a small fee to have your score added to the report.
What does your credit score mean to lenders?
- 720 to 850+ – “A+” – Low Risk
- 680 to 719 – “A” – Low to Medium Risk
- 640 to 679 – “B” – Medium Risk
- 580 to 639 – “C” – Medium to High Risk
- 579 and below — “D” – High Risk
Why should you care about your credit score?
“Those who are ‘A’ credit versus those who are ‘D’ credit will pay approximately $250,000 less in interest throughout their borrowing lifetime.” ~Paul Strassels, Author of “Credit When Credit is Due”
Ouch, right? Kind of hard to argue with that little nugget.
How is a credit score calculated?
There are a ton of things that factor in to a credit score. Go to myfico.com for a great breakdown.
For more great information about credit scores, check out HowStuffWorks.com.
No matter what your credit score is today, you can always improve it.