BY STEVE DINNEN
Yes, we know your credit score is sky high. But just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, along comes a tweak that may actually fall in your favor – as long as you pay your bills on time.
Fair Isaac Corp., inventor of the ever-present and often scorned FICO Score that lenders use to measure credit risk, is giving it an overhaul starting this summer. Going forward there will be the FICO 10, and the FICO 10T. They will incorporate changes such as weighing personal loans more heavily and looking to see whether you’ve consolidated a bunch of loans, and then ran up more debt (that’s not so good).
Fair Isaac periodically updates its tool kit. Oddly, by my way of thinking, some creditors will cling to existing FICO standards. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require credit scores for any home loans that they might buy. And the people who supply those scores, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, all use different versions of FICO.
Ted Rossman, an editor at CreditCards.com, ran his personal data through the credit scoring gauntlet last year and came up with three different numbers, which varied by 37 points.
The lowest score still is 300, where you’re out of the game, moneywise. The highest is 850, which is where you’re all at already. Right?
