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Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions:

What is a FICO score?
It's a number lenders use to help them decide: "If I give this person a loan or credit card, how likely is it that I will get paid back on time?" A FICO score is a snapshot of your credit risk picture at a particular point in time. The higher your score, the lower the risk to lenders. Fair Isaac Corporation develops the mathematical formulas used to produce FICO scores.

How can I improve my FICO score?
Your FICO score analysis will suggest things you can do to improve your score over time. Generally, people with high FICO scores consistently:
- Pay bills on time.
- Keep balances low on credit cards and other revolving credit products.
- Apply for and open new credit accounts only as needed.

What's the most important factor in a Score?
FICO scores consider five main kinds of credit information. Listed from most important to least important, these are:
- Payment history.
- Amount owed.
- Length of credit history.
- New credit.
- Types of credit in use.

Do insurance companies look at FICO credit risk scores?
No. FICO credit risk scores predict credit risk - the risk that you will be late on future payments for loans, credit cards or other credit products - and that doesn't interest insurers. Instead, insurers use a different product commonly called an insurance score. Insurance scores help insurers predict the likelihood and severity of a person's future insurance claims and losses. Since insurance scores are calculated from information in your credit report, they are sometimes mistakenly called credit scores, which can be confusing.

What do FICO scores ignore?
- 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.
- Any interest rate being charged on a particular credit card or other account.
- Certain types of inquiries (such as promotional, account review, insurance or employment-related inquiries).
- Credit counseling.
- Any information not found in your credit report.
- Any information that is not proven to be predictive of future credit performance.

What is a good FICO score?
Since there is no one "score cutoff" used by all lenders, it's hard to say what a good score is outside the context of a particular lending decision. Your lender may be able to give you guidance on the criteria for a given credit product.

How often does my score change?
Your credit report is continually updated with new information from your creditors. The FICO score is calculated based on the latest snapshot of information contained in your credit report at the time the score is requested. So your FICO score from a month ago is probably not the same score a lender would get from the consumer reporting agency today. Fluctuations of a few points from month to month are quite common.

How are FICO scores calculated?
Every FICO score is calculated at a consumer reporting agency using a mathematical formula that evaluates many types of information on your credit report at that agency. By comparing your information to the patterns in millions of past credit reports, the score identifies your level of future credit risk.

What are the highest and lowest FICO scores?
FICO scores range from 300 to 850. The higher the score, the lower the predicted credit risk for lenders.

Why do lenders use FICO scores?
Credit scores give lenders a fast, objective and impartial snapshot of a person's credit risk based on their credit history. That's why lenders use FICO credit scores when making credit decisions. The higher the individual's score, the lower the risk to lenders when extending new credit to that person.

Does everyone have a FICO score?
For a FICO score to be calculated on your credit report, the report must contain at least one account which has been open for six months or longer. 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 to compute an accurate score.

What is a BEACON, EMPIRICA or Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Score?
BEACON is Equifax's commercial name for the FICO score. FICO scores are calculated by the three major credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - using formulas developed by Fair Isaac. The FICO scores are known as BEACON® at Equifax, EMPIRICA® at TransUnion and the Experian/Fair Isaac Risk Score at Experian.

Will ordering my credit report cause it to drop?
No. Ordering your own credit score and credit report through will not change your score.

Will my score actually change over time?
Yes, it's normal for scores to change. Your FICO score today is likely different from your FICO score of a few weeks ago. Your score changes when the underlying information on your credit report changes. Since this can happen anytime, lenders usually make decisions based on your most current FICO score and not on yesterday's score.

Is my score more likely to go up or down?
That depends on a lot of things under your control. For example, if you manage your credit carefully by paying your bills on time, keeping credit card balances low, and only taking on as much new credit as you really need, then your score is likely to improve over time. But if you pay your bills late, carry high credit card balances or shop excessively for new credit, then your score will probably go down.