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Credit bureaus calculate your credit score based on several factors. Your credit score is the result of a formula that includes many variables and the weight of each one changes from one credit bureau to the other. Moreover, since not all lenders report to the same bureaus, your credit score varies from one bureau to another. Learn what your credit score says about you!
Your credit report includes a lot of information about your credit behavior and financial situation. This information exceeds the purpose of the credit score and gives a lender a wider idea of how risky is dealing with you as a borrower. However, the credit score gives them a first glance and is especially useful if there is not much time to analyze the rest of the details.
Where Does the Information Come From
All the information contained on your credit report is reported by creditors, banks, and financial and commercial institutions that have done business with you at any time. Your credit score is calculated based on some of all of this information and no external info is used. All the variables that are included in the credit score formula are based on your credit report.
Static and Dynamic Information
For starters, the credit score includes both a static and dynamic analysis of your credit and financial situation. Part of the score shows your current debt situation and part of it shows the evolution of it. Thus, your payment history will affect your credit score and your current overall debt will also affect your credit score.
Consequently a bad credit score can show because you currently have too much debt or because you’ve missed payments or paid late before. The opposite is also true, since your credit score reflects your present and past, if your current situation shows a high debt but you had excellent credit behavior before, your credit score won’t be that bad. The inclusion of both present and past of your credit history contributes to curb bad and good credit modifiers so as to give an objective outlook of your credit stance.
Information Included
As regards to credit history, the information that is taken into account in your credit score is: late payments, missed payments, bankruptcies, defaults, liens, judgments, disclosures, etc. All of these are reported by your creditors and the importance of each one is different: a late payment will make your credit score drop a bit, while a bankruptcy will actually ruin it.
When it comes to debt, the information included is: Loans, credit card balances, lines of credit, agreements on your bank accounts, etc. Even when you don’t owe money, when considering loan approval, lenders will take a line of credit, credit card limit or bank account agreement exactly as a loan. Thus, the key to improve this factor is: “if you don’t use it and don’t plan to use it, then, close it.”
Finally, other information that affects your credit score is: credit pulls with the purpose of considering loan applications, loan declines, length of credit history, store cards, etc.
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