What Makes Up Your Credit Score

The link to Donna’s article isn’t working – I get “Access Denied”.

Still not working for me, but maybe it’s my company’s connection. Thanks for the response.

A very useful post… well, it always seemed to me that keeping one or two long-term credit lines (not more preferably) is quite favorable for banks… someone hold 10 credit cards, three of these, say, grant 7% discount on the first purchase, and after these first purchases the plastics are not so useful anymore, so the owner just cancels them… and what then? something that you are talking about.

So 80% of your score is how much you owe, how you’ve paid, and how long you’ve had your debt?

Snx for you job!
It has very much helped me!

It was such a great article. I personally think credit score charts are dead useful because we will need them when applying for bank loans even payday loans. You can find some cool tips about how to improve your credit score at http://www.repaircreditscore.info. They helped me a lot.

Don’t forget to check out my posts on the Zillow Mortgages Unzipped blog. My latest is about how the rescue plan will impact your credit scores http://www.zillow.com/blog/mortgage/

I was just browsing – but such great content here. Reading this post strikes me of one very common omission when managing your credit checks.

It is correctly put that everyone should know their own credit history and manage it prudently with an even better managed lifestyle – credit cards, mortgages, family life, etc.

But I’m always horrified when advice goes the way of using credit services and authorising numerous agencies or people to have access to your credit scores. Here’s what always happens to your info/credit score:

1) numerous credit checks will always cost you credit points – e.g. 10 people/agencies checking up on you over a short period of time could cost you 10 x 5 points = 50 points deducted from your score.
Imagine shopping for a mortgage and then finding out that your credit score will cost you 2% more for your mortgage! Simply use one mortgage specialist who does only one credit check and shops for the best deal for you.

2) Giving your sensitive personal information to say a car salesman (who will do a credit check and hurt your credit score even more and whereever else that your information may end up); or other credit agencies, be very certain your personal information is NOT 100% secure! There are a number of situations that your information can become available to special queries – this is a HUGE privacy concern.

3) You’ll start to concern the lenders and simply reduce your bargaining power for better rates and terms.

Just remember that you can do the checks yourself and do it free of charge without credit score penalty. Actually, a good bank officer or a broker can actually help you reliably and yours and their integrity remains intact.

I hope this helps someone as I have had similar personal disasters and helping others overcome it takes so much time, effort and a lot of nail biting.

I only have 1 card for several years, it’s enough for me. But yeah I know, this article is about credit score. Mine is good so far.

This is a great explanation on what makes up the tricky beast that is a credit score.
I would also point people to an article by Robin Holland that, I think, has a similar explanation coupled with some tips for improving scores without TOO much sacrifice.
http://credit.equifax.com/2010/06/debt-reduction-why-paying-down-your.html