5 scary things that can affect your credit score this Halloween
You may have wondered at some point in your financial journey how your credit score is factored. It acts as an adult report card; used to determine your risk to potential lenders and affects the loan products and interest rates you qualify for. Ninety percent of all lending decisions are based on your FICO score. However, understanding the formula in which your FICO score is determined is just as important as the actual number.
FICO score key factors = # of inquiries + # of late payments + amount of available revolving credit + age of credit file + types of debt.
Necessary parts of life such as applying for a car loan, credit card, lease or mortgage can impact your credit report. On the surface, any of these actions are not necessarily undesirable from a credit perspective. However, depending upon the number and recency of the inquiries you initiate against your credit, as well as other variables, might have the net result of driving your credit score downward. That’s why we suggest no more than (3) hard inquiries in a 6-month period and carrying (types of good debt). Other more obvious items such as late payments and collection accounts can greatly affect your score for the worse.
Luckily, you are entitled to pull a free copy of your credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com once every year which will give you a detailed look at your credit from each of the three major credit bureaus – Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. The credit bureaus receive credit-related information from companies you have debt and credit with, as well as pull public records like a tax lien and bankruptcy. This allows you to know where you stand, and also to know if the information contained in your credit reports is accurate or if you have fraudulent activity.
You can contact any of the credit bureaus:
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
1-800-685-1111
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013-0949
1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-916-8800
LendingPoint is a personal loan provider specializing in NearPrime consumers. Typically, NearPrime consumers are people with credit scores in the 600s. If this is you, we’d love to talk to you about how we might be able to help you meet your financial goals. We offer loans from $3,500 to $25,000 with terms from 24 to 48 months, all with fixed payments and simple interest.
Get started with your loan application right now.
Tags: credit score, debt, Fair Credit, fico, Halloween, Halloween decor, how to get out of debt, LendingPoint, loan, money, personal debt, personal loans, scary things, what is a credit score