What is the difference between a credit score of 780 and 630? Not much, only about $85,000 on a $250,000 mortgage! Few things in life are more important and yet less understood that your credit score.
Your credit report is just that, a report that summarizes your credit history, when you’ve been given credit, by whom and how you handled it. It shows the public records such as judgments, liens, bankruptcies and foreclosures; negative items such as late payments and your overall history. Your credit report also lists former addresses, etc. and even a simple mistake such as having your middle initial wrong or a bad address can inadvertently tie someone else’s bad credit to your report!
Your credit score is simply a grading system that was created by the Fair Isaacson Company – hence the term FICO score – to help standardize how people judge the information on a credit report. Your score tells lenders in an instant how creditworthy you are. If you have no credit history you likely have no score or a score around 640 but a blank credit report. A score of about 720 is usually what’s required to get the rates advertised on TV and the internet. Scores top out in the 800’s and the low end is usually around 400.