According to a survey from the Consumer Federation of America and VantageScore Solutions, the majority of Americans don’t understand how their credit scores are determined and when and how they’re used.

Of those surveyed, more than 67 percent incorrectly said that a person’s age is considered when determining a credit score. Moreover, a “majority” of those polled were unaware that a cellphone provider or landlord could consider an applicant’s credit score in deciding whether to offer housing or service – and at what price.

The survey underscores the importance of credit scores and the scores of Americans whose credit scores were negatively impacted during the recession. Read full article…

Credit scores are used in nearly every industry to determine the financial stability of a person or business. There are two main types of credit scores – PLUS and FICO – with the latter being the most commonly used. Credit reports are issued once every three months by the three major credit reporting agencies, although the credit score itself is updated on a monthly basis. Maintaining a good credit score is the key to gaining approval for credit cards, mortgages, vehicle loans, and any other form of financial assistance.

How is the FICO Credit Score Calculated?

The FICO credit score is calculated based on five main factors – payment history (affects 35% of the credit score), amount owed (affects 30%), credit history length (affects 15%), new credit (affects 10%), and types of credit used (affects 10%). Each

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Americans may have a more difficult time securing loans, competitive rates and credit cards with low credit scores

As the U.S. economy struggles to recover and unemployment rates remain high, Americans may have another issue to worry about before they can improve their personal financial situation – their credit scores. A new report – released by FICO – reveals that Americans’ credit scores have dropped to a new low, endangering consumers’ ability to secure loans and competitive rates for home and auto loans as well as credit cards.

Citing data from FICO, the Associated Press reports that 25.5 percent of American consumers – which roughly translates to 43.4 million individuals – carry a FICO credit score of 599 or below. Read full article…

How You Can Raise Your Credit Scores

What is credit score? What make it so important? A credit score is numerical expression representing someone’s creditworthiness and this score is a determinant factor. Having a good credit score is very important in today’s society. If you have a high credit score then it would be any problem for you to have a credit. It is something that people today would consider to be worthy to be doing just about anything to have a good credit score. By having a good credit score, applying for loans and unsecured credit cards is much easier.

If your credit score is not good, there will be a big wall that will stop your loan application in any way to be granted. This is why it is very important for you to improve your credit score. E

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If you struggle with bad credit, you are not alone. According to the credit rating agency Fair Isaac, more than 70 million people in the U.S. have credit scores low enough to qualify them as subprime borrowers. Because people with bad credit typically can’t get approved for prime credit cards, they instead often turn to the so-called subprime credit cards when they want to apply for a credit card.

Subprime credit cards, or unsecured credit cards as they are also called, have met with much criticism because they come with very low limits, as low as $250, and they charge hefty fees for the services they offer. The new CARD Act of 2009 does put some curbs on the fees that subprime cards can charge by restricting subprime card issuers from charging more than 25% of the credit limit the first year, once the new rules step into effect in February of 2010. H

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