Credit Scores - Getting the Real Thing
An essential first step to starting your credit repair program is to go out and actually obtain your credit scores.
This makes sense, as it allows you to begin certain commonsense initial repairs such as correcting errors and updating incomplete information.
But once this housekeeping is complete, the next step is to focus on the all important score numbers themselves.
Many people are surprised to realize that the scores that the credit bureaus give to consumers are not the same credit scores that lenders use.
How can this be? The credit scores that companies use are called FICO scores.
FICO is an acronym for Fair Isaac Corp.
, named after the creator of the scoring model.
Fair Isaac provides the credit rating software to the three major credit bureaus, which are called by the names Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
These three credit bureaus use the FICO software to create your FICO scores from the financial data that they each gather and maintain on you and other consumers.
The credit bureaus then sell these FICO scores to lenders, which is where the process gets complicated.
The credit bureaus do not sell FICO scores to consumers.
Instead, they sell their own proprietary scores to consumers, which may vary from your official FICO scores by a significant amount.
Because these scores are not the ones used by lenders, they are of little use for credit repair purposes.
So when you obtain your credit scores from the credit bureaus you will not be receiving the same scores that a lender will look at.
The best way to get your genuine FICO scores is to purchase them from the website of the Fair Isaac Corporation itself.
The cost of the scores at the time of this writing is about fifty dollars to obtain all three.
Can you get them for free? One possible option is if you have applied for a mortgage or an auto loan recently, then your loan officer may be kind enough to provide you with copies of your reports.
But however you get them, obtaining your authentic FICO scores is an essential first step to getting started on your credit repair program.
This makes sense, as it allows you to begin certain commonsense initial repairs such as correcting errors and updating incomplete information.
But once this housekeeping is complete, the next step is to focus on the all important score numbers themselves.
Many people are surprised to realize that the scores that the credit bureaus give to consumers are not the same credit scores that lenders use.
How can this be? The credit scores that companies use are called FICO scores.
FICO is an acronym for Fair Isaac Corp.
, named after the creator of the scoring model.
Fair Isaac provides the credit rating software to the three major credit bureaus, which are called by the names Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
These three credit bureaus use the FICO software to create your FICO scores from the financial data that they each gather and maintain on you and other consumers.
The credit bureaus then sell these FICO scores to lenders, which is where the process gets complicated.
The credit bureaus do not sell FICO scores to consumers.
Instead, they sell their own proprietary scores to consumers, which may vary from your official FICO scores by a significant amount.
Because these scores are not the ones used by lenders, they are of little use for credit repair purposes.
So when you obtain your credit scores from the credit bureaus you will not be receiving the same scores that a lender will look at.
The best way to get your genuine FICO scores is to purchase them from the website of the Fair Isaac Corporation itself.
The cost of the scores at the time of this writing is about fifty dollars to obtain all three.
Can you get them for free? One possible option is if you have applied for a mortgage or an auto loan recently, then your loan officer may be kind enough to provide you with copies of your reports.
But however you get them, obtaining your authentic FICO scores is an essential first step to getting started on your credit repair program.