About Your Credit Score

Before deciding on what terms they will offer you a mortgage loan (which they base on their risk), lenders must find out two things about you: whether you can pay back the loan, and your willingness to pay back the loan. To assess your ability to repay, they assess your income and debt ratio. To assess how willing you are to repay, they use your credit score.

Fair Isaac and Company calculated the original FICO score to help lenders assess creditworthines. For details on FICO, read more here.

Your credit score is a direct result of your repayment history. They don't consider income or personal characteristics. Fair Isaac invented FICO specifically to exclude demographic factors. "Profiling" was as bad a word when FICO scores were first invented as it is today. Credit scoring was developed to assess willingness to pay while specifically excluding any other personal factors.

Your current debt level, past late payments, length of your credit history, and a few other factors are considered. Your score reflects the good and the bad of your credit report. Late payments count against your score, but a record of paying on time will raise it.

To get a credit score, you must have an active credit account with six months of payment history. This history ensures that there is enough information in your credit to calculate a score. Some people don't have a long enough credit history to get a credit score. They should spend some time building up a credit history before they apply for a loan.

The Elite Lending Team at Milestone Mortgage Corporation can answer questions about credit reports and many others. Give us a call: 561-373-4149.