Understanding Credit Report Score

Understanding Credit Report Score

Summary: It is understandably easy to get into bad credit; the key to avoid any financial crisis is recognizing early signs of disaster by understanding credit report score

Are there those times when you just have an earnest yearning to curse the one who invented the credit card? I did. True enough, credit cards are fast becoming items that are loathed and feared from the practical and handy items that they once were. But still, everybody would vouch for the usefulness of credit cards.

It is understandably easy to get into bad credit, especially if every purchase is just a signature away. That's why a habitual checking of bills and credit reports are generally advised since it can tell you about your current status as a credit holder and evade financial disaster early on. So the key to avoid any financial crisis is recognizing early signs of disaster by understanding credit report score.

Credit reports are filled with data that will seem irrational to the common masses; even lawyers do have a hard time deciphering the details. That's why leaning what you can on understanding credit report score can literally save your ass from a debt pit that you have no hopes of climbing out.

FICO score is the cookie cutter for most credit score ratings so details from a FICO scoring sheet can be the same to any credit report score. FICO stands for Fair Isaacs Corporation who designed the software used to calculate credit score. The lowest score is 350 and the highest is 850. If you have a score of 600, you are considered an average credit holder. Lower than that signals bad credit rating. Learning the FICO system can get you better in understanding credit report score.

Credit type is denoted by letters. -R- stands for revolving credit and -I- stands for installment credit. Revolving credit are those account types that reoccur, such as credit card account. A number scale from 0 - 9 is used to determine your credit activities with a specific lender.

0 - no accurate judgment can be made since all your data are relatively new.
1 - Paid after a month
2 - Paid after 2 months
3 - Paid after 3 months
4 - Paid after 4 months
5 - You haven't repaid for 4 months.
*Take note that this rating is now substantially different with 1 - 4
7 - Your debt payments are made under consolidation
8 - Your debt is cleared by repossession.
9 - You have a bad debt. It means you have defaulted.

The number scale is usually preceded by the credit type as stated above, e.g. R1 which means that you paid the monthly fee in one month.

Credit companies are now a major economic factor in the United States as early as the 80's when credit took the country by storm. They proliferated for several reasons: at times cash is not available, credit cards provide a spending option which is repaid later with interest. Just as the Declaration of Independence, credit cards offer an independent way of spending apart from cash basis that is typical for an American spirit.