When we wish to borrow money, our credit worthiness needs to be high. Prior to lending out the money, the lender has to ensure that you will be able to repay the money. Credit bureaus generally supply information about borrowers to the lenders. Past credit data is studied by these bureaus and every person is given a credit score. The credit score is a single figure that indicates the risk associated with issuing a loan to that person. This score is very important because the lender can understand how wise it would be to issue the loan to that person. Actually there are three free credit scores all over the US and you would do well to know more about them.
There are three separate American credit bureaus. These credit bureaus are the Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. These bureaus measure the individual credit scores by analyzing past credit history and giving a score. Is it safe to issue a loan to this person – this is determined by this credit score. Different techniques are however often taken up for calculating the credit score by these three credit bureaus. Hence, it is not uncommon that the findings may not be the same. An automatic software is used for the calculation of the credit score. This software has been made by FICO (Fair Issac Corporation). Hence, you will find many people referring to them also as FICO scores.
In an individual credit report, all these three credit scores are considered to come to a conclusion. The VanatageScore credit score is also calculated by all the bureaus, just like the three credit scores. Generally, VantageScore can assume any value between 501 and 900. You will find the FICO credit score in the range between 300 and 850.
If you want to know what your score is, you can do this and that too free. For this, subscription to one of the several credit monitoring services of the bureaus is necessary. The lenders can also have access to the detailed credit report of the borrower directly from these bureaus. Based on these credit scores, they can decide whether to lend money to a borrower or not.
But why for all reasons should you know what your credit score is? The fact is, there can often be errors in it. Your credit report may be there for as long as 7 years and so you have to verify about its accuracy for your benefit. And thus, you should find out where to approach for your three credit scores and also how to do it. It is absolutely essential that you know about this.
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