Credit Reporting Websites - Choosing a Reliable Provider
If you are currently looking for a website to provide you with credit reporting or monitoring services, our advice would be that you do so with great care and caution. Whilst the majority of websites out there offering credit score services are highly reliable - there are always the odd few which do nothing to add to the reputation of the industry on the whole.
How Identity Theft Can Affect Your Credit Score
We've all heard of the impending threat of identity theft, especially in today's modern electronic world. Whenever we hear the term, we automatically think of people sitting in a dark room, in a far away country - counting the pennies from people who they have successfully scammed.
Credit Scorecards - What Are They and Who Uses Them?
Don't mistake a credit score for a credit scorecard - they are not the same thing. In this article, we will take a look at the difference between these two things - both of which are reports - but both of which serve a different purpose.
The Typical Range of Credit Scores
Because FICO credit scores are the most widely used variation of credit scores available in today's market - we will be looking at the common range of FICO credit scores in this article. This should give you the ability to compare and contrast your score with other consumers around the country - and therefore give you a better idea of how your financial history and record stacks up.
The first thing you need to know about the distribution of credit scores throughout society is that the curve representing all of the scores is a skewed bell curve.
This bell curve has more consumers on the left - which indicates that there are more people with bad or "worse than average" scores than there are people with above average scores.
The Credit Score Bell Curve
The bell curve is important because it clearly shows that if you have an above average credit score, you automatically have an advantage over a majority of other consumers. This may not seem like a fact worth celebrating at the moment - but when it comes time to do one of the following things, you will probably be smiling:
- Apply for new credit.
- Apply for an extension to repayment for current credit.
- Renegotiate or remortgage the home.
- Get a better rate on existing credit.
Clearly, consumers with top credit scores will find it extremely easy to do the above things - as lenders will look favourably upon then if they ask for help.
Actual Range of Credit Scores
When looking at FICO credit scores in particular, the actual physical range of scores is 300 to 950. Therefore, it is impossible to have a score worse than 300 or a score better than 950. It is actually very rare that anyone would have a credit score of 950 - as this is simply a theoretical number calculated by the system.
The median score in the FICO system is 723 - but remember that the median is not the same as the average. It is simply the most commonly occurring credit score, which is possibly a better representation of where society as a whole is placed on the bell curve.
This should potentially act as a target for you. If you are looking to improve your credit score - 723 might be a decent starting goal.