I hear about credit ratings, and I wonder what is a good rating number .Who decides those rating numbers?

Public Comments

1. A private firm called Fair, Isaac calculates the scores. Part of their method is secret, but most of the factors they look at have been made public. This is why it is called the "FICO" score. Credit scores are not currently regulated by any law, it's entirely up to Fair Isaac to decide how it wants to calculate them, so long as it doesn't take race, religion, marital status, etc., into account.
2. FICO decides who gets what...
3. Fair Isaac Co (FICO) provides the credit score formula This is the breakdown for what calculates your credit score...each of the 3 bureaus have a little variations in how they interpret the data. 35% Payment History 30% Amounts Owed 15% Length of Credit History 10% New Credit 10% Types of Credit Your score can be between 300 and 800 points. Anything less than about 650 is really considered not great. Anything over 700 is considered pretty good.
4. Actually there are 3 different credit bureaus and they each have their own way of calculating your credit score. FICO reports from 300 to 850. Vantage reports from 501 to 990. Currently none of the major credit bureaus use the Vantage score system.
5. A good credit rating is 750 or more... USually lenders will go down to about 620-650 when making a loan... Any lower than that ... is considered poor. Your FICO score and credit report are made of a percentage of things: 35% Is record of ONTIME payments, even if you can only pay minnium, mail that puppy in a week early. 30% Balances vs. Available Credit. What that means is the total ammount you have out there in charges vs. the ammount that you have available to you. SO if your debts are low and your available credit is high ... that BOOSTS the score. ~ So pay more than min. if you can. 15% HISTORY How long have you been in the system? Even old and unpaid accounts establish you as having or being credit worthy. SO dont cancel old cards... just cut them up and leave the account open. ( if theres fees switch to a card with no fees) 10% New accounts and Inquiries... Opened Accounts = GOOD , Trying to open an account and get denied= BAD SO its a toss up... they want you to establish new lines of credit... but not to get rejected... go figure that one. and Finally.... 10% THe Variety of accounts that you have open. The better variety they better you look.... SO ANY loan, or mortage, or re-fi, or credit card, or utility , or unpaid things... show on a credit report.