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Consumer Credit Score Ratings below 600 Reach All Time High

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Credit Score Ratings

 

Just recently FICO released data showing that over 25 percent of consumers now have a credit score of 599 or below. That’s a whopping 43 million people that are considered subprime and what’s even more startling is those numbers continue to climb.

Credit scores play such an integral role in our country’s credit system and more consumers need to be aware of how today’s financial decisions will impact tomorrow’s borrowing potential.

In FICO’s world ‘damage points’ are applied to a consumer’s credit score when there is evidence of financial hardship or patterns of risky behavior. Some ‘damage points’ can cause a minimal 10-20 point drop in your scores while others can downright cripple your chance of getting any credit because of a 200 point drop.

Now the real question that plagues consumers is what types of mistakes or patterns trigger ‘damage points’ and how can they go about avoiding the most common mistakes.

The closest thing to address this widespread confusion is by using FICO’s score simulator which basically allows you to see what type of drop or increase you will have on your credit score if you take certain actions.

While it does prove to be helpful it barely scratches the surface when you compare all the other scenarios that you may encounter.

To help you gain a better insight into FICO’s scoring model I have assembled some key tips and strategies that you may find useful.

Leverage your highest credit score

Find out what your credit scores are with Equifax, Transunion and Experian. Once you identify which score is the highest use it to your advantage when applying for credit.

For example, let’s suppose you have an Equifax score of 680 but only a 650 and 645 with the other two agencies. Apply for credit with a creditor that pulls from Equifax so you get the best available rates. It’s that simple!

Lower Overall Debt to Credit Utilization

You can lower your overall debt to credit utilization by paying down your balances and increasing your credit availability. By increasing your credit utilization you can raise your credit scores in a matter of weeks.

Avoid Excessive Inquiries

You can drop your credit score a few points with excessive credit report inquiries. Be sure to review what ‘hard inquiries’ are listed on your reports and take the necessary steps to remove unauthorized ones.

Dispute Inaccurate, Erroneous or Obsolete Information on Credit Reports

Review your credit files and if you uncover any information that is incorrect be sure to file a dispute with the consumer credit agency and repair your credit. A single derogatory item that is incorrect can cost you ‘damage points’ towards your credit score and may end up costing you thousands of dollars in unnecessary interest.

There are many other ways you can maximize your credit scores but one in particular that the majority of business owners need to pay close attention to is business debts reporting on their personal credit files.

This has a dramatic impact on your personal debt to credit utilization ratios along with a host of other factors that can hurt your chances of obtaining personal credit. It’s just smart business to separate your personal credit from business credit otherwise your scores will reflect an entirely different picture of you financially.

Ready to repair your credit? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to personal credit recovery services, vendor lines of credit, fleet cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. A business credit solutions membership helping business owners build small business credit. He is a business credit blogger for AllBusiness.com, a subsidiary of Dun and Bradstreet and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in American Express Small Business, Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain. 

Are Credit Report Inquiries Hurting Your Credit Score?

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Credit Report Inquiries

 

Out of the 88 negative rating factors that can hurt your credit score one in particular that I would like to cover in this post are inquiries.

In the credit scoring system inquiries are given two types of classifications one being ‘soft inquiries’ and the other ‘hard inquiries’. Let’s cover these two briefly:

Soft Inquiries

These inquiries do not affect your credit score so don’t be alarmed if you see a lot of these on your file.

There are three main types of credit checks that fall into this classification.

  1. Personal – When you order your own credit reports or scores directly from the major consumer credit agencies or myFICO.
  2. Promotional – Businesses that check your credit for promotional purposes use the data in order to solicit its products or services such as those pre approved credit card offers you find in your mailbox.
  3. Procedural – As part of its procedure a company or lender that you currently have an established account with may periodically check your credit in order to either extend additional credit or look for signs of financial distress.

Hard Inquiries

A hard inquiry is what negatively impacts your score and according to myFICO one additional hard inquiry for some people may take up to but not more than 5 points off a credit score!

This credit check occurs when a creditor pulls your report as a result of you applying for credit. One important thing to remember is when you apply for credit with multiple lenders in order to search for the best rate on a mortgage, auto or student loan FICO will consider all these inquiries within a 30 day period to count as a single inquiry.

Unfortunately there’s no way to determine what impact a hard inquiry will have because it varies from consumer to consumer and is based on different credit histories.

Even though hard inquiries can stay on your credit files for two years FICO’s scoring model only factors in those inquiries from the last 12 months. So be selective where you apply for credit because too many recent hard inquires can signal a red flag with creditors.

If you identify any unauthorized hard inquiries on your credit file then you will need to prepare an inquiry dispute letter and submit it to both the consumer credit agency and creditor. This is different than disputing information like a late payment and currently none of the consumer credit agencies offer an online dispute option for credit report inquiries.

I also suggest you send the letter via Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested so you can properly track the dispute submission and response time.

Remember the Fair Credit Reporting Act was put in place to protect you from unfair credit reporting and this includes the use of unauthorized hard inquiries.

Ready to improve your credit scores? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides personal credit recovery services, access to vendor lines of credit, fleet cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He is a business credit blogger for AllBusiness.com, a subsidiary of Dun and Bradstreet and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in American Express Small Business, Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain. 

FACT Act Furnisher Rules Go In Effect on July 1st: Are you ready?

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Fair Credit Act

 

Last year the FTC and federal banking agencies passed the  Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act Furnisher Rules which imposes major new responsibilities for lenders, servicers, collectors and other financial institutions that report information to credit bureaus like Transunion, Equifax and Experian.

On July 1st, 2010 these new rules go into effect and needless to say they are long overdue. Here’s a quick overview of what it consists of:

Accuracy and Integrity Rule

This new rule requires that all companies who supply data to consumer credit bureaus must establish written policies regarding the accuracy and integrity of data it furnishes to the credit bureaus.

In particular I am happy to see that finally the issue of ‘integrity’ of information is being addressed. For far too long consumers have had specific information like credit limits absent from their files. When some creditors do not supply this important data it provides misleading information in evaluating the true creditworthiness, credit standing and credit capacity of an individual.

This lack of ‘integrity’ in data has for many years impacted debt-to-credit utilization ratios, credit scores, financing ability and interest rates.

This newly revised “integrity” provision requires that furnishers provide a credit limit to the consumer credit bureaus, if applicable and in its possession, in order for the furnished information to have “integrity.”

However, on the business side many suppliers and servicers supplying data to the business credit bureaus fail to report the credit limits of businesses.

Unfortunately, this provision does not address the data being supplied to business credit bureaus and the ‘integrity’ of information being supplied in this industry needs to be regulated as well.

Direct Dispute Rule

This rule now allows consumers to take their disputes directly to the company that supplied the data rather than having to deal solely through credit bureaus.

In addition, the rule also includes a debt collector that provides information to a credit bureau as well. It only makes sense because many times a company may sell its debt to a third party collection agency and consumers need to have the ability to initiate a direct dispute with them too.

Now if you are a data furnisher, you are ultimately responsible for the ‘accuracy and integrity’ of your data. Non-compliance has legal consequences so you should prepare your company to meet the new compliance requirements that go into effect on July 1st.

You may want to check out The Consumer Data Industry Association which has a repeat broadcast event with Mr. Stephen Van Meter, Assistant Director of the Community and Consumer Law Division at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Mr. Andrew Smith, Partner at Morrison & Foerster, for a key discussion on the requirements of these NEW rules.

In their discussions they will cover the new policies and procedures that each data furnisher must establish and implement as well as direct disputes and the required content of a direct dispute notice.

Looking to maximize your consumer and business credit? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to premium vendors, business credit cards, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

About the author

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. A corporate credit builder system providing business credit services for business owners. He is a business credit blogger for AllBusiness.com, a subsidiary of Dun and Bradstreet and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in American Express Small Business, Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain. 

Raise Credit Scores:Product Review

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Raise Credit Scores

In the business world, a strong FICO credit score rating is necessary during the early stages of business financing especially if your small business credit reports are not strong enough.

Due to the current economy and credit markets, banks and lenders are looking at both personal FICO scores and business credit scores. Now keep in mind that if your business credit report can stand on its own they may not require a personal guarantee but can still check your credit scores as part of their underwriting process.

By raising credit scores for both you and your business, you can expect to have much more cash credit and resources available to your company at better interest rates and terms.

One particular product that I suggest to clients in my business credit practice has proven to increase a FICO credit score rating 95% of the time in as little as 60 days, which you and I know is pretty fast.

I’m sure you’ll agree that there are quite a few services out there that promise to raise credit scores, but this is one of the few that really does get the job done.

So how does it work?

First you will need to decide what amount of credit you are looking to add to your personal credit files. Remember the larger the credit line the greater the impact it will have on dropping your debt to credit limit ratios. Currently the unsecured line of credit options range from $5k, $6k, $7,500 and $10k.

Next step is simply opening an account and making a small advance purchase based on the amount of credit you want. For example, if you select the $5k line of credit then you will need to purchase $295 worth of products.

What I really like about this program is that from your advance purchase you get to select from thousands of dollars of merchandise items on their website. So for simply purchasing $295 worth of products you are automatically receiving a $5k unsecured line of credit that reports to your personal credit report with two of the major consumer credit reporting agencies.

Now that’s what I call a solid offer for raising credit scores! Imagine if a store like Best Buy offered its customers a $5k line of credit if they made an initial purchase of $295 at its store. I know that sounds far-fetched but I’m just trying to make a point.

Once your set up you can continue to use this line of credit towards the purchase of over 4,000 books and 5,000 music selections and it’s important that you do so you can continue to build positive payment history.

I also like the fact that they offer a payment option if the $295 is a bit of a stretch for you. You can pay $195 down and $20 a month for 10 months.  Once you enroll you’ll receive a welcome package which includes a bonus cd and payment coupons if you select the payment option.

You can apply for this $5k line of credit online but if you want a greater amount then you will need to fax or email a full credit report first.

By taking advantage of this program and optimizing your scores with the credit rating bureaus the benefits for you on a personal and business level can be very rewarding. Your credit report and scores have the power to lower interest rates, give you better terms on loans and put more money back in your pockets.

Ready to raise your credit scores? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to vendor lines of credit, fleet cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free audio seminar ($597 value) =>

business credit expert

Marco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He is a business credit blogger for AllBusiness, a subsidiary of Dun and Bradstreet and author of “Eight Steps to Ultimate Business Credit” and “How to Build Business Credit with No Personal Guarantee.” His articles and blogs have also been featured in the SBA Community, American Express Small Business, Business Week, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Tribune, Scotsman Guide, Alltop, Entrepreneur Connect, and Active Rain.

Having Problems Understanding Credit Scores?

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Understanding credit scores

Understanding Credit Scores

Recently Corporate Experian made history by unveiling the industry’s first ever Triple Score Business Report. While this clearly marks the beginning of a new trend in business credit scoring I’m curious to see if there will be another business credit bureau that introduces its own version of a triple score business report.

Credit scoring is big business and companies like FICO have been providing its risk assessment technology for years. What really matters is whether or not lenders decide to use one specific platform over another and clearly your FICO score is the choice among most. Or is it?

When it comes to business credit scores each bureau uses its own internal scoring formula. When a lender pulls a business credit file the bureau provides a score. DNB’s score is called paydex while Experian has intelliscore and Small Business Equifax uses a Small Business Credit Risk Score.

It may come as a surprise to you but currently there is no leading business credit scoring system used in the lending industry today.

As a result lenders use FICO as another risk assessment tool in making its business lending decisions along with business credit scores. But will this strategy soon change?

I’m sure you’re aware that the three consumer credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and Transunion formed Vantage Score Solutions as a joint venture in 2006 to offer choice and competition in the credit score marketplace.

FICO responded with a lawsuit against the credit bureaus for trademark infringement which I covered in my post FICO vs. Credit Bureaus. It was no surprise that Vantage Score Solutions had a complete legal victory over FICO in this lawsuit.

It was interesting to read Vantage Score’s President and CEO Barrett Burns’ congressional testimony on understanding credit scores yesterday. It was evident that he wanted to show the advantages that Vantage Score provides over all other scoring models.

In particular he was addressing segments of the population who has a hard time obtaining credit because they are unable to have a credit score calculated with the current scoring models.

This was broken down into the following categories:

1.     Consumers who have less than three accounts in their credit file are considered to have a ‘Thin File’. Between 35 and 50 million consumers in the United States – 18 to 25 percent of the adult population – may be considered thin file; and, therefore, often underserved;

2.   Infrequent credit users, who may not be eligible for a credit score because there has not been new activity on any credit account for six months; and,

3.   New consumer profiles that are just establishing credit relationships and have not had credit open for more than the six months which is required by some of the traditional scoring models.

What was exciting was the Vantage Score model showed an 8 percent increase in credit scores for 10 million consumers after doing a random score check. What’s even more impressive was 2.5 million consumers from that study were considered a much higher credit quality than subprime.

Since Vantage Score was introduced they have made some significant gains in the marketplace that not only benefits consumers but also small business owners as well. Here is a quick overview of the lenders now using Vantage Score:

  • 4 of the top 5 financial institutions
  • 8 of the top 10 credit card issuers
  • 3 of the top 10 mortgage originators
  • 7 of the top 50 auto lenders

With literally hundreds of credit scores and scoring models used by lenders it’s important for you to be fully aware of where you and your business stand across the most widely used models. Be sure to check your FICO score , Vantage Score, Paydex Score, Intelliscore and Small Business Credit Risk Score so you can be fully prepared when applying for financing.

Looking to build your business credit? Become a member of my Business Credit Insiders Circle and gain access to a proven step-by-step business credit building system. A system that provides you access to vendor lines of credit, fleet cards, business credit cards with and without a PG, funding sources and lenders that report to all the major business credit bureaus. Submit your name and email below for details and receive a free business credit building audio seminar ($597 value) =>

To Your Success In Business and in Life!

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About the author

Marco CarbajoMarco Carbajo is a business credit expert, author, speaker, and founder of the Business Credit Insiders Circle. He is a business credit blogger for Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp, the SBA.gov Community, About.com and All Business.com. His articles and blog; Business Credit Blogger.com,  have been featured in ‘Fox Small Business’,’American Express Small Business’, ‘Business Week’, ‘The Washington Post’, ‘The New York Times’, ‘The San Francisco Tribune’,‘Alltop’, and ‘Entrepreneur Connect’.

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