18 Interesting Facts About Credit You Might Not Know

Many people know that they need to have a good credit score to make some pretty big purchases. Without one, it’s hard to qualify for things like loans and credit cards. Sure, credit scores are important—but they can be pretty mysterious for a lot of consumers. Ready to learn more? Check out these interesting facts about credit scores.

1. Credit Scores Didn’t Exist Until the 1950s

Before credit scores existed, you’d have to sit down and talk with a banker before getting a loan. The process was subjective. If the banker didn’t like you or thought you were untrustworthy, you wouldn’t get approved. In the 1950s, two statisticians named Bill Fair and Earl Isaac founded FICO, but it took until the 1970s for the FICO score to become an important part of lending.

2. FICO Isn’t the Only Credit Scoring Game in Town

FICO may have pioneered the concept of a credit score, but there’s not a single be-all-end-all score for anyone. In fact, you can have dozens of different FICO scores depending on the type of credit check being run. If you want to take a look at 28 of your FICO scores, sign up for ExtraCredit® today.

Competitors to FICO models also exist, including VantageScore. This is a collaboration between the three major credit bureaus and typically yields a slightly different score than FICO models do.

3. Some People Are Credit Invisible

Credit invisibles are people who don’t have any information on file with credit bureaus. When a credit check is run, it’s like these people don’t exist. If you only have a very small amount of information on file with credit bureaus, you may be visible but unscorable. The scoring models need a certain amount of information to provide a score for people, and according to a study conducted by the CFPB in 2015, millions of Americans don’t have credit files big enough for this purpose. 

4. Credit Scores and Marriage Success Might Be Linked

The Federal Reserve conducted an interesting study where it followed couples for 15 years to see how credit scores affected those in committed relationships. The study found that people who were equally yoked when it came to credit scores were more likely to stay together. So the closer your score is to your spouse’s when you get married, the higher the chance the marriage will last.

5. TransUnion Started as a Railroad Leasing Company

The credit bureau TransUnion started as the Union Tank Car Company in 1968. In 1969, it acquired a business called the Credit Bureau of Cook County, which had millions of consumer card files located in 400 different cabinets. Eventually, it became the TransUnion known today after spending 40 years collecting consumer data and developing technology to put that data to work.

6. Closing Old Credit Cards Can Hurt Your Credit Score

You might be tempted to close that credit card you never use, but you should probably reconsider. The overall age of your credit is a factor in your credit score. If you close an old account, you reduce the average age of your open accounts. That may hurt your score.

7. Car Insurance Companies Might Use Your Credit

Car insurance providers might check your credit as one factor in determining if you’ll be a responsible policyholder. Your credit could impact whether you get insurance with a certain provider and how much premiums cost.

Like employers, car insurance companies get a special report. They also get a special score. Some states don’t let car insurance companies check credit for this purpose.

8. Some Creditors Look at Other Financial Indicators, Not Just Your Credit Score

Creditors might also pull reports from other systems, such as those that indicate whether you’ve ever bounced a check. Lenders could also check public records to see if you have tax liens or other liens filed against you.

9. Different Countries Have Different Scoring Models

If you move outside the United States, your credit scores won’t follow you. Each country has its own method for scoring or indicating creditworthiness. That doesn’t mean you should plan to skip out on the country and all your existing debts, though, as there are other financial consequences of doing so.

10. High Credit Card Balances Can Drop Your Score Significantly

Credit utilization is the ratio of your revolving credit balances to your total credit limit. For example, if you have a credit limit of $2,000 and a current balance of $1,500, that’s a credit utilization of 75%. That’s considered very high.

Credit utilization plays a big role in your overall credit score. Most experts recommend keeping it below 30%, and the lower you go, the better.

11. You Can Check Your Own Credit Without Impacting Your Score

Checking your own credit through various services or at AnnualCreditReport.com doesn’t hurt your credit. This is known as a soft credit check, which has no impact on your score.

12. Applying Too Many Times for Credit Can Drop Your Score

Potential creditors checking your credit to evaluate you for a loan or other lending can hurt your credit score. This is known as a hard inquiry, and each one can ding your score a little bit. Luckily, the scoring models do realize people in the market for a mortgage or auto loan might be shopping around for rates. In these cases, several inquiries that occur within a short period of time are treated like one inquiry.

13. You Can Add Rent and Utility Payments to Your Credit Report

Utility companies and landlords don’t tend to report payments to the credit bureaus. But you can still get the benefit of timely payments with those entities by signing up for a service to self-report those payments. 

14. You Need a Good Mix of Credit Types on your Report

Credit mix is another factor that impacts your credit score. Lenders like to see that you can handle both revolving and installment accounts. Having a strong positive payment history for a credit card account and an auto loan, for example, demonstrates a good mix of credit.

15. Other People’s Behavior Can Hurt Your Credit in Some Situations

If you cosign a loan for someone or add someone as an authorized user on your credit card account, their financial habits can impact your credit. And if you become an authorized user on someone’s credit card account, your credit can be hurt if they run up high balances or start missing payments. 

16. Stuff Stays on Your Credit Report for a Long Time

Information can stay on your credit report for up to around 10 years. A lot of information, including late payments, falls off your report in around seven years. Either way, that’s a long time for financial mistakes to stick around, so try to avoid missing payments or other negative financial behaviors. But life does happen, so take some peace of mind knowing that the older the information gets, the less impact it has on your score. 

17. You Have a Legal Right to an Accurate Credit Report

Several federal laws protect you as a debtor. One of them, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, ensures your right to an accurate credit report. If you find wrong information on your credit reports, you can dispute it and the credit bureau must investigate.

18. Your Reports with the Three Major Bureaus May Not Match

The three major credit bureaus keep their own databases of information. And since creditors aren’t required to report to all three, your report can be different with each bureau. That means credit scores associated with each of your files may be different, too.

Get the Details on Your Credit Now

Now that you’ve discovered interesting facts about credit scores in general, get the facts about your own score. Sign up for ExtraCredit to get access to 28 of your FICO scores, your reports with all three bureaus and plenty of tools and perks that help you manage your credit in the future.

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