News

FairIsaac, a leader in providing credit scoring to finance industry,
has published for the first time an explanantion of their credit score.
The score is based on:

Past payment history
	Account payment information on specific types of
                     accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment
                     loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.)

                     Presence of adverse public records (bankruptcy,
                     judgements, suits, liens, wage attachments, etc.),
                     collection items, and/or delinquency (past due
                     items)

                     Severity of delinquency (how long past due)

                     Amount past due on delinquent accounts or
                     collection items

                     Time since (recency of) past due items
                     (delinquency), adverse public records (if any), or
                     collection items (if any)

                     Number of past due items on file

                     Number of accounts paid as agreed

                 Amount of credit owing

                     Amount owing on accounts

                     Amount owing on specific types of accounts

                     Lack of a specific type of balance, in some cases

                     Number of accounts with balances

                     Proportion of credit lines used (proportion of
                     balances to total credit limits on certain types of
                     revolving accounts)

                     Proportion of installment loan amounts still owing
                     (proportion of balance to original loan amount on
                     certain types of installment loans)

                 Length of time credit established

                     Time since accounts opened

                     Time since accounts opened, by specific type of
                     account

                     Time since account activity

                 DISCUSSION OF THIS CATEGORY


                 Search for and acquisition of new credit

                     Number of recently opened accounts, and
                     proportion of accounts that are recently opened, by
                     type of account

                     Number of recent credit inquiries

                     Time since recent account opening(s), by type of
                     account

                     Time since credit inquiry(s)

                     Re-establishment of positive credit history following
                     past payment problems


                 Types of credit established

                     Number of (presence, prevalence, and recent
                     information on) various types of accounts (credit
                     cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage,
                     consumer finance accounts, etc.)

See
http://www.fairisaac.com/servlet/SiteDriver/Content/912