Credit Score Secrets Part 3 - Credit Scoring and Your Financial History

Your credit history affects your ability to borrow and even creeps up to attack how much money it costs you to borrow once you find yourself actually approved for something. Every creditor, lender or individual interested in someone as a prospective customer has a credit scoring system in place to use with the information you provide when submitting your application. An individual's credit report is essential to anyone out there seeking credit and is very important to any loan officer.

Many think of credit scoring systems as very vague "Wizard of Oz" type all powerful machines which control your number at a high speed. These credit scores are based on a statistical system however and are as easy to explain as the mystical "wizard". The systems that were created to calculate your credit score use real world data and enable the lendor or creditor to view the individual objectively.

Some of these include the number and the different types of bank accounts an individual has, outstanding debts, history of bill paying, debt to credit ratios, any collections accounts that have been brought against the individual, bankruptcies and other factors determined more by the individual and his or her financial portfolio.

By comparing the history and background of one individual against the background of thousands of other consumers with financial situations and payrates that are similar, one can better predict the outcome of a loan offer made to this individual. It is easier to predict future habits based on the person's ability in their past and see whether it is likely that debt will be managed well and repaid in the agreed upon time.

The mathematical system used by credit scoring systems has proven to lenders that it can be a strong predictor of one's future ability to repay their credit or debt to an individual company. The system created was designed to place more emphasis on history and less emphasis on individual statistics, which are variable.

You can request your credit report through a number of ways but it will not help if you do not have the education and knowledge in order to read it and determine what you can do to raise your own credit score. Make sure to arm yourself with the knowledge through the right book, audio tape or program and you can put your credit report to work for you and be on the path to a better credit score.