Re: How Much Is A Credit Score (FICO) Worth?

Daniel T. wrote:

> It seems to me that getting his score now is pointless. How would the 
> information benefit him?

For one, it would confirm your suspicion that he "has no FICO". If 
that's the case, he can work on a plan to get it going. If he has one, 
he'll know the number. Knowledge is power. Whatever he discovers, it's a 
data point. Kind of like having your cholesterol tested even though you 
are 160LB, don't smoke and appear fit as a fiddle.


> Anicdotal evedence. I dealt with a few customers who had no FICOs when I

> was selling cars. They had no recent loan history, no data to work with,

> so when the re****t was run, the FICO was literally blank (not 0, but 
> blank.)

fair enough, but this is the first I've heard such a thing. I have no 
evidence to the contrary.

> None of us know for sure of course, because the formulas for calculating

> FICO are secret, however it is in many people's opinion that having some

> debt (an installment loan for exampe) for some time will help raise your

> FICO (assuming you make your payments on time... not early, but on 
> time.) From www.myfico.com for example: "In general, having credit cards

> and installment loans (and paying timely payments) will raise your 
> credit score." Note, they do not say paying off loans early helps raise 
> your FICO, they say making timely payments does it.

Well, the myfico site's wording is vague enough. I think paying one's 
credit cards in full helps to raise FICO scores and costs nothing.

Joe

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