What is a credit score?

Where the number comes from

You do not have a credit score sitting in a file somewhere. A score is calculated on demand, by running a scoring model over the contents of your credit report at one of the three nationwide credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

That has two consequences worth understanding.

First, the report is the thing that matters. A score is a summary of it. If something on your report is wrong, disputing it is the only route to a different number; there is nothing to appeal in the score itself.

Second, the number changes depending on who asks and when. A mortgage lender pulling a FICO score from Experian and a card issuer pulling a VantageScore from TransUnion are running different models over different data. Both numbers are real. Neither is "the" score.

What is in your credit report

• Identifying information — name, addresses, date of birth, Social Security number, employers.
• Credit accounts — every card, loan and line of credit, with limits, balances and a month-by-month payment history.
• Public records — bankruptcies.
• Inquiries — who has looked at your report, and when.

What moves the score

FICO publishes the general weighting of its scoring model. The categories, from heaviest to lightest:

These weights are approximations for a general population. The model reweights depending on your file — for someone with a short history, the age of accounts carries more relative influence than it would for someone with twenty years of history.

VantageScore uses the same underlying report data with a different structure and different emphasis, which is one reason the two models disagree.

What is not in your credit score

None of the following appears in your credit report or your score:

• Income, savings or assets
• Employment status or job title
• Race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status
• Whether you use a debit card
• Checking or savings account balances
• Your age (FICO models exclude it; it may appear on the report)

Lenders often consider income and employment in a decision. They just do not do it through your credit score.

Score ranges

Both FICO and VantageScore run 300–850. Lenders set their own thresholds, and the bands below are descriptive conventions rather than rules anyone is bound by:

No score guarantees approval for anything. A lender decides using your score, your report, your income, your existing obligations and its own appetite for risk at that moment. Someone with a 780 can be declined; someone with a 620 can be approved.

How to see yours

Federal law entitles you to free copies of your credit report from each of the three nationwide bureaus through AnnualCreditReport.com — the only site authorized for that purpose. Check the current entitlement frequency on the site itself.

Many card issuers and banks also show a free score in their app. Note which model and which bureau it is, because that determines what it can be compared with.

Read the report itself, not just the number. Accounts you do not recognize, balances that are wrong, and late payments you did not make are all disputable — and all three bureaus have a process for it.