myFICO Score And Free Credit Score Estimator

By Pinyo, on August 15, 2007

I came across Check Your Credit Score For Free post on All Financial Matters Blog today. The tool was good, but I found a better one called myFICO FICO Score Estimator (it’s faster and there’s no advertisement). The calculator asks you 10 questions to come up with an estimated range of your FICO credit score.

The questions are:

1. How many credit cards do you have?
   • Follow up: How long ago did you get your first credit card?
2. How long ago did you get your first loan?
3. How many loans or credit cards have you applied for in the last year?
4. How recently have you opened a new loan or credit card?
5. How many of your loans and/or credit cards currently have a balance?
6. Besides any mortgage loans, what are your total balances on all other loans and credit cards combined?
7. When did you last miss a loan or credit card payment?
8. How many of your loans and/or credit cards are currently past due?
9. What percent of your total credit card limits do your credit card balances represent?
10. Please indicate if you have ever gone through any of the following negative financial events in the last 10 years: bankruptcy, tax lien, foreclosure, repossession, or account referred to collection agency.

Illustration from The Skinny On Credit Cards, published with permission. The Skinny On.

This gives you a good idea of what factors determine your credit score. Here is a visual on how your FICO score is calculated from 5 general categories.

Note: I got the graphic from myFICO’s About FICO scores page.

Based on my answers, my FICO score was estimated to be between 755-805. That’s pretty darn good based on the ranges below:

• 720-850 — Represent the best score range
• 700-719 — You can obtain favorable financing terms with this
• 675-699 — This is still a decent score range
• 620-674 — Start to have trouble obtaining favorable credit terms
• 560-619 — Have more trouble
• 500-559 — You have to improve your score

Note: I got this table is from Journey To Financial Freedom.

Also check out this Bargaineering article on how to get a free FICO credit score. Anyway, it is a good idea to review your credit report regularly. Since you can get 1 free credit report per year from each of the 3 credit agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), you can stack your request 4 months apart and be able to review your credit report year round. Personally, I use AnnualCreditReport.com.

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Pinyo is the brain behind Moolanomy personal finance blog and a few other web sites. If you like this article, please subscribe for free daily email updates.

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