FICO is an acronym for the Fair Isaac Credit Organization. The FICO score is a standard credit score which makes up a substantial portion of a credit report that credit bureaus sell to lenders so they can asses an applicant's credit risk and whether to extend them credit.
Here is a visual on how your FICO score is calculated from 5 general categories.

Source: myFICO - About FICO scores
Here is a typical interpretation of credit scores which range from 300 to 850:
- 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
- 300-559 -- You have to improve your score
Source: Journey To Financial Freedom
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. You can get these report from AnnualCreditReport.com.









