Business & Finance Personal Finance

What Does FICO Stand for?

    FICO Trademark

    • The acronym FICO stands for Fair Isaac Corporation, an organization that computes and publishes credit scores for viewing by consumers and creditors. FICO is a trademarked brand name that represents the credit scores it generates for consumers and creditors. The Fair Isaac Corporation is one of the top analytics and decision-management product providers in the world. This is why many people use the terms "credit score" and "FICO score" interchangeably.

    FICO Ranges

    • FICO scores range from a low of 300 to a high of 850, which is the best possible score. Creditors commonly deem a FICO score of 650 to 699 as moderate and 700 or better as a good-to-excellent score. About a quarter of consumers who have an open credit file have scores of less than 600 and the median FICO score for consumers is 732, as of 2010.

    Middle Score

    • When creditors pull your credit file, they find three scores based on information from the three major credit bureaus -- Experian, Equifax and Transunion. The creditor takes the score that falls in the middle as the score to determine approval, interest rates and terms of the account for the applicant. So for instance, if you have scores of 585, 650 and 701, the creditor uses the middle score of 650 when evaluating your application.

    Improving FICO Scores

    • If you're trying to boost your FICO score, you need time, patience and consistency. Dispute any incorrect data reported by creditors. If you have charge-offs or unpaid accounts listed on your report, call the creditor to negotiate a payment plan or settlement. When paid, the creditor updates the file with that information, which could boost your score. Continue to make on-time payments on all of your accounts if you want to improve your score over time.



Leave a reply