FICO Score Management

Many people have never even heard of their FICO score, but your FICO score is important for your financial success. These scores determine, among many things, whether or not you will be extended credit and what rates you will be charged, whether you will be extended many types of insurance coverage and what your premiums will be, whether or not an employer will employ you, and whether your will be allowed to rent a home. Learning to manage this score properly while you are still in college can save you a ton of money.  For example, for a 25 year old with a 30 year mortgage, the difference between a credit score in the range of 620-670 and one with a score in the range of 720-850 would be $340 per month. By investing this savings, the 25 year old with the higher score would potentially have over $4,000,000 by retirement. Use the links below to see how much you could save.

  1. http://www.creditkarma.com This site allows you to get your credit score for free. It is the only service of its type on the internet. Monitor your credit score from here regularly. It is a neat resource.
  2. http://www.myfico.com/myfico/creditcentral/LoanRates.asp is a neat calculator from the creators of the FICO score that effectively shows how much money you can save by having a better FICO score.
  3. http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/money/creditscores/your.htm is a government publication explaining how important credit scores actually are.
  4. http://www.myfico.com/Downloads/Files/MyFICO_UYFS_Booklet.pdf is a great booklet that helps you understand how to increase your credit score through time. This is a great article.
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