I sat patiently in the mortgage broker's office. She gave me a raised eyebrow. I was 29 years old, going through a divorce and had not been employed for the past four years. I scrambled to tell the broker I recently completed an M.B.A. This elicits a smile...until I informed her that I planned to return to teaching, eliciting another raised eyebrow. My new degree added plenty of student loan debt. This did not look good.
"One moment ma'am, I just need to pull your credit report off the printer." I silently considered the possibility that these would be the mortgage broker's last words to me.
The mortgage broker re-entered the room a new woman. "I've never seen someone your age with scores so high. I could write you a $200,000 home loan today."
Though flattered, I wondered who would make the payments on that $200,000 home. I returned to my apartment excited (I can get a house!), proud (She's never seen scores higher!), and more than a little confused. What do those three numbers actually mean?
Credit scores, pioneered more than 30 years ago by Fair Isaac Corporation, provide U.S. consumers faster and more convenient access to lending. Craig Watts of Fair Isaac refers to credit scores as an adult's GPA. Lenders in a variety of industries use credit scores to control their risk when extending credit to consumers. Gradually more auto insurers use credit-scoring models to assign risk and set rates for new policies. A recent Society for Human Resource Management poll found employers increasingly look at applicants' credit histories....
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