Is My Credit Karma Score Accurate?

Can you trust the credit score provided by Credit Karma and similar tools provided on your credit card’s smartphone app? It seems that with just a click of a button, you can view your credit score—but does that number match what an actual credit reporting bureau has? It is a common misconception that there is …

New FICO 10 Scoring Model

Have you heard about the new FICO 10 scoring model launching this summer? The credit-scoring system is updated every five to seven years, and it’s up for review now. Here are the big changes this time around. Under the new FICO 10 scoring model, creditors will be able to see back 24 months of payment …

Increasing your credit limit can boost your credit score

Making on-time payments on all of your debts and maintaining low balances on your credit cards are two proven paths to a good credit score. There’s one more step you can take to improve your credit score quickly: Increasing your credit limit can boost your credit score. When you ask your existing creditors to increase …

Is a zero balance credit utilization good for my credit score?

Credit utilization refers to how much of your credit line(s) is in use; it’s also called your debt-to-limit ratio. If your cumulative limit across your three credit cards is $10,000 and you carry a cumulative balance of $1,500, then your credit utilization is 15 percent. (Less than 30 percent is recommended.) Is it better to …

Credit Reports vs. Credit Scores: What Matters Most?

Here at Scorewell, our credit management experts tell our clients to focus on credit reports over credit scores because there are simply so many scores out there. If you’ve ever applied for an auto or home loan, you might’ve noticed that the lender pulls your credit history and score from several sources and the results are …