Three Credit Score Myths Busted

With so much information at a consumer’s fingertips it can be tough to know what’s fact and what’s fiction, so it comes as no surprise that I recently came across three myths about credit scores that are misleading and inaccurate.

Myth 1: You have to be in significant debt in order to have a good credit score.

Fact: There are several ways to achieve a high credit score which include: paying your credit card bills by the due date 100% of the time, using credit cards that you have had for a long time (about ten years) in order to show credibility, and having a fair amount of credit cards (6 is plenty), with little to no debt on those cards.

Myth 2: People with more money have better credit scores.

Fact: The amount of monetary funds a person has is not a factor in determining a person’s credit score. Instead, looking at the credit card holder’s payment history, the amount of money that they owe, the length of their credit history, new lines of credit that they open, and the types of credit that they use are the factors in credit scores.

Myth 3: If you don’t have a credit history, your credit score will be poor.

Fact: Having no credit history is neither good nor bad. Although not having a credit history doesn’t give you the steady, established credit history record that lenders like to see, it also means that there have been no negative things in your credit history past. With no credit history, a score is most likely to be somewhere in the 600s. This number will change depending on how you treat your credit.

One fact that is not a myth is the importance of educating yourself about credit scores. As the 2010 Second Quarter Freescore.com Consumer Credit Score Awareness Study shows, individuals know less about credit scores now then the did at the beginning of the year. To begin educating yourself you can go the FreeScore.com CreditFYI videos.

If you can remain credit aware you can quickly become a credit myth buster.