Hey, I know the subject of 'what is FICO?' won't go away easily or may never go away, as everybody needs to be introduced to the idea behind it and what it really means.
Fair Isaac Corporation is a company that was founded many years back with the aim of developing methods to calculate the financial performance of members of the society and translating it into figures.
The purpose behind this idea was to help institutions that are willing to do business or enter into financial agreement with these individuals in order to know the level of risk they are undertaking.
That was a time when it was only used for credit loans and basically financial purposes.
Nowadays, the use of the three-digit figure on your report has gone beyond the ordinary as employers, landlords, and even insurance companies have joined the bandwagon.
About 70 percent of employers now purchase credit reports of job applicants as a part-process of making important decision involving employing new staff or promoting old ones.
Landlords may also check your file to find out the probability of you not being too much of a risk in paying rents before they agree to let you occupy their apartments.
Your spending pattern on credit-cards, attitude towards payment on loans and the number of negative accounts you have on your file - all contribute to the state of your report and ultimately the kind of FICO score that you have.
Experian, Equifax, and Transunion - all use the formula developed by Fair Isaac in calculating your financial activities - though I must state here that the three of them have slightly different and independent variables they use in arriving at the figure on your file.
It has always been advised that you should review updated versions of your reports and take steps to clean-off negative accounts using either the services of a professional repair agency or a self-help program.