Credit Scores

Industry-specific score designed to help auto lenders evaluate risk for vehicle-loan decisions.

Industry-specific score designed to help card issuers evaluate risk for revolving and credit-card lending decisions.

Credit invisible means having no traditional credit record at the nationwide credit bureaus, leaving standard scoring models with nothing to score.

Credit mix refers to the variety of credit account types appearing in a borrower's file.

Credit score means a numerical summary of how a borrower's credit file looks from a risk perspective.

Credit-score terms that explain scoring models, score factors, and the account behavior that can move a borrower up or down.

Credit utilization measures how much of a borrower's revolving credit limit is currently being used.

Score shown for learning or monitoring purposes that may not be the exact score a lender uses in an approval decision.

Excellent credit means a broad label for a very strong credit profile that tends to signal lower borrowing risk.

Fair credit means a middle-tier consumer label for a credit profile that is weaker than good credit but not necessarily deeply impaired.

FICO Score means a specific credit-scoring model family widely used in consumer lending.

Good credit means a broad label for a credit profile that generally looks lower risk than average to many lenders and scoring models.

Credit score tailored to a particular lending category, such as auto lending or credit cards, rather than broad general risk.

Length of credit history describes how long the borrower's credit accounts and file have been established.

Near-prime means a credit tier between subprime and prime, often describing borrowers who are close to stronger approval bands but not fully there.

New credit means recently opened accounts and recent application activity that can signal changing borrowing behavior.

Payment history means the record of whether the borrower has paid credit obligations on time.

Rapid rescore means an expedited bureau-update process used mainly in active mortgage underwriting to reflect documented recent credit changes faster.

Credit-score information provided to a consumer, often including the score, score range, date, and key score factors.

Reason or attribute that helps explain why a credit score is weaker or stronger under a given scoring model.

Score range means the spread of possible numbers used by a particular credit-scoring model.

Set of rules used to turn credit-report data into a score or risk summary for a specific decision context.

Stale credit file means a file with too little recent reportable activity, which can make score generation or score interpretation less reliable.

Subprime means a below-prime credit tier that lenders often associate with weaker credit profiles and higher pricing risk.

Thin file means a credit file with very limited account history or too little data to show a strong borrowing pattern.

Trended data means credit information tracked across time, allowing some scoring models to evaluate direction and patterns rather than a single snapshot.

Unscorable means a credit file exists, but the available information is not enough for a specific scoring model to generate a score.

VantageScore means a consumer credit-scoring model family separate from FICO.