Creditworthiness

How a creditor measures a consumer's past and future ability and willingness to repay debts. In essence, a consumer's creditworthiness is a measure of his or her ability to successfully manage his or her finances and make timely payments on debt as demonstrated over a historical period. Material creditworthiness deals with financial criteria, such as past debt repayment, earning capacity, and debt to income ratio.

What is a credit score?

A credit score is a complex mathematical model that evaluates many types of information in a credit file. A credit score is used by a lender to help determine whether a person qualifies for a particular credit card, loan, or service. Most credit scores estimate the risk a lender incurs by lending money to a person or providing them with a service -- specifically, the likelihood that the person will make payments on time over a period of two to three years. Generally, the higher the score, the less risk the person presents.

How can I get my credit score?

You can purchase a credit report which contains your credit score by contacting one of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies:

Equifax - www.equifax.com

Experian - www.experian.com

TransUnion - www.transunion.com

What is a credit file disclosure?

A credit file disclosure provides you with all of the information in your credit file maintained by a consumer reporting company that could be provided by the consumer reporting company in a consumer report about you to a third party, such as a lender. A credit file disclosure also includes a record of everyone who has received a consumer report about you from the consumer reporting company within a certain time frame. The credit file disclosures includes certain information that is not included in the credit report about you to a third party, such as the inquiries of companies for pre-approved offers of credit or insurance and account reviews, and any medical account information which is suppressed for third party users of consumer reports. You are entitled to receive a disclosure copy of your credit file from a consumer reporting company under Federal law and the laws of various states.