If you have your Fico score and you’d like to know what will happen if you were to apply for a new credit card or a new loan, there are ways to estimate how your Fico score would be affected by actions you plan to take, even before you take them.
MyFico has an online Fico Score Simulator that will allow you to choose from a variety of actions and see how each one will affect your credit rating and Fico score. Besides offering seven categories of simulation options – paying your bills on time, paying down the balances on all your credit cards, maxing out your cards, missing payments, seeking new credit, paying down delinquent balances first, and transferring credit card balances – the score simulator has a “Simulate Best Option” feature. This allows you to see which action would be the best to take in order to improve your Fico score.
You can, for instance, find out how your Fico score would be affected if you were to pay your bills on time for the next 1, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. The simulator will also allow you to estimate how your Fico score would be affected if you were to apply for a new credit card, a mortgage, an auto loan, and a department store card – all you need to do is input the amount of the loan you’re planning to apply for, and with just a click you’ll see how your Fico score will change.
The MyFico Score Simulator is available to consumers who bought a product from the MyFico website that includes an Equifax or TransUnion credit report. Your credit report and Fico score must be less than 30 days old.
Equifax has an Interactive Credit Score Simulator that allows you to see – given that all other factors do not change – how a particular action would affect your Fico score. The “what if” scenarios – what actions usually help your score, what actions may help it, what actions usually hurt it, and the best action – will allow you to predict the possible effects of future actions on your Fico score. The Interactive Score Simulator service comes free if you purchased a credit report through the Equifax website.
Comments
John February 26, 2009 02:49:52 PM 2:49 PM I'm not sure how accurate these simulators can be because even for known actions you cannot exactly predict how much it can move your credit score. You can predict how it can affect your credit, I mean you can say that this action can have a positive or a negative effect on your credit, but exactly how much; I'm not sure.
Geller March 8, 2009 10:21:55 AM 10:21 AM No one is really not sure about how correct the credit report is. But if we go to a professional he would be able to tell us how it is and what effect it can have positive or negative. This is a good article about FICO scores and its effects.
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