Tommy Lee

We recently shared that the national average FICO^® Score increased to 716 (as of April 2021). Our blog post on the subject highlighted that consumers in the lower score ranges were the biggest driver of the upward trend from 708 in the prior year. For example, for those consumers who had a FICO^® Score value between 550-599 as of April 2020, their average score went…

How much does missing a payment impact a FICO^® Score? What about reducing credit card balances? New FICO research simulated how different credit events may impact FICO^® Score 9 for five different credit profiles, as seen in Figure 1 below. These representative profiles were selected because they had credit characteristics (payment history, utilization, etc.) that were…

For many people, owning a home is still a significant milestone in their financial and credit journey. We recently studied the impact of millennials’ student loan debt on their willingness and ability to obtain new mortgage loans. As the housing market continues to remain competitive, we looked at key trends in FICO^® Score distributions and default rates for those who…

It’s no secret that the holidays mean more spending. But that can become a problem when spending leads to significantly higher credit card balances, missed payments, and a lower credit score. If this happens to you during the holidays, you aren’t alone. Average revolving debt – the type of debt incurred by using credit cards – was 4.5% higher in January 2017 than i…

The National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP) is a comprehensive series of initiatives intended to evaluate the accuracy of credit reports, the process of dealing with credit information, and consumer transparency. In a previous post, we showed that July 2017 NCAP public record removals (civil judgments and some tax liens) had no material impact to FICO^® Scor…

The National Consumer Assistance Plan (NCAP) is a comprehensive series of initiatives intended to evaluate the accuracy of credit reports, the process of dealing with credit information, and consumer transparency. As a result of NCAP, in July 2017, the three credit reporting agencies (CRAs) are scheduled to make required changes to the criteria used to accept the repo…