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Email this4:59 am
December 17, 2016
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From Rob Carrick in the G&M -
Getting up close and personal with your credit score
One of the most positive personal-finance developments of the past couple of years is how easy it’s getting to check your credit score, which is what lenders look at when assessing you as a borrower.
Maintaining a decent credit score – you don’t need to hit it out of the park – ensures you’ll get competitive interest rates when borrowing to buy a house, a car and more. But what, exactly, goes into a good credit score? A non-profit credit counselling agency has provided some useful answers (SEE LINK below) based on information from the credit-monitoring company Equifax.
There are five factors affecting your credit score. About 35 per cent of the overall tally is your payment history, or your record in paying what you owe on time. Another 30 per cent is credit utilization, or the percentage of your available credit that you’re actually using. Fifteen per cent of your score is influenced by how long a credit history you have, and 10 per cent is tied to the types of borrowing you’re doing. More weight is given to credit cards than, say, a car loan or cellphone bill. A final 10 per cent is tied to hard inquiries, where lenders size you up when requesting new credit (checking your own credit details does not affect your score).
Credit scores range from 300 to 900. Here’s Equifax on what your credit score says about you: “Credit scores from 580 to 669 are generally considered fair; 700 to 749 is considered good; and 750 and up is considered excellent.”
5:14 am
October 21, 2013
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Equifax isn't telling the whole story.
According to these criteria, I should have a score of 900+!
6:42 am
July 10, 2011
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Capital One Credit Cards (Canada) has linked with somebody (CreditKarma?) to provide your score free of charge. CreditKarma i've seen ads for free scores.. Anybody know other places? At minimum you should request a free copy of your credit report from Transunion or Equifax once in awhile to ensure nothing fishy going on..
7:05 am
December 17, 2016
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CIBC customers have access to Equifax (via Borrowell) through their smartphone or tablet online banking Apps.
8:00 am
January 15, 2014
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RBC Clients have access to Transunion Credit Report and score for free. Borrowell provides a free Equifax score and credit report.
8:01 am
March 11, 2018
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Will your score vary at different credit bureau companies?
8:27 am
October 21, 2013
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Pipersierra said
Will your score vary at different credit bureau companies?
yes. They all have their own "secret sauce" formula, and may have different pieces of information about you..
4:48 pm
February 18, 2016
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Pipersierra said
Will your score vary at different credit bureau companies?
Absolutely.
CIBC gives me 845 while
RBC gives me 817. RBC has comment on my score:
'Insufficient mortgage experience' and 'Using a credit card to make a few purchases each month may help improve your credit score.'
Basically if you do not SPEND like crazy you are bad citizen and bad person. You should spend, spend, spend like a crazy; have 10 credit cards, mortgage of at least 2 millions and your hobby should be: SHOPPING!
As I said before, credit score is plain BS (bull$hit). So since I have no mortgage and strictly control my spending AND have millions in savings, I am bad citizen.
7:46 pm
October 21, 2013
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It's clearly not just about credit RISK; it's about credit MARKETING. The person who spends the most and has the cash to back it up is the best market for the banks, so gets the highest scores, so that the banks will be alerted to court their business.
My credit utilization is very low, so I'm not very "interesting" to them, so, although my score is excellent, it will never be close to 900. I am not concerned.
10:23 pm
April 6, 2013
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The score differences mentiond are probably more interesting or entertaining to consumers. They actually don't matter that much to lenders.
In an article mentioned in a previous post, an Equifax Canada vice-president explained to a Globe & Mail writer that the difference between her lower score of 783 and her partner's score of 846 is irrelevant to lenders.
Anything over 700 is considered to be excellent. There's no excellent(high) or excellent(low). Just excellent.
10:59 pm
October 21, 2013
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But, if it's all moot over 700, then why do they have 200 more numbers?
7:07 am
April 6, 2013
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The score is just the number from a scoring model. Lenders and credit bureaus probably look at their past experience and found that the credit scores only loosely predict defaults. That's just a limit on how predictive the information is in a Canadian credit record.
Consequently, the actual default rates may bounce randomly around something like 3%, as opposed to declining nicely from 5% to ½%, as the credit score goes from 700 to 900.
4:35 pm
October 21, 2013
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I doubt it. The guy who has 699 is not a worse credit risk than the guy who has 700.
4:59 pm
November 8, 2018
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SavingIsGood said
Absolutely.
CIBC gives me 845 while
RBC gives me 817. RBC has comment on my score:
'Insufficient mortgage experience' and 'Using a credit card to make a few purchases each month may help improve your credit score.'Basically if you do not SPEND like crazy you are bad citizen and bad person. You should spend, spend, spend like a crazy; have 10 credit cards, mortgage of at least 2 millions and your hobby should be: SHOPPING!
As I said before, credit score is plain BS (bull$hit). So since I have no mortgage and strictly control my spending AND have millions in savings, I am bad citizen.
I have to disagree, based on my experience. I checked with RBC and they gave me credit score of 865. I do not have mortgage or any other debts for at least 10 last years. I always pay credit card bill in full. I do not spend "like crazy," not on my budget.
Also, I wish I had millions in savings. 
6:14 pm
October 29, 2017
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I have never checked my credit score. no more mortgage and no debt of any kind, unless you count monthly credit card payment. I only buy what I would have bought with cash and pay my bill each month. I honestly could care less what the ding-dongs out there rate me as.
6:58 pm
April 6, 2013
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Loonie said
I doubt it. The guy who has 699 is not a worse credit risk than the guy who has 700.
He would be if those were Equifax FICO scores (as opposed to the free Equifax Credit Score scores or free TransUnion Credit Vision scores).
Equifax Canada included the following delinquency rate statistics with my FICO score report. Someone with 699 FICO score is in the 12% delinquency rate category. Someone with 700 FICO would be in 5% rate category:
| FICO Score |
Deliquency Rate |
| Up to 499 | 78% |
| 500 - 549 | 60% |
| 550 - 599 | 39% |
| 600 - 649 | 23% |
| 650 - 699 | 12% |
| 700 - 749 | 5% |
| 750 - 799 | 2% |
| 800+ | 1% |
A delinquency is a loan default, a bankruptcy filing, or reaching 90 days past due, in the next two years.
7:16 pm
January 3, 2013
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I never had a mortgage nor a car or student loan. And never spent like crazy. Score has been hovering between 760 to 815. Never got it above 815 mostly because I like getting new CC with high bonus and then cancelling before they start charging the waived annual fee.
And Nope. I don't even have $1M in saving. Lol
7:51 pm
October 29, 2017
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The FICO and Equifax Credit Score use the same numerical range for scores. And the component data come from the same sources. The formulas and weightings are proprietary, so the numbers don't come out the same, but they won't be seriously different.
8:04 pm
October 21, 2013
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Norman, i was just pointing out that the numerical system is not really about credit risk. I think it's about marketing, but could be about something else.
No reasonable person would argue that there is a significant difference between 699 and 700, I hope. These are just convenient categories. The question is, why do they use the number since they are more keen on categorizing?
The whole problem could be clarified a great deal if they simply told us how they do their mysterious calculations. The criteria they specify don't account for their determinations. They are all about creating a product and marketing it. They are not accountable to the public for the conclusions they draw about us. and their information is often inaccurate.
They've never done me any harm, but, then, I mostly ignore them. The one time I did get one of their reports, it was laughably out of date.
8:50 pm
October 29, 2017
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The 699 versus 700 isn't going to be a 7% delinquency rate. That chart isnt meant to be hard categories. I'm quite sure a line graph would have been a better choice. They will both be treated exactly the same.
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