See How Lenders See Your FICO Score
Welcome to allaboutthebenjamins.org  

This site is dedicated to those who have decided to take the steps needed to master the credit scoring system and maintain (or reclaim) their good credit.  I did it, and so can you!

Allaboutthebenjamins.org is far from being the only credit-oriented Web site on the Internet.  "Credit repair" sites abound.  Last night I Googled "improve my credit" and got "around 724,000" hits!  With so many aspects of financial life tied to credit, including employment in some industries, a lot of folks out there seem to wish they had a higher credit score.

This site is different from the vast majority of those Web sites, most of which simply recycle the general FICO scoring advice available from Fair-Isaac itself, or actually redirect to credit repair organizations which want to charge you hefty fees for "improving" or "fixing" your credit.  allboutthebenjamins.org is not a "credit repair" site or credit repair organization.  This site does not sell any products or services designed to directly improve, boost, or otherwise raise your credit score.  The site does have a link you can use to order your credit scores and reports directly from Fair Isaac, since the first step to improving your credit score is knowing what's on your credit report and where your score is now.  But we don't have a bunch of "Daddy Warbucks" perfect lines of credit to rent you, nor an army of faux attorneys to challenge every blot on your credit report.  These "credit repair" methods cost you a lot of money, don't teach you how to manage your own credit, and often don't work as advertised anyway.   Since I don't get money for steering you to a specific method of improving your credit score, my advice is unbiased.  I've combed the Internet, reading the experiences of dozens of users at the Fair Isaac Credit Forums and Creditboards, plus my own experiences, and I can tell you that you don't need "credit repair" anyway.  You need to know how the credit scoring system works.  

As long as we're on the subject of disclaimers and "nots," allow me to stipulate that allaboutthebenjamins.org is also not a financial or legal advisor, and information on the site and its FAQ and blog should not be interpreted as legal or financial advice.  If you're having serious money troubles, are being sued by creditors, or considering filing bankruptcy, seek professional assistance.  These are not matters to leave to amateurs.  


Allaboutthebenjamins.org will teach you all about FICO credit scoring so that you can take command of your own credit, yourself, and never have to worry about bad credit again...that is, if you manage your own credit and financial situation wisely.  If you have bad credit and you're looking for information on how the system works and why your credit is bad and what you could do differently to improve it, you've come to the right place, but I've got good news and bad news.  We'll get the bad news out of the way first.

The bad news: turning a bad FICO score into a good score is not an instant process.  Recovering your bad credit will take time and patience on your part.  Your credit likely didn't get bad overnight, and it won't improve overnight either.  If your credit is bad, it's bad because of financial mis-steps you made (perhaps due to ignorance, poor planning, overspending--we've all been there--or just plain bad luck).  Recovering from the results of bad habits and actions, replacing these mis-steps with good management and stewardship, and reaping the rewards of this is not an overnight event.  Raising your credit score will take time and discipline.  That's the bad news.

But the good news is that maximizing your FICO score and getting better rates on mortgages, insurance and other products is a task you can undertake, and succeed at, yourself.  Your past actions got you a bad FICO score; likewise your future actions can win you a good FICO score.  Credit reports and FICO scoring can look like an intimidating, arcane process.  In actuality, modern software makes credit reports far easier to dicipher, and FICO scoring abides largely by a handful of simple principles you can learn inside of an hour or so.  Once you know how FICO scoring works, you'll be able to manage your own credit, and improve your own score the right (and permanent) way.  You'll be able to gauge, with considerable if imperfect accuracy, the impact any event or course you undertake will have on your credit score.  The mystery (and with it, the fear and angst) surrounding credit scoring will vanish.

So, how does FICO scoring operate?  Allaboutthebenjamins.org has a complete FAQ on this topic, but here's the 10,000-foot view.  The general principles behind FICO scoring are simple.  When you (or a prospective creditor) pull your FICO score, this is what happens:

FICO Scoring Process

FICO scoring takes inputs (the scored entries on your credit report), and puts them through a process (the FICO formula invented and maintained by Fair Isaac Corporation). The process uses those inputs in a special way to compute an output, which is your FICO score.  Don't worry...you don't need to know advanced math to work on your credit score, any more than you need to know all the physics and mechanics of internal combustion engines to drive a car.  All you need to know are the generalities of how the process works (the car burns gasoline to produce energy, and you step on the gas pedal to input more gasoline to go faster, and let off to slow down, etc.). When you learn the fundamentals of a process, you know the inputs you need in order for the desired output (a high FICO score) to emerge on the other side of the process.  

Let's start with a simple example:  Imagine you want the highest output possible from the process shown below:

Inputs (x, y and z)  >>>  Process (x-y) >>> Output (???)

The inputs for this process are "x", "y", and "z".  The process itself subtracts the total of "y" from the total of "x."  You don't need to be an Einstein or Hawking to know you want "x" to be as high as possible, and "y" to be as low as possible, since raising "x" increases the output, while raising "y" decreases the output.  You also don't need to waste your time worrying about "z" because this variable is irrelevant to the outcome.  If your output from this process isn't as high as you want it to be, you need to increase the value of "x", or decrease the value of "y", or better yet, do both!  

But what if you have a whole slew of inputs, and you're not really sure what falls under "x" and what falls under "y" or "z"?  Then you're in the position most American consumers are in when dealing with FICO scoring and credit reports!  It's hard to maximize the output of a process when you don't know how the process works.  As you'll find from reading the FAQ, the FICO process operates a lot like that sample process with x, y and z above.  If you want maximal output (a high FICO score), there are "x's" that you want to increase and have more of (we call them "Blues") and "y's" you want to have fewer of and to minimize (we call them "Reds").  There are also "z's" that many people tinker with or worry about, believing these items figure into the credit scoring process, when these entries actually don't matter at all!

On a side note, I've gotten some feedback on the ads on this site.  Yes, there is advertising; as with most writers and artists, I'd like to get some kind of return on the investment I've made creating this site.  The first ad vendor I went with insisted on stuffing its allocated space full of the same credit score vendor and credit repair ads...page after page after dismal, boring page.  As you'll see, I don't believe in credit repair organizations...at best you're going to pay handsomely for actions you could do on your own in a matter of hours, and at worst the tactics of credit repair organizations may actually reduce your credit score.  I also didn't see much monetization potential in displaying the exact same ads--whether for credit scores and repair, cars, laser pointers, or Rottweilers--on all twenty-odd pages of this site.  So I changed providers...and as a result, the ads you see are varied, and feature reputable companies--many well-known--delivering quality goods and services for competitive rates.  The only credit related ads are for the three major credit bureaus and myFICO...the latter being the best place to obtain your credit score.  Please help support this site by checking out the vendors, all of whom were selected by Yours Truly, The Benjamin.


To understand more and take command of your credit, proceed to the allaboutthebenjamins.org FICO scoring FAQ.