Fair and unbiased credit calculation, my arse...

I went to check my credit report today, since it's generally a good idea to do so once a year, and I figured I may as well pay the $6 to have them calculate my FICO score too, so I can get an idea of how I'm doing on climbing the long winding staircase that is the process of building credit in today's society. The credit report looked accurate, with all three of my accounts (two credit card, one installment) paid off on time every month, so I went to check my credit score, figuring I'd finally made it into the "Good" range.

Nope. 727, right smack in the middle of "Fair".

According to everything I've read, the major factors that affect your score are 1) your payment history, 2) length of history, and 3) debt-to-income ratios. The first is perfect, and the third just fine (I rarely run my credit cards up past a third of the limit, and I almost always pay the balance off each month). So as near as I can tell, they're just picky because my credit history is only two years long.

I know that I shouldn't really complain, considering that (assuming I keep making payments on time and don't go on a spending spree) this problem is guaranteed to go away eventually, but it still feels like I'm not getting much credit (ha!) for being as responsible as I have been...

Fair and unbiased credit calculation, my arse...

I went to check my credit report today, since it's generally a good idea to do so once a year, and I figured I may as well pay the $6 to have them calculate my FICO score too, so I can get an idea of how I'm doing on climbing the long winding staircase that is the process of building credit in today's society. The credit report looked accurate, with all three of my accounts (two credit card, one installment) paid off on time every month, so I went to check my credit score, figuring I'd finally made it into the "Good" range.

Nope. 727, right smack in the middle of "Fair".

According to everything I've read, the major factors that affect your score are 1) your payment history, 2) length of history, and 3) debt-to-income ratios. The first is perfect, and the third just fine (I rarely run my credit cards up past a third of the limit, and I almost always pay the balance off each month). So as near as I can tell, they're just picky because my credit history is only two years long.

I know that I shouldn't really complain, considering that (assuming I keep making payments on time and don't go on a spending spree) this problem is guaranteed to go away eventually, but it still feels like I'm not getting much credit (ha!) for being as responsible as I have been...

Neat!

I don't know if I've mentioned her before, but my godmother Emily works as a "government relations director" (read: lobbyist) for the American Cancer Society. In addition, she's absolutely one of the happiest, nicest and kindest people I've ever met (which is why I wanted her to be my godmother back when I was dong the whole church thing and got baptized). Anyway, she lives in Anchorage but usually heads down here once or twice a year during the legislative session; the last couple of times, she was working on a bill to make it mandatory for state insurance plans to cover colon cancer screenings. (She regaled us with all sorts of amusing stories about playing the politics game and weaving her way through the system, too.) Apparently, she just got it signed into law, and got in the paper too.

Amusingly enough, I had a fortune cookie today that advised me that "Flowers would brighten the day of a close friend tomorrow", but I couldn't think of any close friends whom I could really send flowers to (most of them are out of town or have weird work schedules). I think I'll have to see about sending Emily a nice congratulatory bouquet...

Neat!

I don't know if I've mentioned her before, but my godmother Emily works as a "government relations director" (read: lobbyist) for the American Cancer Society. In addition, she's absolutely one of the happiest, nicest and kindest people I've ever met (which is why I wanted her to be my godmother back when I was dong the whole church thing and got baptized). Anyway, she lives in Anchorage but usually heads down here once or twice a year during the legislative session; the last couple of times, she was working on a bill to make it mandatory for state insurance plans to cover colon cancer screenings. (She regaled us with all sorts of amusing stories about playing the politics game and weaving her way through the system, too.) Apparently, she just got it signed into law, and got in the paper too.

Amusingly enough, I had a fortune cookie today that advised me that "Flowers would brighten the day of a close friend tomorrow", but I couldn't think of any close friends whom I could really send flowers to (most of them are out of town or have weird work schedules). I think I'll have to see about sending Emily a nice congratulatory bouquet...