Score Reason Codes

Reason Codes Are Very Helpful in Improving Your Credit Score

When a lender receives your Fair, Isaac credit bureau risk score, up to four "score reason codes" are also delivered. These explain the top reasons why your score was not higher. They say things like "Number of accounts with delinquency." If the lender rejects your request for credit, these reason codes can help the lender tell you why your score wasn't higher.

These reason codes are more helpful than the score itself in helping you determine whether your credit report might contain errors, and how you might improve your score over time. However, if you already have a high score (for example, in the mid-700s) some of the reason codes may not be very helpful, as they may be marginal factors related to the last three categories above.

FICO reason codes show how many aspects of your credit report are used in a FICO score. Your four reason codes would be from this list:

• Amount owed on accounts is too high;
  
• Delinquency on accounts;
  
• Too few bank revolving accounts;
  
• Too many bank or national revolving accounts;
  
• Too many accounts with balances;
  
• Consumer finance accounts;
  
• Account payment history is too new to rate;
  
• Too many inquiries in last 12 months;
  
• Too many accounts opened in last 12 months;
  
• Proportion of balances to credit limits is too high;
  
• Amount owed on revolving accounts is too high;
  
• Length of revolving credit history is too short;
  
• Time since delinquent is too recent or unknown;
  
• Length of credit history is too short;
  
• Lack of recent bank revolving account information;
  
• No recent non-mortgage balance information;
  
• Number of accounts with delinquency;
  
• Too few accounts currently paid as agreed;
  
• Time since derogatory public record or collection;
  
• Amount past due on accounts;
  
• Serious delinquency,derogatory public record or collection;
  
• Too many bank or national revolving accounts with balances;
  
• No recent revolving balances;
  
• Proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high;
  
• Lack of recent installment loan information;
  
• Date of last inquiry too recent;
  
• Time since last account opening is too short;
  
• Number of revolving accounts;
  
• Number of bank revolving or revolving accounts;
  
• Number of established accounts;
  
• No recent bankcard balances;
  
• Too few accounts with recent payment information.