Credit score gibberish, state of New York #n511
#HelloNewYork! Revamp for the Department of Financial Services. Copy-and-paste. Easy-breezy. #DotGov
From: Greg Fisher [mailto:greg@truthandfalsity.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2015 11:07 AM
To: Matt Anderson, Department of Financial Services, state of New York
Subject: Credit score, state of New York, gibberish #n511
See this message and your response at [link to this page] .
I left a message.
With my apologies for this interruption, I would like you to read the information behind the link above. I took the liberty of suggesting a correction to New York's citizens' website, specifically http://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/creditreport.htm . Alone, theoretically, it affects the people of only one of the states of the United States. But the sum of a thousand such errors creates a substantial problem!
In this case, it appears that the list of "five categories" (also called the "5 FICO Score Ingredients")(both by the namesake) was flubbed because of a formatting error. That list is a trope used as filler by writers when creating a typical article about credit scores. They could just link to the information published by the keeper of the secrets, but that wouldn't be good make-work. On the other hand, we don't know how long it would be until link rot sets in.
I checked the page in the state of New York domain in several internet web browsers (and multiple mobile devices, of course! (Ah! This RWD is all the rage)) and reproduced the same result in every case. But the truth (about form-as opposed to function, at least) lies in the HTML source code structure. So, I pulled it directly from your page and put it on mine.
As a test of my veracity, try to answer this question: Why does the puny "Length of Credit History" (15%) have its own boldface heading when Payment History (35%)(!) does not?
In a more general sense, I believe that that page is just the result of the silly idea of producing so-called 'content' with truth as only secondary notion. But, I would be shirking my civic duty to not ask the State of New York Who wrote it? Or, should we just let the mystery stand, and chalk it up to the unfortunate effort of a summer intern?
Whatever its origin, it is history. There is enough blame to go around. Onward and upward and all that.
Again, please forgive me for barging in. Do you agree that there is an error?
--
Greg Fisher
Truth and Falsity
truthandfalsity.com
Page A2
pagea2.com
The Credit Scoring Site
creditscoring.com
PO Box 342
Dayton, Ohio 45409-0342
skype fisher100
937-681-3224
Suggested change for the citizens of New York
This is how it stands.
-- CODE FROM STATE OF NEW YORK WEBSITE STARTS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THIS LINE OF RED TEXT--
What does a FICO score take into consideration?
Your FICO score only looks at information in your credit report and considers both the positive and the negative information on the report including:
- Payment History – (accounts for about 35%)
- On-time payments on credit accounts including credit cards, retail accounts (such as department store credit cards), installment loans (loans where you make regular payments, like car loans) and mortgage loans.
- Late payments (delinquencies) on credit accounts including how late the payments were, how much was owed, how recently the late payments occurred and how many times payments were late.
- Public record and collection items including delinquency payments on utility bills that are sent to collection agencies, bankruptcies, foreclosures, lawsuits, wage attachments, liens and judgments. (Older items and items with small amounts will count less than recent items or those with larger amounts.)
- Amount of credit – (accounts for about 30%)
- The total amount owed on each account, in addition to the overall amount you owe.
- Having balances on certain accounts. (Having a very small balance without missing a payment shows that you have managed credit responsibly, and may be slightly better than carrying no balance at all.)
- The number of accounts that have balances. (A large number can indicate higher risk of over-extension.)
Length of Credit History – (accounts for about 15%)
- The age of your oldest account and the average age of all of your accounts.
- How long it has been since you used certain accounts.
- New Credit – (accounts for about 10%)
- How many new accounts you have or how long it has been since you opened a new account.
- How many requests for credit you have made in the last 12 months.
- How long it has been since a lender made a credit report inquiry.
- Whether you have repaired your credit history, following past payment problems.
- Types of Credit - (accounts for about 10%)
- What type of credit accounts you have, and how many of each type. This includes:
- Revolving credit – American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, and department store cards.
- Installment credit – Personal loans, car loans, student loans and mortgages.
How Does the FICO Score Count Inquiries?
-- CODE FROM STATE OF NEW YORK WEBSITE ENDED IMMEDIATELY ABOVE THIS LINE OF RED TEXT--
This is better.
What does a FICO score take into consideration?
Your FICO score only looks at information in your credit report and considers both the positive and the negative information on the report including:
- Payment History – (accounts for about 35%)
- On-time payments on...
- The Amounts You Owe – (about 30%)
- The total amount...
- Length of Credit History – (about 15%)
- The age of...
- New Credit – (about 10%)
- How many new...
- Types of Credit in Use – (about 10%).
- What kinds of...
For those using devices larger than 5 inches, open these in additional separate windows and arrange them side-by-side. Compare the states's document (unfortunate) to http://www.scoreinfo.org/ov... (horse's mouth), and to http://free.creditscore.org/wh... (unfortunate).