Is your credit score falling?

Filed in archive credit problems on May 27, 2009

There's one number that means more than all the rest when you're applying for a mortgage loan: your credit score.

Also known as your FICO score, this number condenses your history of paying bills and handling credit into a single figure. Mortgage lenders look at the score to determine if you're someone they should be loaning money to. The number also determines if you'll pay a higher or lower mortgage interest rate.

Keeping your credit score is relatively simple: Pay your bills on time.

Unfortunately, according to a story in today's USA Today, the credit scores of U.S. residents are falling at a fairly rapid pace. The reason? According to the story, more U.S. residents are paying their bills late.

There's no mystery behind this. The rough economy has made it more difficult for a growing number of U.S. residents to get by. That means they're charging more on their credit cards and then having trouble paying when these credit-card bills come due.

The USA Today story says that from the third quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009 the average TransUnion credit score dropped six points to 651. Credit scores fell even more in those states hit hardest by the housing slump. TransUnion credit scores in California fell 10 points, while they dipped by 11 points in Arizona.

Of course, this being 2009, this bad news isn't quite bad enough. According to the USA Today story, financial analysts expect the credit scores of U.S. residents to drop even more as 2009 drags slowly into 2010.

These numbers are pretty serious. Credit scores have become the key indicator that determines whether people qualify for mortgage loans. When credit scores dip, it certainly is not a good omen for the future recovery of the housing market.

Consumers should do everything they can starting know to keep their credit score healthy. This means paying your bills on time, not taking out more open credit than you need and keeping the balances on your credit cards at lower levels.