Fair Isaac & Company developed their own scoring method to determine the likelihood that credit users would pay their bills back in the Wild West days of credit, the 1950s. This venerable calculation was named for the company: the FICO score. This number is used to boil down the credit history of a prospective borrower into one simple number, and it is widely accepted by lenders as a reliable method of credit evaluation.

Here's the hitch with FICO Scores: the FCC has agreed that the method of calculation of the FICO is a trade secret. The credit bureaus and Fair Isaac do not have to reveal their methodology, and part of it is based on how other borrowers with your purchasing and payment patterns do when it comes to paying their bills. But analyzers can still determine, to a point, how these scores are calculated and how you can change your habits to improve your score.

We know that some of the factors that go into this number include:

·Records of late payments

·Length of time credit has been established

·Amount of credit used and amount available in open credit lines

·Length of time at present address

·Employment history

·Negative credit information like bankruptcies, charge-offs, collections, and other black marks.

The three credit bureaus, Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax, each provides this information on a consumer. Each number is likely to be somewhat different. Lenders may choose to use the middle score, a combination of the scores, or a score at random.

It's hard to increase your FICO over the short term, but you can change habits to increase your score over time.