I’ve mentioned before that your income (or reported income) comes into play when you are offered credit. But wait! Your income isn’t considered when Fair Isaac Corporation calculates your credit score.

We were discussing qualifying for mortgages at the time, but recent article from Liz Pulliam Weston confirms that credit card companies use some scoring calculations beyond your credit score — and you do not have access to see how you rate.

Here are the 8 scores credit card issuers use for a variety of situations — whether to extend credit, what types of marketing to send, when to send your account to collections, etc.

* Response score: the likelihood you will respond to a credit offer.
* Application score: the favorability of your income, how long you’ve lived at your current address, how long you’ve worked for your employer, and other data entered on your application.
* Bankruptcy score: the likelihood you’ll declare bankruptcy.
* Revenue score: how much your account will earn the issuer (through interest fees, late fees, interchange fees, etc.)
* Attrition-risk score: the likelihood you’ll abandon your card.
* Behavior score: the reliability of your payments and whether you pay your balances off slowly, quickly, or completely every month.
* Transaction score: the likelihood of legitimacy for any individual transaction (that is, whether this particular charge is possibly fraudulent).
* Collection score: the ability to pay your delinquent account if sent to a collection agency.

Numbers are meaningless without some kind of scale and guide to describe the meaning behind them. It would be even more helpful to see some statistics describing where other people stand on the scales to allow comparisons with other people. Unfortunately, the current situation doesn’t allow for this information to be shared.

Want to see your numbers to see what your credit card issuers really think of you? You can’t; it’s a secret.

8 Secret Scores That Lenders Keep [MSN Money]
Image credit: marie-ll

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About the Author

Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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