What is NOT Considered in Consumer Credit Report Scores?

It seems like everything about a person has some influence on a credit score these days. However, there are several things worth mentioning here that are not considered in credit scores are race, sex, marital status, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. U.S. law prohibits credit scoring from considering these facts, as well as any receipt of public assistance, or the exercise of any consumer right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.

Also, when FICO scores are considered, a person’s age or location or residence is not considered as well as employment information such as salary, dates and history of employment, occupations, employers, and job titles. Even though employment is not considered when calculating a credit score, many lenders oftentimes consider this information when considering a potential borrower.

In many cases, employers will also check an applicant’s credit history for employment purposes. These types of credit inquiries are not considered in a FICO credit score as well other certain types of credit inquiries such as consumer credit inquiries where an individual checks their own credit score, administrative or “account review” inquiries made by lenders as well as promotional inquiries for such things as “pre-approved” credit offers from lenders or credit card companies soliciting new accounts.

It has been debated whether rental payments actually affects an individual’s credit score or not as rental payments are not usually considered in a credit score…if they are made on time. However, if a person does not pay their rent and develops a bad credit history due to landlords reporting their debts to collection agencies their credit score may indeed be adversely affected by a rental payment situation even though rental payments are not “officially” tracked by credit bureaus.

Child support payments follow a similar guideline to that of rental payments. Under normal circumstances, child support payments do not reflect in a credit report unless a parent does not pay the payments on time where the parent with the overdue parent is categorized as “in arrears” and is reported to collections. An “arrear” simply being an overdue child support payment. When an individual is “in arrears” or behind in child support payments, those debts are reported to the credit bureaus which may, in that case, have a negative impact on that person’s credit score in addition to a host of other penalties.

Overall, whatever is included in your FICO credit report is what is used to calculate your FICO score. Anything else that does not show any evidence of being a determining factor of an individual’s risk of defaulting on a loan would not be considered in the determination of an individual’s credit score.

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