FICA score and why it is actually a FICO Score

Even though this site is named FICA score the real name of this score is FICO. The goal of this website is to prevent you from confusing these two terms. FICO stands for Fair, Isaac and Company, the company which first invented credit scoring approach. FICA stands for Federal Insurance Contribution Act which has nothing to do with FICO and credit scores.

Your FICO Score defines how much money lenders would lend you if you apply for a credit. This score is being checked every time when you apply for new credit card, mortgage, auto loan, personal credit line or any other credit issues by the bank.

There are three different versions of FICO score. Each of them is maintained by FICO agency. You probably already heard these names: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Credit score mostly depend on how good you are with paying back your credit cards and loans. If you pay it always on time it will be good. If you have several delinquencies or a bankruptcy it will be much lower.

Each agency uses different approaches to calculate your credit score but mathematical model is pretty similar and thus the results. So when you're getting a credit score from one of the agencies you should expect that others would match. But that doesn't happen every time because even though all information about your credit cards and loans supposed to be distributed to all three agencies it doesn't always happen. So if you're delinquent on some credit card you credit score with one bureau could be lower than with other.

Credit Bureaus Phone Numbers and Mailing Addresses

Equifax Bureau mailing address and phone number:

800-685-1111 or 888-873-5392

Equifax

P.O. Box 740241

Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

TransUnion Bureau mailing address and phone number:

800-916-8800 or 800-888-4213

TransUnion

P.O. Box 2000

Chester, PA 19022-2000

Experian Bureau mailing address and phone number:

888-397-3742

Experian

P.O. Box 2104

Allen, TX 75013-2104

Getting Free Credit Report from the Government

You can retrieve your free credit report and free credit score from the government as described in the linked article.

A credit score is a numerical expression based on a statistical analysis of a person's credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of that person. A credit score is primarily based on credit report information typically sourced from credit bureaus.

Credit history or credit report is, in many countries, a record of an individual's or company's past borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments and bankruptcy. The term "credit reputation" can either be used synonymous to credit history or to credit score.

Read more information about FICO score in following articles:

What is FICO (FICA) Score

Get Free FICO (FICA) Score

Good FICO (FICA) Score

Improve my FICO (FICA) Score