Actually, they're trying to change that.
All of the big three bureaus--Experian, Equifax and TransUnion--got together and were going to change it to more of a 400 - 1000 scale with a corresponding letter grade, like school.
Fair Issac & Co. (FICO, as in "FICO score") stepped in and, ironically enough, sued them for collusion or some such nonsense. Which is screwed up since FICO has a monopoly on the algorithms used in most credit scoring. (Some companies have their own methods in which FICO scores are just part of their underwriting.)
IIRC, Equifax is fighting it, while the other two just gave up.
Oh, and three things to Buckin--
1. A 725 is actually pretty good, especially at your age. During my 20's, my score was somewhere between Paris Hilton's IQ and Mel Gibson's blood alcohol content.
Sadly, in this economy, a 725 is what a 680 - 700 was a few years ago to most lenders.
2. Make sure you just didn't sign up for a monthly service. Most places not only charge for a score but also sign you up for some bullpuckey "monitoring" service.
3. You really don't need to know your score, nor do most folks. Seriously -- just run your report each year for free and, as long as your payment history is solid, you're good. And if you've had issues, get 'em taken care of and you'll be fine.
Credit scores are way overrated as a true judge of credit risk and history. The actual, you know
, history is more important, and scores take into account other stuff (e.g. how much you've moved, etc.) that are tangentially related, yet given more weight than they should.
Just my $.02 ... keep the change.
MM
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P.S. My score is a around 805, but I pulled that myself.
