Credit scores are commonly referred to a FICO score. FICO stands for the Fair Isaac Corporation. This is the company that creates the software that computes credit scores. There are also three large credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Lenders will normally take the middle of these tree scores to determine pricing. Nowadays, some credit cards or bank accounts come with a free credit score. This is a good indication of your credit but may not be accurate to what a lender will see.
One of the most detrimental things that can drop a credit score is a late payment or missed payment going to a collections agency. You are allowed to check your credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion once a year on www.annualcreditreport.com. It is however not free to get your FICO score but pulling your credit report from one of these agencies periodically will show any missed or late payments on accounts, payments that have gone to collections, or any accounts that have been reported with wrong information. You could potentially check how your payments are being reported once every 4 months by pulling only 1 report at a time throughout the year.
Every loan program and lender will have different minimum credit scores needed for a loan. Typically a lender’s best pricing will require above a 720-760 FICO score. It is best to check with each lender on their requirements and how their pricing differs based on lower credit scores. Each lender and loan program will have different guidelines when it comes to issues such as missed or late payments, collections, bankruptcy, foreclosures, etc.