What determines my credit score?

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We've been keeping up with the latest headlines...
here are two of our favorites worth sharing.

Your Money

Your credit score. It's something we all know is important but few of us know exactly what drives it. The most common FICO credit score ranges from 300-850, so what personal financial decisions impact where you land in that range.

Each scoring model is a little different but most scoring companies look at payment history, the amount of credit you have versus how much you use (called your credit utilization ratio), and how long your accounts have been open.

Most folks want to know how to improve their score...even the 849 score wants to know how to reach 850. Today's actions can take years to make an impact so be sure you're focusing on the right items.

The first step is to know the starting point. Get your free credit report at www.annualcreditreport.com Be sure to review it and dispute any inaccuracy directly with the credit agency. Some reports even tell you which items in your report are helping and hurting your score.

Here are some more tips straight from Experian:

Pay your bills on time
Get extra credit for making utility and cell phone payments on time
Pay off debt and keep balances low
Apply for an open new credit accounts only as needed
Don't close unused credit cards
Don't apply for too much credit, resulting in multiple inquiries
Review often and dispute every inaccuracy

How to Improve your credit score
by Ismat Mangla

Your Life

The US has reported more coronavirus than any other country in the world at over 6.8 million cases with almost 200,000 deaths. Traveling during coronavirus is challenging with strict requirements, travel advisories, and local quarantine guidelines. Flights have been suspended, reduced, or cut. A No Sail issued by CDC still stands for cruise ships in US waters.

Travel & Leisure recently published an article on COVID-19 and travel updates around the world. In addition, they added a brief but informative video. It's 63 seconds -- check it out:

Everything you need to know if you're traveling during the Coronavirus outbreak

Complexity Simplified

This is a great article. This young woman from Boston got a new job in San Francisco. Due to COVID-19 risks, she didn’t want to fly, and she did not want to take the long drive. So, she opted to take the train. It was life-changing for her as she saw the beauty of the US, while practically quarantining in her own sleeping car. She documents her trip in this article: Solo across the US by train during the pandemic

Trivia

A: Pandora
Q: What's the rarest M&M color?

This got us all singing out loud