A new system for determining your credit-worthiness, FICO ’08, rolls out this Thursday, and there’s nothing you can to do stop it. By these 6 changes, ye shall be judged:

1. Spouses and children can improve their credit score by being an authorized user on a credit card account, but that’s it. No more piggybacking off strangers.
2. Debts less than $100 that go to collections will matter less.
3. They will look at the total picture more. A single repossession, for instance, won’t matter as much if everything else looks good.
4. Having less available credit will drag down your score more.
5. Diversity matters more. A mix of healthy auto, personal and student loans would bring up a score.
6. Closing accounts will bring down the score.

Though companies will start using it to make decisions about you right away, it may be months or even years before the scores are commercially available to consumers. So, just like in middle school, they’re quietly judging you behind your back, and no, you can’t see inside the black and white composition notebook.

The good and the bad of the new credit scoring formula [NewsChannel5]

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