FICO changes could lower your credit score

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Your credit score.

That’s the pesky number that determines your financial trustworthiness.

And thanks to a change in how it’s calculated, millions of Americans could see their credit score dip in 2020.

FICO scores are the most widely used credit scores in the US and now the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) will be using a stricter method for scoring people with rising levels of debt and consumers who get behind on loan payments.

Additionally some who sign up for personal loans will be flagged.

Fair Isaac says the result will be a larger gap between people judged to be good credit risks and those deemed to be bad risks.

Basically good credit situations will get better, bad ones will get worse.

If your FICA score is above 680 and you keep managing your loans well, your score will go up more than it would have before.

If your score is under 600 and you keep missing payments, your score will drop more dramatically than before.

However one FICO executive says most consumers will see a 20 point change in their score up or down.