The FICO system gives points to your parents for the way they handle their money. It keeps track of how they pay their bills, the amounts they owe on credit cards, how long they have used credit, how many times they have borrowed money, etc.

     The numbers range from about 400 to over 800. The higher the number the better, the lower the risk the potential borrower is to the bank. Those with higher scores usually can get loans approved faster and probably pay lower interest to borrow money. Over half of the people in our country have scores that are 700 or higher.

     Until now, most people wanting to borrow money have had to pay a fee to get their report or have their banker "pull their report" for them.

     A new law, called the Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act of 2003 makes it possible for everyone to get one free credit report from each of the three agencies every year. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act was signed into law in December of 2003.

     However, not everyone in the United States can ask for the free report at the same time. People in the western states can ask first. Those states are Utah, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. They were eligible on December 1, 2004.

     Here's the rest of the schedule:

March 1, 2005: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

June 1, 2005: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

September 1, 2005: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia, Puerto Rico and all U. S. territories.

     All adults should pull their FICO score a couple of times a year to know what their number is and to make sure there are no errors in it. Wrong information could lower their score and without seeing their report, they would not know what's being said about them by the reporting companies.

Did You Know?

42% of the U.S. population has a FICO score of less than 700.