What Are Credit Criteria?
Credit criteria are the various factors that lenders use to decide whether to approve someone's application for a new loan. Although the criteria can vary from lender to lender, most will consider such factors as an applicant's income, existing debts, and payment history. There are also certain factors that lenders are forbidden by law from considering.
Key Takeaways
- Credit criteria are the factors that lenders use to assess the creditworthiness of a loan applicant.
- In evaluating a would-be borrower, a lender will look at the information they supplied in their loan application as well as their credit reports and credit score.
- Some factors, such as race, religion, and sexual orientation, are prohibited by law from being considered in such decisions.
Understanding Credit Criteria
Lenders make use of a variety of data when they decide whether to approve a loan and, if so, the interest rate and other terms to offer. Three principal sources of that data are the loan application, the applicant's credit report, and their credit score.
Loan Applications
A loan application will typically ask for information on the would-be borrower's individual income and debt obligations. Rather than simply take the applicant's word, the lender may also request back-up documentation, such as pay stubs or recent income tax returns. If you won't qualify on your own, you may need a parent or cosigner to provide their financial information, as well.
This information is necessary for calculating the applicant's debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, a common yardstick used by lenders. The DTI ratio shows how much of the person's income they are using to satisfy their current debt obligations, such as mortgages, car loans, and credit card balances. A high DTI ratio may indicate that the applicant is already overextended and, therefore, a poor candidate for a loan.
Income information is not included in an individual's credit reports, so lenders must obtain it separately. Nor do credit reports provide information on the person's assets, so in some cases lenders will request bank statements, investment statements, and similar records.
Credit Reports
Credit reports do, however, contain a lot of information that can be useful to lenders. Credit reports are compiled by the three major national credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—based on information they obtain from the individual's current and former creditors. Because not all creditors report to all three credit bureaus, the information that their reports contain may not be identical. For that reason, lenders may request more than one credit report, especially in the case of a large loan, such as a home mortgage.
The information in credit reports typically includes a list of the person's credit accounts, how much they owe on each, and a month-by-month record of whether they have made their payments on time. Most information in credit reports goes back for up to seven years.
A credit report will help a lender see at a glance how reliable the person has been in paying back their debts, as well as whether they've declared bankruptcy in the past seven to 10 years or had accounts turned over to a debt collection agency. It will also show whether they have applied for other credit recently.
Credit Scores
In addition to credit reports, the lender is likely to obtain a credit score for the applicant. Credit scores are based on the information in credit reports but not included in them, so they must also be requested separately.
The most widely used credit scoring system is the FICO score. While there are multiple FICO scoring models, including specialized ones for credit cards, mortgages, and car loans, they are generally based on five weighted criteria:
- Payment history (35%). Basically whether the person has consistently paid their credit bills on time.
- Amounts owed (30%). This factor looks at both how much the person owes overall and how much debt they currently have outstanding relative to the total amount of revolving credit that is available to them—a measure known as their credit utilization ratio. From a lender's point of view, the lower that ratio, the better.
- Length of credit history (15%). Having older accounts (and keeping up with the payments on them) is considered a plus.
- New credit (10%). Lenders consider it a red flag if an applicant has applied for a lot of new credit recently.
- Credit mix (10%). Lenders like to see borrowers who have shown they can handle multiple forms of credit, such as a car loan and a credit card.
Factors That Lenders Do Not Consider
Under the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act and other laws, lenders are not allowed to consider certain facts about a credit applicant. Those include:
- Race
- Color
- Religion
- National origin
- Sex (including gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation)
- Marital status
- Age (as long as they are old enough to enter into a legal contract)
- Participation in a public assistance program, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially known as "food stamps," or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
In addition to not being allowed to reject a loan applicant based on those criteria, lenders cannot charge them higher interest rates or fees.
How to Improve Your Credit Criteria
Before applying for a loan, it's helpful to review your credit reports and credit score to see where you stand.
By law, you can obtain your credit reports free of charge from each of the three major bureaus at least once a year. At the only official website for that purpose, AnnualCreditReport.com, you can call up your credit reports and read them online. If you find any errors that might interfere with your ability to obtain further credit, you have a right to challenge them, and the credit bureau is required to investigate the matter and get back to you.
You can also obtain your credit score free of charge from many banks and credit card companies. There are websites that provide free credit scores, as well.
If either your credit reports or your credit score suggest that you may have difficulty in being approved for a loan, you might want to postpone applying and get to work on improving them, using the criteria described above for guidance.
What Is a Good Debt-to-Income (DTI) Ratio?
What constitutes a good debt-to-income ratio can vary from lender to lender and according to the type of loan you're applying for. Generally speaking, a DTI ratio of 35% or less is considered preferable. Note that while credit utilization ratios take into account only revolving debt, such as credit cards, DTI ratios also include installment debts, such as mortgages and car loans—basically every debt payment you're responsible for each month.
What Is a Good Credit Utilization Ratio?
Lenders usually like to see a credit utilization ratio under 30%. You can improve your credit utilization ratio by either paying down your existing revolving credit balances or taking on additional revolving credit—or both.
If You're Turned Down for a Loan, Can You Find Out Why?
Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, banks are required to notify you of their decision, in writing, within 30 days of your completed application. If you're rejected, this will take the form of an adverse action letter. The letter will either explain the reason you were rejected or tell you how you can obtain that information.
The Bottom Line
Lenders use a variety of criteria to decide whether to approve your application for credit. By doing what you can to boost your performance on those criteria, you can improve your odds of approval and of getting the best possible rates and terms.
