Credit Bureau

A credit bureau is a company that collects information from various sources and provides consumer credit information on individual consumers for a variety of uses. It is an organization providing information on individuals’ borrowing and bill paying habits. This helps lenders assess credit worthiness, the ability to pay back a loan, and can affect the interest rate and other terms of a loan. Interest rates are not the same for everyone, but instead can be based on risk-based pricing, a form of price discrimination based on the different expected risks of different borrowers, as set out in their credit rating. Consumers with poor credit will pay a higher annual interest rate than consumers who don’t have these factors.

To summarize, your credit bureau tells the story of how you manage your credit.
It’s a measurement of your credit responsibility.

How responsible are you?

The average Canadian has a credit score of 700. Your score is determined by:

How many credit cards or trade lines you have,
The balance on your credit cards or lines of credit,
The quality of your credit card / lines: Not all credit is considered equal, and
How many credit card / lines do you have? Less is not always better!
What’s the limit on your card? Do you exceed your limit?

When you use 75% or greater of your credit limit you lower your score.

Contact me if you have a credit question or would like to discuss your credit bureau and how it might affect a future mortgage application.