These are definitions, not advice. No company — including The 800 Club — can legally remove accurate, verifiable, timely information from a credit report, and we do not guarantee score increases, deletions, funding, or approvals. When a term describes your situation, the free strategy call is where it becomes a plan.
A
A
| Adverse action notice | The written notice a lender must send when it denies or worsens credit terms, stating the main reasons and the bureau used. Deeper → |
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| Annual percentage rate (APR) | The yearly cost of borrowing including interest and most fees, expressed as a percentage — the number to compare loans by. Deeper → |
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| Authorized user | A person added to someone else's credit card who can use it and, with most issuers, inherits the account's history on their own report. Deeper → |
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| Available credit | Your total credit limits minus current balances — the room you have left to borrow on revolving accounts. Deeper → |
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| Average age of accounts | The mean age of all your open and closed accounts; older averages score better, which is why closing old cards can hurt. Deeper → |
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B
B
| Bankruptcy (Chapter 13) | A court-supervised repayment plan over three to five years; it reports for seven years from filing. Deeper → |
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| Bankruptcy (Chapter 7) | A court process that discharges most unsecured debts; it reports for ten years from filing. Deeper → |
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| Business credit | A credit file tied to a company's EIN, built through vendors and lenders reporting to business bureaus, separate from the owner's personal file. Deeper → |
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| Business credit card | A card issued to a business, usually underwritten on the owner's personal credit; many don't report to personal bureaus unless delinquent. Deeper → |
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C
C
| Charge-off | A creditor's accounting write-off of a debt 120–180 days past due; the debt is still owed and reports for seven years from first delinquency. Deeper → |
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| Collection account | A debt transferred or sold to a collection agency; reports for seven years from the original delinquency date, not the sale date. Deeper → |
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| Credit builder loan | A small installment loan held in an account while you make payments that are reported to the bureaus; you receive the funds at the end. Deeper → |
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| Credit bureau | A consumer reporting agency that compiles credit files — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion are the three national bureaus. Deeper → |
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| Credit counseling | A nonprofit service that reviews your finances and may set up a debt management plan with creditors. Deeper → |
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| Credit freeze | A free lock on your credit file that blocks new-credit pulls until you lift it; the strongest identity-theft defense. Deeper → |
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| Credit limit | The maximum balance a revolving account allows; raising it lowers utilization without paying down debt. Deeper → |
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| Credit mix | The variety of account types — revolving and installment — on your file; about 10 percent of a FICO score. Deeper → |
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| Credit repair | Using your FCRA rights to challenge inaccurate, outdated, or unverifiable items on your reports; legitimate companies operate under the CROA. Deeper → |
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| Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) | The federal law governing credit repair companies: written contracts, a three-day cancellation right, no advance fees, no guarantees. Deeper → |
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| Credit report | The record of your accounts, balances, payment history, inquiries, and public records held by a bureau. Deeper → |
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| Credit score | A three-digit number (300–850) summarizing the risk in your credit report, produced by a scoring model such as FICO or VantageScore. Deeper → |
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| Credit utilization | Revolving balances divided by limits, measured when statements report; under 30 percent is the threshold, under 10 is best. Deeper → |
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D
D
| Date of first delinquency | The date an account first went past due and never recovered; it starts the seven-year reporting clock for negatives. Deeper → |
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| Debt consolidation | Replacing several debts with one new loan, ideally at a lower rate; it changes the structure of debt, not the amount. Deeper → |
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| Debt settlement | Negotiating to pay less than the full balance; usually reported as settled and typically damages credit. Deeper → |
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| Debt-to-income ratio (DTI) | Monthly debt payments divided by gross monthly income; lenders use it alongside the score to decide approvals. Deeper → |
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| Deficiency balance | What you still owe after a repossessed or foreclosed asset is sold for less than the loan balance. Deeper → |
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| Delinquency | A payment that is past due; it reports once it's 30 days late and stays for seven years. Deeper → |
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| Derogatory mark | Any negative item — late payment, collection, charge-off, repossession, bankruptcy — that lowers a score. Deeper → |
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| Dispute | A formal request that a bureau or furnisher verify an item; under the FCRA it must be investigated, usually within 30 days. Deeper → |
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| DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) | Net operating income divided by debt payments; lenders for investment property and businesses often require 1.2 or higher. Deeper → |
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E
E
| EIN (Employer Identification Number) | A business's federal tax ID, used to open business credit files and accounts; it does not replace the owner's personal credit. Deeper → |
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| Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) | The federal law banning credit discrimination and requiring lenders to tell you why you were denied. Deeper → |
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| Equipment financing | A loan or lease secured by the equipment purchased; easier to qualify for because the asset is the collateral. Deeper → |
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F
F
| Factor rate | The multiplier a merchant cash advance uses (for example 1.3); converted to APR it is usually far higher than it looks. Deeper → |
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| Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) | The federal law governing credit reports: accuracy, your right to dispute, and time limits on negative information. Deeper → |
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| Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) | The federal law limiting how third-party collectors may contact and treat you. Deeper → |
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| FHA loan | A government-insured mortgage with a 580 minimum score at 3.5 percent down (500 with 10 percent down). Deeper → |
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| FICO score | The scoring model behind the large majority of lending decisions in the U.S.; ranges 300–850 with several versions by industry. Deeper → |
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| Fraud alert | A free flag on your file telling lenders to verify your identity before opening credit; lasts one year, or seven with an identity-theft report. Deeper → |
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| Funding readiness | The state of a profile that passes underwriting before you apply: score, utilization, payment history, entity, banking, documentation. Deeper → |
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| Furnisher | Any company that reports information to a bureau — lenders, card issuers, collectors; they must investigate disputes too. Deeper → |
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G
G
| Goodwill adjustment | A creditor's voluntary removal of an accurate late payment, usually requested in writing after a strong on-time history. Deeper → |
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H
H
| Hard inquiry | A lender's credit pull for an application; costs a few points, scored for a year, visible for two. Deeper → |
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I
I
| Identity theft report | The FTC report filed at IdentityTheft.gov that triggers a bureau's duty to block fraudulent information. Deeper → |
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| Installment loan | A loan repaid in fixed payments over a set term — auto loans, mortgages, personal loans. Deeper → |
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| Instant approval | An automated decision made in seconds by checking an application against a lender's fixed criteria. Deeper → |
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J
J
| Judgment | A court ruling that you owe a debt; no longer on credit reports since 2017 but still enforceable. Deeper → |
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L
L
| Late payment | A payment 30 or more days past due; reports for seven years and is the single heaviest scoring factor. Deeper → |
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| Line of credit | A reusable borrowing limit you draw, repay, and draw again; built for recurring gaps rather than one-time purchases. Deeper → |
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M
M
| Merchant cash advance (MCA) | Cash now in exchange for a slice of future sales, repaid daily or weekly through a factor rate — the fastest and most expensive business money. Deeper → |
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| Mortgage insurance (PMI) | A monthly premium on conventional loans with less than 20 percent down; its cost rises as the credit score falls. Deeper → |
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O
O
| Origination fee | A lender's upfront charge for making a loan, often deducted from proceeds; included in the APR. Deeper → |
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P
P
| Pay for delete | A collector's agreement to remove an account in exchange for payment; never guaranteed, and valid only in writing before paying. Deeper → |
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| Payment history | Whether you have paid on time; about 35 percent of a FICO score and the factor lenders weigh most. Deeper → |
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| Personal guarantee | An owner's promise to repay business debt personally if the business can't; most small-business credit requires one. Deeper → |
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| Pre-qualification | A soft-pull estimate of whether you'd be approved; not a commitment and not a hard inquiry. Deeper → |
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| Prime | The credit tier — roughly 660–719 by many lenders' definitions — that qualifies for standard pricing. Deeper → |
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| Public record | Court-sourced information on a credit report; today effectively only bankruptcies remain, since judgments and tax liens were removed. Deeper → |
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R
R
| Rapid rescore | A lender-initiated bureau update that reflects recent changes within days, used during mortgage underwriting. Deeper → |
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| Rate shopping window | The period (14–45 days depending on model) in which multiple auto or mortgage inquiries count as one. Deeper → |
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| Reason code | The standardized explanation printed on a denial or adverse-action notice, such as 'amount owed on accounts is too high'. Deeper → |
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| Repossession | A lender reclaiming a financed asset after default; reports for seven years and may leave a deficiency balance. Deeper → |
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| Revenue-based financing | Business funding repaid as a percentage of sales; faster and more expensive than term loans. Deeper → |
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| Revolving account | Credit you can borrow against repeatedly up to a limit — credit cards and lines of credit. Deeper → |
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S
S
| SBA loan | A bank loan partly guaranteed by the Small Business Administration; among the cheapest business capital, and among the slowest. Deeper → |
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| Secured credit card | A card backed by a cash deposit that sets the limit; reports like any card and is the standard starting point for building credit. Deeper → |
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| Soft inquiry | A credit check that doesn't affect your score — your own checks, pre-qualifications, employer and insurer pulls. Deeper → |
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| Statement date | The day a card issuer reports your balance to the bureaus; paying before it lowers the utilization the score sees. Deeper → |
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| Subprime | The credit tier — roughly below 620–660 — priced for higher risk with higher rates, larger deposits, and lower limits. Deeper → |
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T
T
| Term loan | A lump sum repaid on a fixed schedule over a set term; built for one-time purchases and assets. Deeper → |
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| Thin file | A credit report with too few accounts or too little history to score confidently. Deeper → |
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| Tradeline | Any account listed on a credit report; in business credit, vendor accounts that report are called tradelines. Deeper → |
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U
U
| Underwriting | A lender's evaluation of an application against its criteria — score, income, debt, history, collateral. Deeper → |
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| Unverifiable item | An entry a bureau or furnisher cannot confirm as accurate within the investigation window; under the FCRA it must be removed. Deeper → |
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V
V
| VA loan | A mortgage guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs with no set minimum score and no down payment requirement. Deeper → |
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| VantageScore | The scoring model created by the three bureaus; common in free credit apps, less common in lending decisions. Deeper → |
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| Verification of income | A lender's confirmation of income through pay stubs, tax returns, or bank statements; failure to verify is a common denial reason. Deeper → |
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#
#
| 0% intro APR | A promotional period, typically 12–21 months, during which a card charges no interest on purchases or transfers. Deeper → |
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| 800 credit score | FICO's Exceptional tier (800–850), reached by roughly one in four U.S. consumers; the benchmark The 800 Club is named for. Deeper → |
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