Credit score in the United States

A credit score in the United States is a number representing the creditworthiness of a person, the likelihood that person will pay his or her debts.

Lenders, such as banks and credit card companies, use credit scores to evaluate the potential risk posed by lending money to consumers. Widespread use of credit scores has made credit more widely available and less expensive for many consumers.The FICO score was first introduced in 1989 by FICO, then called Fair, Isaac, and Company.. The FICO model is used by the vast majority of banks and credit grantors, and is based on consumer credit files of the three national credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Because a consumer's credit file may contain different information at each of the bureaus, FICO scores can vary depending on which bureau provides the information to 

FICO to generate the score.. 

Credit scores are designed to measure the risk of default by taking into account various factors in a person's financial history. Although the exact formulas for calculating credit scores are secret, FICO has disclosed the following components. 35%: payment history: This is best described as the presence or lack of derogatory information. Bankruptcy, liens, judgments, settlements, charge offs, repossessions, foreclosures, and late payments can cause a FICO score to drop.

30%: debt burden: This category considers a number of debt specific measurements, and not just the infamous credit card debt to limit ratio, as is commonly misreported. According to FICO there are some six different metrics in the debt category including the debt to limit ratio, number of accounts with balances, amount owed across different types of accounts, and the amount paid down on installment loans.

15%: length of credit history aka Time in File: As a credit history ages it can have a positive impact on its FICO score. There are two metrics in this category: the average age of the accounts on your report and the age of the oldest account.

10%: types of credit used (installment, revolving, consumer finance, mortgage): Consumers can benefit by having a history of managing different types of credit.10%: recent searches for credit: hard credit inquiries, which occur when consumers apply for a credit card or loan (revolving or otherwise), can hurt scores, especially if done in great numbers. Individuals who are "rate shopping" for a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan over a short period (two weeks or 45 days, depending on the generation of FICO score used) will likely not experience a meaningful decrease in their scores as a result of these types of inquiries, as the FICO scoring model considers all of those types of hard inquiries that occur within 14 or 45 days of each other as only one. Further, mortgage, auto, and student loan inquiries do not count at all in your FICO score if they are less than 30 days old. While all credit inquiries are recorded and displayed on personal credit reports for two years they have no effect after the first year because FICO's scoring system ignores them after 12 months. Credit inquiries that were made by the consumer (such as pulling a credit report for personal use), by an employer (for employee verification), or by companies initiating pre-screened offers of credit or insurance do not have any impact on a credit score: these are called "soft inquiries" or "soft pulls", and do not appear on a credit report used by lenders, only on personal reports. Soft inquires are not considered by credit scoring systems.

Getting a higher credit limit can help your credit score. The higher the credit limit on the credit card, the lower the utilization ratio average for all of your credit card accounts. The utilization ratio is the amount owed divided by the amount extended by the creditor and the lower it is the better your FICO rating, in general. So if you have one credit card with a used balance of $500 and a limit of $1,000 as well as another with a used balance of $700 and $2,000 limit; the average ratio is 40 percent ($1,200 total used divided by $3,000 total limits). If the first credit card company raises the limit to $2,000; the ratio lowers to 30 percent; which could boost the FICO rating.

There are other special factors which can weigh on the FICO score.

Any money owed because of a court judgment, tax lien, etc., carries an additional negative penalty, especially when recent.

Having one or more newly opened consumer finance credit accounts may also be a negative.

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Nationwide Mutual Insurance

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company & Affiliated Companies is a group of large U.S. insurance and financial services companies based in Columbus, OH. The company also operates regional headquarters in Des Moines, IA; San Antonio, TX; Gainesville, FL; Lynchburg, VA; Raleigh, NC; and Westerville, OH.

Nationwide Financial Services (NFS), a component of the group, was partially floated on the New York Stock Exchange prior to being repurchased by Nationwide Mutual in 2009. It had owned the majority of NFS common stock since it had gone public in 1997.

Beginnings as Farm Bureau Mutual:On December 17, 1925, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation incorporated the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in Columbus, Ohio. At that time, Ohio law required 100 people to pledge to become policyholders. The first agents managed to recruit ten times that number, and on April 12, 1926, Farm Bureau Mutual started business with 1,000 policyholders.

The first product of the new company, as its name implied, was automobile insurance. The company wrote policies only to Ohio farmers. In 1928, Farm Bureau Mutual began offering policies to West Virginia farmers, followed by Maryland, Delaware, Vermont, and North Carolina. Farm Bureau Mutual began underwriting residents of small towns in 1931, and residents in larger cities in 1934.Also in 1934, Farm Bureau Mutual began offering fire insurance. This product grew the following year with the purchase of a struggling fire insurance company. With growth came a need for expansion of office space. In 1936, the company moved to the famous 246 Building at 246 N. High Street in Columbus. By 1943, Farm Bureau Mutual operated in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Even with the tripling of space in the 246 Building (which was finally dedicated on the 25th anniversary of the company), Farm Bureau Mutual still had insufficient office space, and began opening regional offices in 1951.

In 1955, Farm Bureau Mutual changed its name to Nationwide Insurance, a name by which it is commonly known today. In the 10 years that followed, Nationwide expanded into Oregon, making the company truly "nationwide". It also expanded into 19 other states, bringing the total by 1965 to 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Nationwide outgrew the 246 Building by the 1970s and work began on a new skyscraper headquarters for the company. In 1978, One Nationwide Plaza was completed at the southwest corner of N. High Street and Nationwide Blvd. on the northern edge of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Since 1988, Nationwide has added the following to its presence in Downtown Columbus: Plaza Two (on the northeast corner of High Street and Chestnut), Plaza Three (just west of High Street and Chestnut), Plaza Four (Front Street), 275 Marconi (behind Plazas One and Three on Marconi Blvd), and 10 West Nationwide, which together with Plaza One form the primary downtown complex. In addition to downtown Columbus, Nationwide also has a significant presence in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan suburbs of Dublin and Grove City.

By 1997, the city of Columbus had grown to become the 15th largest city in the United States. However, Columbus by this time was the largest American city without a professional sports franchise competing in the top leagues in the United States (i.e., Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, or the National Hockey League). After plans to move the Hartford Whalers to Columbus failed when voters rejected a tax levy, the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company announced that it would build an arena adjacent to One Nationwide Plaza in an effort to bring an NHL franchise to Columbus. This second effort was successful, and the Columbus Blue Jackets began play at Nationwide Arena in late 2000. Nationwide Arena, named for the company, is the centerpiece of the Arena District, an area of entertainment venues, restaurants, and hotels linking downtown Columbus with The Short North neighborhood.

The Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer were actually the first Major League franchise representing Columbus in the post-war era, and they play at their own stadium, Columbus Crew Stadium, which was the first Soccer-specific stadium built in the United States, opening in 1999. The Crew were one of the original members of the MLS, and won their first MLS Cup in 2008.

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Mortgage Insurance

Mortgage Insurance (also known as mortgage guarantee and home-loan insurance) is an insurance policy which compensates lenders or investors for losses due to the default of a mortgage loan. Mortgage insurance can be either public or private depending upon the insurer. The policy is also known as a mortgage indemnity guarantee (MIG), particularly in the UK.

Private Mortgage Insurance

Private mortgage insurance, or PMI, is typically required with most conventional (non government backed) mortgage programs when the down payment or equity position is less than 20% of the property value. In other words, if you're purchasing or refinancing a home with a conventional mortgage, if the loan-to-value (LTV) is greater than 80% (meaning you have less than a 20% equity position), it's a good bet you'll be required to carry private mortgage insurance.

PMI rates can range from 0.32% to 1.20% of the principal balance per year based on percent of the loan insured, LTV, a fixed or variable interest rate structure, and credit score.[1] The rates may be paid in a single lump sum, annually, monthly, or in some combination of the two (split premiums). Most people pay PMI in 12 monthly installments as part of the mortgage payment.

In the United States, PMI payments by the borrower were tax-deductible until 2010.

Borrower paid private mortgage insurance, or BPMI, is the most common type of PMI in today's mortgage lending marketplace. BPMI allows borrowers to obtain a mortgage without having to provide 20% down payment, by covering the lender for the added risk of a high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage. The US Homeowners Protection Act of 1998 allows for borrowers to request PMI cancellation when the amount owed is reduced to a certain level. The Act requires cancellation of borrower-paid mortgage insurance when a certain date is reached. This date is when the loan is scheduled to reach 78% of the original appraised value or sales price is reached, whichever is less, based on the original amortization schedule for fixed-rate loans and the current amortization schedule for adjustable-rate mortgages. BPMI can, under certain circumstances, be cancelled earlier by the servicer ordering a new appraisal showing that the loan balance is less than 80% of the home's value due to appreciation. This generally requires at least two years of on-time payments. Each investor's LTV requirements for PMI cancellation differ based on the age of the loan and current or original occupancy of the home. While the Act applies only to single family primary residences at closing, the investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac allow mortgage servicers to follow the same rules for secondary residences. Investment properties typically require lower LTVs.

There is a growing trend for BPMI to be used with the Fannie Mae 3% downpayment program. In some cases, the Lender is giving the borrower a credit to cover the cost of BPMI.

Lender Paid Private Mortgage Insurance: Lender paid private mortgage insurance, or LPMI, is similar to BPMI except that it is paid by the lender and built into the interest rate of the mortgage. LPMI is usually a feature of loans that claim not to require Mortgage Insurance for high LTV loans. The advantage of LPMI is that the total monthly mortgage payment is often lower than a comparable loan with BPMI, but because it's built into the interest rate, you can't get rid of it when you reach an 20% equity position without refinancing.Mortgage insurance began in the United States in the 1880s, and the first law on it was passed in New York in 1904. The industry grew in response to the 1920s real estate bubble and was "entirely bankrupted" after the Great Depression. By 1933, no private mortgage insurance companies existed. The bankruptcy was related to the industry's involvement in "mortgage pools", an early practice similar to mortgage securitization. The federal government began insuring mortgages in 1934 through the Federal Housing Administration and Veteran's Administration, but after the Great Depression no private mortgage insurance was authorized in the United States until 1956, when Wisconsin passed a law allowing the first post-Depression insurer, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation, to be chartered. This was followed by a California law in 1961 which would become the standard for other states' mortgage insurance laws. Eventually the National Association of Insurance Commissioners created a model law.

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Genworth Financial Info

Genworth Financial is a Fortune 500 insurance company. The firm was founded as The Life Insurance Company of Virginia in 1871. In 1986, Life of Virginia was acquired by Combined Insurance, which became Aon plc in 1987. In 1996, Life of Virginia was sold to GE Capital.In May 2004, Genworth Financial was formed out of various insurance businesses of General Electric in the largest IPO of that year.

The Genworth Financial family of companies has three segments: Retirement & Protection, US Mortgage Insurance, and International. Products and services include life and long-term care insurance, mortgage insurance, and annuities. Its legal structure is set up as six separate companies.

On April 1, 2013, Genworth announced the completion of a legal entity reorganization, with the result being the creation of a new ultimate holding company. This restructuring separated the U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiaries from the overall firm.

Company history

A.G. McIlwaine was the company’s first president. Begun by two dozen Petersburg investors, the Life Insurance Company of Virginia offered its first policies to local customers before expanding to Richmond, Virginia. Under general agent F.W. Chamberlayne, the Richmond Department attracted a large number of new clients. Within the first decade, the client base expanded beyond the South.

As the Life Insurance Company of Virginia grew, the headquarters were moved to Richmond, Virginia. By the turn of the twentieth century, the company offered products through different divisions,. The “Ordinary Division” of the company offered whole life annuity options and related products, the “Intermediate Division” offered term life products, endowment policies, and limited payment policies, and an industrial division offered inexpensive products. 

Mortgage insurance

Genworth’s offers mortgage insurance, with benefits including homebuyer privileges, which provides rebates to items purchased for the home, and the homeowner assistance program, in which Genworth professionals work with homeowners and lenders to structure a feasible loan repayment program.

Genworth Financial offers a range of products and services, including long-term care insurance and mortgage insurance. In 2016, the company suspended sales of annuities and life insurance, putting the existing books of business in to runoff. In 2012, Genworth’s U.S. companies paid over $3.2 billion in benefits to life insurance, long-term care insurance, and annuity policyholders and beneficiaries.

The company provides individual long-term care insurance, group long-term care insurance for employers offering benefits to employees, and caregiver support services.

Prior to 2016, the company offered several annuities: fixed immediate annuities, traditional fixed deferred annuities, and fixed index annuities.

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FEDERAL MORTGAGE LOAN INSURANCE

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is a United States government agency created as part of the National Housing Act of 1934. It sets standards for construction and underwriting and insures loans made by banks and other private lenders for home building. The goals of this organization are to improve housing standards and conditions, provide an adequate home financing system through insurance of mortgage loans, and to stabilize the mortgage market. The Acting Commissioner of the FHA is Biniam Gebre.

It is different from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which supervises government-sponsored enterprises.

During the Great Depression many banks failed, causing a drastic decrease in home loans and ownership. At this time, most home mortgages were short-term (three to five years), with no amortization, and balloon instruments at loan-to-value (LTV) ratios below sixty percent.

The banking crisis of the 1930s forced all lenders to retrieve due mortgages; refinancing was not available, and many borrowers, now unemployed, were unable to make mortgage payments. Consequently, many homes were foreclosed, causing the housing market to plummet. Banks collected the loan collateral (foreclosed homes) but the low property values resulted in a relative lack of assets.

In 1934 the federal banking system was restructured. The National Housing Act of 1934 created the Federal Housing Administration. Its intent was to regulate the rate of interest and the terms of mortgages that it insured. These new lending practices increased the number of people who could afford a down payment on a house and monthly debt service payments on a mortgage, thereby also increasing the size of the market for single-family homes

The FHA calculated appraisal value based on eight criteria and directed its agents to lend more for higher appraised projects, up to a maximum cap. The two most important were "Relative Economic Stability", which constituted 40% of appraisal value, and "protection from adverse influences", which made up another 20%.

In 1935, Colonial Village in Arlington, Virginia, was the first large-scale, rental housing project erected in the United States that was Federal Housing Administration-insured.During World War II, the FHA financed a number of worker's housing projects including the Kensington Gardens Apartment Complex in Buffalo, New York.

In 1965 the Federal Housing Administration became part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Following the subprime mortgage crisis, FHA, along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, became a large source of mortgage financing in the United States. The share of home purchases financed with FHA mortgages went from 2 percent to over one-third of mortgages in the United States, as conventional mortgage lending dried up in the credit crunch. Without the subprime market, many of the riskiest borrowers ended up borrowing from the Federal Housing Administration, and the FHA could suffer substantial losses. Joshua Zumbrun and Maurna Desmond of Forbes have written that eventual government losses from the FHA could reach $100 billion

Mortgage insurance

Since 1934, the FHA and HUD have insured over 34 million home mortgages and 47,205 multifamily project mortgages. Currently, the FHA has 4.8 million insured single family mortgages and 13,000 insured multifamily projects in its portfolio.

Mortgage insurance protects lenders from mortgage default. If a property purchaser borrows more than 80% of the property's value, the lender will likely require that the borrower purchase private mortgage insurance to cover the lender's risk. If the lender is FHA approved and the mortgage is within FHA limits, the FHA provides mortgage insurance that may be more affordable, especially for higher-risk borrowers

Lenders can typically obtain FHA mortgage insurance for 96.5% of the appraised value of the home or building. FHA loans are insured through a combination of an upfront mortgage insurance premium (UFMIP) and annual mutual mortgage insurance (MMI) premiums. The UFMIP is a lump sum ranging from 1 – 2.25% of loan value (depending on LTV and duration), paid by the borrower either in cash at closing or financed via the loan. MMI, although annual, is included in monthly mortgage payments and ranges from 0 – 1.35% of loan value (again, depending on LTV and duration).

If a borrower has poor to moderate credit history, MMI probably is much less expensive with an FHA insured loan than with a conventional loan regardless of LTV – sometimes as little as one-ninth as much depending on the borrower's credit score, LTV, loan size, and approval status. Conventional mortgage insurance rates increase as credit scores decrease, whereas FHA mortgage insurance rates do not vary with credit score. Conventional mortgage premiums spike dramatically if the borrower's credit score is lower than 620. Due to a sharply increased risk, most mortgage insurers will not write policies if the borrower's credit score is less than 575. When insurers do write policies for borrowers with lower credit scores, annual premiums may be as high as 5% of the loan amount.

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FHB Mortgage Bank

FHB Mortgage Bank is Hungary's largest mortgage re-financer. Formerly state-owned, it was floated on the stock market in 2003, and the government sold its remaining A shares in 2007. As of 17 August 2011, FHB Mortgage Bank Co. Plc. has market capitalization of US$232.4 million.

Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss.

An entity which provides insurance is known as an insurer, insurance company, or insurance carrier. A person or entity who buys insurance is known as an insured or policyholder. The insurance transaction involves the insured assuming a guaranteed and known relatively small loss in the form of payment to the insurer in exchange for the insurer's promise to compensate the insured in the event of a covered loss. The loss may or may not be financial, but it must be reducible to financial terms, and must involve something in which the insured has an insurable interest established by ownership, possession, or preexisting relationship. The insured receives a contract, called the insurance policy, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insured will be financially compensated. The amount of money charged by the insurer to the insured for the coverage set forth in the insurance policy is called the premium. If the insured experiences a loss which is potentially covered by the insurance policy, the insured submits a claim to the insurer for processing by a claims adjuster.

Insurance became far more sophisticated in Enlightenment era Europe, and specialized varieties developed.

Lloyd's Coffee House was the first marine insurance company.

Property insurance as we know it today can be traced to the Great Fire of London, which in 1666 devoured more than 13,000 houses. The devastating effects of the fire converted the development of insurance "from a matter of convenience into one of urgency, a change of opinion reflected in Sir Christopher Wren's inclusion of a site for 'the Insurance Office' in his new plan for London in 1667.

At the same time, the first insurance schemes for the underwriting of business ventures became available. By the end of the seventeenth century, London's growing importance as a center for trade was increasing demand for marine insurance. In the late 1680s, Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house, which became the meeting place for parties in the shipping industry wishing to insure cargoes and ships, and those willing to underwrite such ventures. These informal beginnings led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyd's of London and several related shipping and insurance businesses.

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