What's your credit grade?

Don't you hate checking your credit score? It is seriously the most nerve wrecking thing in the world to me....Well aside from my yearly performance reviews at work when I think my reviewer is going to tell me they've been keeping a log of all the cumulative hours I've spent g-chatting or web surfing at work. I've already got my rebuttal ready in my head. hahaha.

Back to credit...What if someone has stolen my identity, I don't know it yet, and I'm about to find out and lose my mind when I check my score? What if there's some bill in a faraway land that I TOTALLY didn't know (or forgot) about and they've sent me to collections because they have no idea where I am and think I'm just not paying on purpose? What if everything I think I've been doing right isn't as right as I thought and my credit score has tanked?

I think of everything that could possibly go wrong to ruin my credit and I subsequently run scared, thinking "maybe I just don't want to know"...I pay my bills on time and I have never had a problem being extended credit so I'm cool.

Well in the spirit of the new year, I checked today...anddddd....everything was great. haha yall didn't think I was going to actually TELL you my personal business now did you?!

But I found something fun that I decided to share with the group today: this idea of a credit grade. Of course you know (or you should!) that FICO (which is the one that matters) credit scores range from 300-850, of course with 300 being the absolute worst and 850 meaning you're a straight A student.

For an overachiever like myself (lol) grades mean MUCH more than scores. Wouldn't you agree? I think all of us have asked a teacher more than once..."okay but what grade is that?" I mean shoot, give me a 60...if that means an A, I'm cool.

I was reading the Young Black Professional Guide and they recommended Quizzle. Quizzle is a site that offers credit scores, reports and some other debt related information for free (and some at a cost). Quizzle gave me a grade for my credit score (made me feel some kinda way) so here is their grade breakdown:

Credit Score	Quizzle Score	Grade
720 to 850	90% to 100%	A
680 to 719	80% to 89%	B
620 to 679	70% to 79%	C
580 to 619	60% to 69%	D
350 to 579	0% to 59%	F

sidenote: in case you decide to use Quizzle you should know they give you a CM credit score which is NOT the same as the FICO credit score. They're computed similarly, however, when you credit is computed by Experian, TransUnion or Equifax, FICO is used most (if not all) of the time.

Just as a quick point of information, the National Score Index reports the national average FICO score is 692. The averages are also given by state:

For my Illinois residents, our average is 699.
For my Michigan friends, your average is 695.

I have a problem with the average being in the B range but then again it reminds me a lot of the curve at Ross so I guess I'm used to the days when a B- was basically as if you failed and the majority of the class earned a B+ (or A- if it was an elective). *rolls eyes* I digress.

Needless to say, anything below an A leaves room for improvement...And I actually find myself more motivated to work on my credit score when I convert it to a grade. Who woulda thunk it!

Check out your credit "grade"...see if it's representative of your A-game :-)