For the first time since American credit was measured, the average score has reached 700 -- an all-time high.
Certified Financial Planner Liz Weston says that represents a bump of about 10 points. She says Equifax, TransUnion and Experian changed the way they measure credit scores, eliminating tax liens and civil judgments.
“It's really not reported well,” Weston says. “Sometimes it winds up on the wrong person's credit report and, most importantly for the credit bureaus, it causes a lot of complaints. They get sued over it all the time.”
The colunist for NerdWallet.com says the change came after a huge settlement two years ago.
“The people who are going to see their scores really shoot up are the ones who were unfairly tagged,” she says, “the ones that the only bad thing on their credit report was a tax lien or a civil judgment.”