We are focusing on all-things credit today, thanks to our friends at FICO.

Earlier, I asked you to submit your top credit-related questions and we’ve rounded up many of them for this episode. From how to boost your credit score to confusion around how credit scores get calculated and how marriage can impact your credit…we have all the answers!

Joining me to help tackle your questions is Joanne Gaskin, the Vice President of Scores and Analytics at FICO. She is responsible for the strategic direction of FICO’s scoring products and business partnerships serving the needs of the mortgage industry and led the FICO Mortgage Recovery Initiative launched in 2009. Joanne has more than 20 years of experience in banking and financial services. She led efforts to address some of the most important topics impacting the mortgage market today: regulatory compliance, credit risk management, data security and e-mortgages. She is a graduate of the Mortgage School of Banking, earning the Accredited Mortgage Professional Designation.

More about FICO: Founded in 1956, FICO is a data analytics company based in San Jose, California focused on credit scoring services. Its FICO Score, a measure of consumer credit risk, has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States and is used in more than 90% of lending decisions today.

Now more than ever, FICO believes in empowering communities by way of financial education and is committed to providing consumers with tools to maintain their financial health. 

Check your score: You can check your FICO Score via  www.myfico.com, or www.experian.com, www.equifax.com. Additionally, many financial institutions provide consumers with free access to their FICO Score through the FICO Score Open Access program.

Check your free credit report: www.annualcreditreport.com