These are the words you will meet on your tradelines, in your alerts and in your FundReadi Report. Each entry is short on purpose; the related pieces go deeper on the ones that matter most to your file.
Key takeaways
- Most terms on your file describe one of three things: an account, a mark against it, or a look at it.
- Your FundReadi Report adds its own vocabulary (readiness score, funding stage, gates, tiers); each entry here says what the word means and where it shows up.
- When a definition names a target, it is the same target the analysis steers toward, so the two never disagree.
A to C
Action items ledger. The list of moves your FundReadi Report recommends, ranked by impact against effort. It is append-only: every item from every earlier analysis stays on it, completed items are marked done and never removed, and new items are added at the end.
Alert. A notice that something changed on your Equifax file: a new account, a balance jump, a fresh inquiry or a derogatory mark. Alerts reach you by email and in the portal within a day of Equifax reporting the change.
Authorized user. Someone added to another person's card who can use it but is not responsible for the debt. The card's history reports on your file, which is the one legitimate way to borrow age; it borrows age and never limits, and lenders discount it.
Average account age. The mean age of every account on your file. Two and a half years or more is the figure lenders like to see. It is advisory, never a gate.
Bankruptcy. A court process for debt you cannot pay. Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 are the two consumer forms; a bankruptcy reports for up to ten years from filing, seven for a Chapter 13. An open case blocks your funding range; a discharged or dismissed case rides as information with its fall-off date named.
Bureau that decides, the. Each lender pulls one of the three bureaus (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion) for a given product, and that bureau's copy of your file is the one that decides. Inquiries and score both count there, which is why your report orders applications by bureau.
Charge-off. A debt the original creditor has written off as unlikely to be paid. It stays on your file, paid or unpaid, and while it reports it is a blocking gate in your report.
Collection. A debt handed to a collection agency. An unpaid collection blocks the funding range; a paid one still reports, but it helps with lenders and rides as an advisory that keeps the 0% lane locked.
Credit limit. The ceiling on a revolving account. It is the denominator in utilization and the number the structure target counts: one primary card at $5,000 or more, $15,000 in total primary limits.
Criteria grid. The four-row check in your FundReadi Report: personal score, debt-to-income (stated or estimated), recent derogatory marks, and primary revolving accounts, each marked as meeting its target or not.
D to G
DSCR. Debt service coverage ratio: a business's operating cash flow measured against its debt payments. SBA lenders weigh it heavily, and falling below a lender's floor is the most common single reason an SBA application fails. It comes from your financials, not your credit file.
Eligibility gate. A fact computed from your credit data before the analysis runs. A blocking gate (an unpaid collection, a charge-off, an open public record, a current delinquency) caps the verdict and locks the funding range. An advisory gate (a paid collection, a resolved public record, a security freeze) does not cap the verdict but constrains what the report may recommend.
Fall-off date. The date a negative item stops reporting. Most negatives report seven years; a bankruptcy up to ten from filing. When an item has no resolving move, your report names this date instead of inventing a fix.
Funding range. The estimated low-to-high dollar span the file supports today. It is indicative, never a promise, and it renders locked, with what clears it named, whenever a blocking gate trips.
Funding stage. One of four positions on the journey: Discover, Build, Optimize, Ready. The stage is set by the readiness score, and the third lender tier opens at Ready.
Goodwill request. Asking a creditor to remove a late payment from an account that has since been back in good standing for a few months. It is a request, and the answer is theirs.
H to L
High balance. The largest balance a tradeline has ever reported. It is a record of the past, not a limit and not a target.
Inquiry (hard and soft). A record that someone looked at your file. A hard inquiry comes from an application you made; it appears within a day, weighs heavily for six months and stays on file two years. A soft inquiry, including every monitoring pull we make, does not affect your score and is not what lenders count.
Installment. An account with a fixed number of payments: auto loans, student loans, mortgages, personal loans. The balance only goes down, and any installment account past due counts as debt load in your report.
Intro APR. The promotional rate on a 0% card, usually 12 to 18 months. When it ends, the standard rate, typically 19 to 29 percent, applies from that month forward and never retroactively. 0% cards open with lower limits than interest-bearing cards.
Judgment. A court ruling that you owe a debt. An unsatisfied judgment blocks; a satisfied one rides as information and reports for seven years.
Late payment (30, 60, 90 day). A payment recorded as 30, 60 or 90 days past its due date. The 24-month payment history on each tradeline shows them month by month. Any dated late inside the last 12 months, or any account currently past due, is a blocking gate.
Lender tiers. The three groups of products in your FundReadi Report: tier 1 to apply for now, tier 2 after a named condition clears, tier 3 locked until the file reaches Ready. The 0% lane sits in tier 3 while a paid collection or a resolved public record still reports.
Lien. A legal claim against your property for an unpaid debt, often tax. An unreleased lien blocks; a released one rides as information and reports for seven years.
M to P
Monitoring refresh. The monthly pull of all three bureaus on every plan. Between refreshes, Equifax changes reach you as alerts.
Oldest account. The account on your file with the earliest open date. It anchors your history. Never close it.
Pay-for-delete ask. Contacting a creditor or collector directly and asking whether they will remove the item in exchange for payment. You can ask. Some agree. None are obliged to.
Personal guarantee. Your personal promise to repay a business debt if the business cannot. Lenders underwrite every owner above roughly 20 to 25 percent, depending on the lender, and SBA loans require an unlimited guarantee from each of them.
Primary account. An account in your own name where you are responsible for the debt. Only primaries count toward the structure target; store cards and authorized-user lines do not.
Public record. A bankruptcy, judgment or lien on your file. Open records block; resolved ones ride as information with the fall-off date named, and the 0% lane stays locked while any public record reports.
R to S
Readiness score. The 0 to 100 score at the top of your FundReadi Report: what your file looks like to an underwriter. It is shown even when a gate has locked the range, so you can see what the file looks like underneath.
Revenue band. The annual revenue bucket you give in the business questionnaire. Each capital category has a revenue floor from our partner book, and a band that straddles a floor does not clear it.
Revolving. An account you can draw on, pay down and draw on again against a limit: credit cards and lines of credit. Utilization is measured on revolving accounts.
Score band. A range of scores that lenders price the same way. Your report may state the distance to the next band because that is a fact about the file. The score itself is pricing, not eligibility; lenders read accounts.
Statement close. The day your issuer takes the balance snapshot it sends to the bureaus, usually a few weeks before the due date. The paydown date that matters is the day before it.
T to V
Thin file. A file with fewer than three tradelines or less than six months of history. Lenders want a thicker file before extending meaningful unsecured credit.
Time in business. How long your business has operated, given as a bucket in the questionnaire. Each capital category has a time-in-business floor from our partner book, and a bucket that spans a floor does not clear it.
Tradeline. Any line of credit on your bureau file: cards, auto loans, mortgages, student loans, store cards. Each shows its balance, limit, status and 24 months of payment history.
Utilization. A revolving balance divided by its limit, read per card and across all your cards. The target is 10 to 20 percent of each limit. Never over 30 percent, never zero.
VantageScore 3.0. The score model in your tri-bureau reports. Each bureau produces its own from its own copy of your file, so the three rarely match.
Open your tradelines and match each column to its entry here, then open your FundReadi Report and do the same with the score, the stage, the grid and the tiers.
This piece is education, not financial or legal advice, and nothing in it is a lender's decision or a promise about your score or an application. Credit scores in the portal are VantageScore® 3.0.