Credit rating

Your credit rating is an independent statistical evaluation of your ability to repay debt based on your borrowing and repayment history.

If you always pay your bills on time, you are more likely to have good credit and therefore may receive favorable terms on a loan or credit card, such as relatively low finance charges.

If your credit rating is poor because you have paid bills late or have defaulted on a loan, you are likely to get less favorable terms or may be denied credit altogether.

A corporation's credit rating is an assessment of whether it will be able to meet its obligations to bond holders and other investors. Credit rating systems for corporations generally range from AAA or Aaa at the high end to D (for default) at the low end.

A statistical technique wherein several financial characteristics are combined to form a single score to represent a customer's creditworthiness. A credit score provided and published by SEC approved-rating agencies (Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, Fitch, and Toronto Dominion) relied on by providers of credit (banks, bond investors, exchanges, market participant extending credit to a counterparty) to help judge the level of credit or financing to provide to a customer or counterparty. A rating is set using financial analytical technique combined with informed judgment of qualitative factors to form a single score to represent a customer's creditworthiness.