 The most widespread type of scorecard in use is the application scorecard, which lenders employ when a customer applies for a new credit product.The scorecard tries to predict the probability that the customer, if given the product, would become "bad" within a given timeframe, incurring losses for the lender.The exact definition of what constitutes "bad" varies across different lenders, product types and target markets, however, examples may be ""missing three payments within the next 18 months"" or ""default within the next 12 months"".