What is a Credit Score?
Your credit score, or FICO score, is a number that reflects your financial responsibility
and helps lenders decide if you're a good credit risk or not. Your score is based on - but
not part of - your credit report. It's generated at the time of request, then
included with the report.
What Determines My Credit Score?
The five factors that determine your Credit Score are:
Payment History (approximately 35% of your score)
The factor that has the biggest impact on your score is whether you've paid past credit
accounts on time. However, an overall good credit picture can outweigh a few late
payments, and late payments will continue to have less impact over time unless the late
payment is a mortgage payment.
Amounts Owed (approximately 30%)
Having credit accounts and owing money doesn't mean you're a high-risk borrower. But owing
a lot of money on numerous accounts can suggest that you are financially overextended and
more likely to make some payments late or not at all. Part of the science of scoring
is determining how much debt is too much for a given credit profile.
Length of Credit History (approximately 15%)
In general, a longer credit history will
increase your FICO score. It shows that you can responsibly manage your available credit
over time. However, even people who have not been using credit very long may get high
scores, depending on how the rest of their credit report looks.
New Credit (approximately 10%)
People today tend to have more credit and to shop for credit more frequently. But opening
several credit accounts in a short period of time can represent greater risk - especially
for people with short credit histories. Requests for new credit can also represent greater
risk. However, FICO scores are able to distinguish between a search for many new credit
accounts and rate shopping. FICO scores generally do not equate your rate search with
higher credit risk.
Types of Credit in Use (approximately 10%)
Your FICO score will reflect a combination of
credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts and mortgage
loans. While a healthy mix will improve your score, it is not necessary to have one of each,
and it is not a good idea to open credit accounts you don't intend to use. The credit mix
usually won't be a key factor in determining your score, but it will be more important if
your credit report doesn't have much other information on which to base a score.
Interpreting Your Credit Score
Your credit score lists up to four reasons why your score is not currently higher. These
reasons can be very useful in helping you determine how you might improve your score over
time, and whether your credit report might contain errors.
If you already have a high score (for example, in the mid-700s or higher) some of the
stated reasons for credit concerns may not be very helpful, as they may reference the
factors that have the least impact on your score, such as: length of credit history,
new credit and types of credit in use.
Here are the ten most common explanations:
- Serious delinquency - You have one or more accounts with late payments
- Serious delinquency, and public record of collection filed - you have one or more
accounts that have gone to a collection agency
- Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown - You have one or more accounts
that are recently past due
- Level of delinquency on accounts - Your accounts are 60 to 90 days or more past due
- Number of accounts with delinquency - You have numerous past due accounts
- Amount owed on accounts - You have too much debt
- Proportion of balances to credit limits on revolving accounts is too high - the balance
on your credit cards is too high
- Length of time accounts have been established - your credit history is not long
enough to show responsible credit management
- Too many accounts with balances - concern over your debt load
