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How is a FICO Credit Score Determined?
Peter Kenny
There are five key factors that make up your FICO score, which
is also known as your credit score: your payment history, any
outstanding debts, the length of your credit history, the number
of inquiries, and the types of accounts held. Each of these
elements is given a different weight in the calculations that
determines your FICO score. Your payment history comprises 35%
of the score, your outstanding debt is 30%, your credit history
age makes up 15%, and both the number of inquiries and account
types are 10% of your total FICO score.
Now you know what factors are included in your credit score.
What does each of these elements include? And more importantly,
what is considered good and what is bad for each of these
components?
Payment History
Your payment history includes the details of how you've been
paying your bills. Or for that matter, if you've been paying
them at all. Each credit account you hold reports your payments
as either on time or late. Late payments are reported as being
30-, 60-, 90-, and 120-days late. After six months of no
payments being made, many creditors charge-off your account,
considering it an uncollectible account. The more recent the
late payments are, the more detrimental the effect is on your
credit score. On-time monthly payments increase your score in
this area.
Outstanding Debts
This portion of your FICO score takes into account the total
amount you owe on all your credit accounts. This includes credit
cards, department store cards, student loans, auto loans,
mortgages, open lines of credit, etc. In addition to considering
the total amount you owe, the FICO score also considers the
total amount of credit you have available. This ratio is known
as your credit utilization. The higher your credit utilization,
meaning the closer your balances are to the limit, the lower
your credit score. It is best to keep credit account balances at
or below 30% of the limit.
Credit History Age
The length of time that you have had credit is another important
factor of your FICO score. A longer credit history is better
than a shorter one. This is because there is more data to create
a pattern of good or bad payments.
Inquiries
Each time a lender uses your FICO score to make a decision about
extending you credit, an inquiry is made to a credit bureau.
This inquiry will appear on your credit report. Multiple
inquiries within a relatively short period of time have a
negative effect on your FICO score, especially if these are
credit card inquiries. The fewer the inquiries the better. The
good news is that only inquiries from the past 24 months are
considered as relevant to your FICO score.
Account Types
When you have several different kinds of credit accounts, such
as loans and revolving credit, it is better than having only one
type of credit account.
About the author:
Peter Kenny is a writer for Finance 123, please visit us at Low Interest Rate
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