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What Is In Your Credit Score?
FICO Scores are
calculated from a lot of different credit data in your credit
report. This data can
be grouped into five categories as outlined below. The percentages
in the chart reflect how
important each of the categories is in determining your score.

These percentages are based on the importance of the five
categories for the general population.
For particular groups - for example, people who have not been
using credit long - the importance
of these categories may be somewhat different.
Payment History
- Account payment information on specific types of accounts
(credit cards, retail accounts,
installment loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.)
- Presence of adverse public records (bankruptcy, judgements,
suits, liens, wage
attachments, etc.), collection items, and/or delinquency (past
due items)
- Severity of delinquency (how long past due)
- Amount past due on delinquent accounts or collection items
- Time since (recency of) past due items (delinquency),
adverse public records (if any), or
collection items (if any)
- Number of past due items on file
- Number of accounts paid as agreed
Amounts Owed
- Amount owing on accounts
- Amount owing on specific types of accounts
- Lack of a specific type of balance, in some cases
- Number of accounts with balances
- Proportion of credit lines used (proportion of balances to
total credit limits on certain
types of revolving accounts)
- Proportion of installment loan amounts still owing
(proportion of balance to original loan
amount on certain types of installment loans)
Length of Credit History
- Time since accounts opened
- Time since accounts opened, by specific type of account
- Time since account activity
New Credit
- Number of recently opened accounts, and proportion of
accounts that are recently
opened, by type of account
- Number of recent credit inquiries
- Time since recent account opening(s), by type of account
- Time since credit inquiry(s)
- Re-establishment of positive credit history following past
payment problems
Types of Credit Used
- Number of (presence, prevalence, and recent information on)
various types of accounts
(credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage,
consumer finance accounts, etc.)
Please note that:
- A score takes into consideration all these categories of
information, not just
one or two.
No one piece of information or factor alone will determine
your score.
- The importance of any factor depends on the overall
information in your credit
report.
For some people, a given factor may be more important than for
someone else with a
different credit history. In addition, as the information in
your credit report changes, so
does the importance of any factor in determining your score.
Thus, it's impossible to say
exactly how important any single factor is in determining your
score - even the levels of
importance shown here are for the general population, and will
be different for different
credit profiles. What's important is the mix of information,
which varies from person to
person, and for any one person over time.
- Your FICO score only looks at information in your credit
report.
However, lenders look at many things when making a credit
decision including your
income, how long you have worked at your present job and the
kind of credit you are
requesting.
- Your score considers both positive and negative
information in your credit
report.
Late payments will lower your score, but establishing or
re-establishing a good track record
of making payments on time will raise your score.
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If you would like more information regarding you credit visit myFICO.com
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