The Key Factors that Determine Your Credit Score

1. Paying your Bills
   The most important factor is how you’ve paid your bills in the past, placing the most emphasis on recent activity. Paying all your bills on time is good, paying them late on a steady basis is bad. Having accounts that were sent to collections is worse. Declaring bankruptcy is worst.

2. Amount of money you owe and the amount of available credit
   The second most important area is your outstanding debt which means how much money you owe on credit cards, car loans, mortgages, home equity lines, etc. Also considered is the amount of credit you have available. If you hold possession of 15 credit cards that have a $10,000 credit limit, that’s $150,000 of available credit. People who have a lot of credit available tend to use it, which makes them a less attractive credit risk.

3. Length of credit risk
   The third of factor is the length of your credit history. The longer you’ve had credit, the more points you get.

4. Mix of credit
   The best scores will have a mix of both revolving credit, such as credit cards, and installment credits such as mortgages and car loans.

5. New credit applications
   The final category is your interest in new credit, how many credit applications you’re filling out. The model compensates for people who are rate shopping for the best mortgage or car loan rates. The only time shopping hurts your score, is when you have previous recent credit stumbles, such as late payments or bills sent to collections

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