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What affects your credit score? The 5 factors explained
Your FICO score is a weighted formula across five categories. Two of them — payment history and utilization — account for two-thirds of the score. The other three each matter at the margins.
Your FICO score comes from a weighted formula across five categories.The weights aren't secret — FICO publishes them. Two factors account for 65% of the score; the other three split the rest.
If you optimize the first two (payment history and amounts owed), the other three mostly take care of themselves over time. Most credit-building advice that sounds clever is either irrelevant or actively counterproductive.
The 5 factors and their weights
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Payment history | 35% | Whether you pay on time, every time |
| Amounts owed (utilization) | 30% | Balance vs. limit, per card and total |
| Length of credit history | 15% | Average age of accounts; age of oldest |
| Credit mix | 10% | Variety of credit types (cards, loans, mortgage) |
| New credit | 10% | Recent applications and new accounts |
1. Payment history (35%)
The single biggest factor.Did you pay your bills on time, every time? A FICO score is fundamentally a forecast of whether you'll pay future debt on time, and your past behavior is the strongest predictor.
What helps:
- On-time payments every single month, on every account
- Older late payments aging off (they hurt less over time)
What hurts:
- One 30-day-late payment: drops score 50–100 points
- 60-day-late: bigger drop
- 90-day-late and beyond: severe damage
- Collections, charge-offs, bankruptcies: catastrophic damage that takes years to recover from
The fix: set every account to autopay-minimum. The full payment can be manual or a separate autopay; minimum-autopay is the safety net under everything else. One missed payment can undo a year of credit-building.
2. Amounts owed / credit utilization (30%)
The second biggest factor.Credit utilization is the balance on each card (and across all cards) divided by the credit limit. FICO views high utilization as a sign you're stretched.
The target:
- Under 30% — avoid most utilization damage
- Under 10% — maximize the score
- 1–9% — slightly better than 0% (signals active use)
The timing detail that catches everyone: utilization is measured on your statement closing date, not your due date. If you charge $1,000 to a card with a $2,000 limit and pay it off the day before your due date, your statement still reported 50% utilization to the bureaus. Pay it down BEFORE the statement closes to keep reported utilization low.
The fix: set a calendar reminder 2–3 days before your statement closes. Pay down to under 10% of the limit at that time. Or request a credit-limit increase (soft pull) every 6–12 months to raise the denominator.
3. Length of credit history (15%)
How long have your accounts been open? FICO looks at the age of your oldest account, your newest account, and the average age across all accounts. Older is better.
What hurts:
- Closing old credit cards (drops the oldest and the average)
- Opening many new accounts in a short time (drags the average down)
The fix: never close your oldest no-fee card. If your oldest card has an annual fee, ask the issuer to product-change it to a no-fee version of the same card — that keeps the account age while eliminating the fee.
4. Credit mix (10%)
FICO likes seeing both revolving credit (cards) and installment loans (auto, mortgage, student, personal). If your only credit is credit cards, your mix is weaker than someone who also has an auto loan or mortgage.
The fix:don't take on debt just to improve your mix. That's backward. But if you naturally have an auto loan or mortgage in addition to cards, you'll see a small score benefit. Credit-builder loans (Self, Kikoff) can add installment history for someone with cards-only.
5. New credit (10%)
How recently did you open new accounts? How many hard inquiries hit recently?FICO treats a flurry of applications as a risk signal — someone seeking lots of new credit may be in trouble.
What hurts:
- Hard inquiries (each drops the score a few points for 12 months)
- Many new accounts opened in a short window
The exception — rate shopping:when you apply for the same kind of loan (mortgage, auto, student) within a 14- or 45-day window, FICO bundles those inquiries into a single one. Shop rates aggressively for big-ticket loans; don't spread applications out.
The fix:apply for new credit deliberately. Use issuer prequalification tools (soft pulls) to check approval odds before applying. Space hard applications 6+ months apart unless you're rate-shopping.
What does NOT affect your credit score
- Your income. FICO doesn't see it. Lenders see it on the application; FICO models don't use it.
- Your savings balance or net worth. Same — not in the model.
- Checking the score yourself. Soft pull, no impact.
- Employer credit checks. Soft pull, no impact.
- Carrying a balance "to build credit." Myth. Pay in full. Interest doesn't build credit; on-time history does.
- Renting (usually). Most landlords don't report rent payments to bureaus. Services like RentTrack and Experian RentBureau let you opt-in to add rent payments.
- Bank account balances or overdrafts (unless they go to collections).
- Soft inquiries from prequalification tools. Including the "See your approval odds" tools at most card issuers.
How to actually move your score
Fast wins (1–3 months):
- Pay down balances before your statement closes. Utilization moves the score in days.
- Dispute errors on your reports. Free at annualcreditreport.com. Wrong account, wrong balance, identity-theft accounts — disputed errors drop off quickly when verified.
- Request credit-limit increases on existing cards via soft-pull request. Higher limits = lower utilization at the same spending.
- Add Experian Boost to count on-time utility/phone payments on your Experian file.
Medium-term (3–12 months):
- Set every account to autopay-minimum. Eliminates the biggest risk to the score.
- Reduce new applications. Let inquiries age off.
Long-term (1+ years):
- Let accounts age. Average age of accounts is something only time fixes.
- Let negative items age off. Late payments fade. Collections fall off at 7 years.
How to check your score and reports free
Three places to look:
- annualcreditreport.com — the federally-mandated free reports from all three bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion), now available weekly. No score, just reports.
- Your bank or credit card app — most include a FICO score (Chase, Citi, Discover, Capital One, Bank of America, Wells Fargo).
- Credit Karma — free monitoring of Equifax and TransUnion VantageScores (not FICO). Useful for tracking changes; the VantageScore is usually within 10–20 points of your FICO.
Check your credit free at Credit Karma →
The bottom line
Two factors do most of the work:pay every bill on time, every time, and keep utilization under 10% on your statement closing date. Get those two right and the rest of the score takes care of itself over time. There's no clever trick that substitutes for these two habits.
Related reading
Frequently asked questions
- What is the most important factor in your credit score?
- Payment history — 35% of your FICO score. One missed payment 30+ days late can drop your score 50–100 points and stay on your report for 7 years. There's no faster way to damage a credit score, and nothing else you do matters if you can't pay on time.
- Does checking my credit score hurt my credit score?
- No. Soft inquiries (you checking, lender prequalification, employer checks) don't affect your score. Only hard inquiries — pulled when you apply for credit — affect it, and even then only by a few points each and only for 12 months. Pull your reports regularly through Credit Karma, your bank, or annualcreditreport.com.
- How long do late payments stay on my credit report?
- Seven years from the date of the original delinquency. The damage to your score is biggest in the first 12–24 months and slowly fades as the late payment ages. After 7 years, the late payment falls off entirely. Collections and charge-offs also stay 7 years; bankruptcies stay 7–10 years depending on chapter.
- What is credit utilization and why does it matter?
- Credit utilization is your balance divided by your credit limit, both per card and total across all cards. It's 30% of your FICO score. Keep it under 30% to avoid score damage; under 10% to maximize the score. The utilization that matters is what's reported to the credit bureaus on your statement closing date, not your average daily balance — so paying down before the statement closes is the move.
- Should I close old credit cards?
- Usually no. Closing a card reduces your available credit (raising utilization) and shortens your average account age. Both hurt your score. Exceptions: if there's an annual fee you're not using, or the card has been closed by the issuer for inactivity — in those cases the damage is already done.
- Do utility bills affect my credit score?
- Not by default — most utility providers don't report to credit bureaus. But Experian Boost lets you opt-in to count on-time utility, phone, and streaming payments toward your Experian credit file. This can lift the Experian-pulled score for someone with thin credit history; it doesn't affect Equifax or TransUnion scores.