What goes into your credit score
Your credit score is a three-digit number built from information in your credit report — a record of how you have borrowed and repaid money. The three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) collect this data from lenders, creditors, and public records, then sell it to companies that calculate your score using mathematical models.
The most common scoring model is FICO, which weighs five categories of information differently. Your score is not a single fixed number — it changes as your credit report changes, and different lenders may see slightly different scores depending on which bureau they pull from and which scoring version they use.
Understanding what makes up your score matters because it shows you where you have the most control. Some factors move your score quickly; others take months or years to shift.
Key Takeaways
- Payment history is the largest factor in your FICO score at 35 percent, meaning late or missed payments damage your score more than anything else.
- The amount you owe compared to your credit limits (called utilization) counts for 30 percent, and paying down balances can raise your score within weeks.
- How long you have held credit accounts matters for 15 percent of your score, so closing old accounts can lower it even if you pay on time.
- New credit inquiries and the mix of different types of credit (cards, loans, mortgages) together make up the remaining 20 percent.
- Negative marks like late payments, collections, and foreclosures stay on your report for seven to ten years but damage your score less as time passes.
Payment history: 35 percent of your score
Whether you pay your bills on time is the single largest factor in your credit score. This includes credit card payments, loan payments, utility bills, and rent — anything reported to the credit bureaus. A payment is considered late if it is 30 days or more past the due date.
One late payment can lower your score by 50 to 100 points depending on how late it was and how good your score was before. A payment 60 days late damages it more than one 30 days late. A payment 90 days late or sent to collections damages it far more.
The damage is not permanent. A late payment hurts your score most in the first year or two after it happens. After seven years, it stops appearing on your credit report entirely. But it still counts against you during those seven years, especially if you have other recent late payments.
Credit utilization: 30 percent of your score
Utilization is the percentage of your available credit that you are currently using. If you have a credit card with a $1,000 limit and a $300 balance, your utilization on that card is 30 percent. Your overall utilization is the total of all your balances divided by the total of all your limits.
Credit scoring models prefer to see utilization below 30 percent. Using more than that signals to lenders that you may be overextended. Paying down a balance can raise your score within weeks because utilization changes as soon as your payment is reported — unlike payment history, which builds over months and years.
Utilization is calculated separately for each card and for your accounts overall. Maxing out one card while keeping others at zero is worse than spreading the balance across multiple cards at the same total amount. Closing a credit card lowers your available credit and raises your utilization percentage, which can lower your score even if you never miss a payment.
Length of credit history: 15 percent of your score
How long you have held credit accounts matters because lenders want to see a track record. This factor includes the age of your oldest account, the age of your newest account, and the average age of all your accounts.
Older accounts help your score more than newer ones. If you have had a credit card for 10 years and always paid on time, closing it removes that positive history from your active accounts and lowers your average account age. This is why financial advisors often recommend keeping old cards open even after you pay them off.
If you are new to credit, this factor works against you — there is no way to speed it up. You build credit history only by holding accounts over time. Someone with six months of perfect payment history will have a lower score than someone with six years of perfect payment history, all else equal.
Credit mix and new credit: 20 percent of your score
Credit scoring models look at the types of credit you hold. Having a mix of revolving credit (credit cards, lines of credit) and installment credit (car loans, mortgages, personal loans) shows you can manage different kinds of debt. This accounts for about 10 percent of your score.
The other 10 percent comes from new credit inquiries and recently opened accounts. When you apply for a credit card or loan, the lender pulls your credit report, creating a hard inquiry. Each hard inquiry can lower your score by a few points. Multiple inquiries within a short period (usually 14 to 45 days, depending on the scoring model) count as one inquiry if they are for the same type of credit, like shopping for a mortgage.
A newly opened account also lowers your score slightly because it lowers your average account age and creates a hard inquiry. The impact fades over time as the account ages and you build a payment history on it.
What does not appear in your credit score
Your credit score does not include income, employment history, savings, or assets. A lender may ask for this information when you apply for a loan, but it does not affect your credit score itself. Your score is built only from borrowing and repayment behavior.
Soft inquiries — when you check your own credit or a company checks it for non-lending purposes like a background check — do not lower your score. Only hard inquiries from lenders do.
Rent payments, utility bills, and phone bills typically do not appear on your credit report unless you fall behind and the account goes to collections. Some newer services now report rent and utility payments to the bureaus, but this is not standard. Medical debt that goes to collections does appear on your report.
How negative marks affect your score over time
Negative marks — late payments, collections, charge-offs, foreclosures, and bankruptcies — stay on your credit report for seven to ten years depending on the type. A late payment stays for seven years from the date you missed the payment. A bankruptcy stays for seven years (Chapter 13) or ten years (Chapter 7).
The damage these marks do to your score decreases as time passes. A late payment from two years ago hurts your score less than a late payment from two months ago. After seven years, the mark disappears from your report and stops affecting your score at all.
Paying off a collection account does not remove it from your report, but it may stop the damage from getting worse. Some lenders view a paid collection more favorably than an unpaid one, though the mark itself remains visible for seven years.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does checking my own credit score lower it?
No. When you check your own credit report or score, it creates a soft inquiry, which does not affect your score. Only hard inquiries from lenders when you apply for credit lower your score. You can check your credit report once per year for free from each bureau at annualcreditreport.com.
How quickly can I raise my credit score?
Utilization changes can raise your score within weeks if you pay down balances. Payment history builds more slowly — you need several months of on-time payments to see meaningful improvement. Negative marks take years to stop hurting your score, though their impact weakens over time.
Why is my score different at different places?
Different credit bureaus may have slightly different information about you, so your score from Equifax may differ from your score from Experian. Lenders also use different scoring versions — FICO Score 8, FICO Score 10, VantageScore — which weight the same information differently. All versions use the same five categories, but they emphasize them in different ways.
Can I remove a late payment from my credit report?
You cannot remove accurate information from your report. If a late payment is reported correctly, it stays for seven years. If it is reported incorrectly — for example, if the lender marked a payment late when you actually paid on time — you can dispute it with the credit bureau and ask them to investigate and correct it.
Does paying off debt immediately raise my score?
Paying off a balance lowers your utilization and can raise your score within weeks. Paying off a collection account stops future damage but does not remove the mark from your report. Paying off an old debt does not erase it — it stays on your report for seven years, though it hurts your score less as time passes.