This is the most significant factor in your credit score. It shows how consistently you’ve made payments on time.

• On-time payments improve your score
• Late payments (30+ days) can significantly hurt your score
• Bankruptcies, foreclosures, and collections have major negative impacts
• Older negative items affect your score less over time

This measures how much of your available credit you’re using across all credit cards and lines of credit.

• Keeping utilization below 30% is good, but below 10% is ideal
• High utilization can indicate risk to lenders
• Both individual card utilization and overall utilization matter
• Paying down balances can quickly improve this aspect of your score

This considers how long you’ve had credit accounts open and the average age of your accounts.

• Longer credit history generally improves your score
• Includes age of oldest account, newest account, and average age of all accounts
• Closing old accounts can shorten your credit history
• Younger borrowers may have lower scores due to shorter credit history

This looks at the different types of credit accounts you have.

• Having a mix of different types of credit (credit cards, mortgage, auto loans, etc.) can help
• Don’t open new credit just to improve your mix
• This is a relatively minor factor unless you’re trying to maximize an already good score

This considers how many new accounts you’ve opened recently and recent credit inquiries.

• Opening several credit accounts in a short period can be risky
• Each application typically causes a small, temporary drop in your score
• Rate shopping for certain loans (like mortgages or auto loans) within a short period counts as a single inquiry
• Inquiries remain on your credit report for two years but only affect your score for one year