If you’re trying to improve your credit score, then you’ll benefit from knowing a little about how it’s calculated.
The number you see as your credit score is a figure calculated using various factors by the three big Credit Reporting Bureaus. The factors they use for this calculation come from any reports they receive from your creditors about your past credit history and behavior.
Let’s think for a moment about your current debts. You could have any combination of credit cards, store cards, personal loans, mortgages, student loans and others. Each time you make a payment – or miss a payment – on your loans, it will be reported to the Credit Reporting Bureaus.
Americans have an average credit score of 693. When banks look at credit applications, they will consider this average score to be generally acceptable to their policies, although they realize there is room for improvement.
Banks will consider any customers with a credit score higher than 700 to be good and if you can get your credit score as high as 750, banks will see this as exceptionally good. Customers with good credit scores are offered the better interest rates and are rewarded for having great credit histories.
But clients with low credit scores, which is any score below 675, are considered to be risky customers. Banks don’t make as much profit from customers who don’t pay their bills. So they label them ‘sub-prime’ borrowers and they charge higher than normal interest rates to counteract the bank’s potential risk for taking on risky clients. Unfortunately this increases your repayments each month too.
If your credit score drops even lower to below 600, you may only be able to borrow funds with great difficulty.
Before you begin looking at ways to improve your credit score, it’s important to understand a bit about how your score is calculated and why certain behaviors and actions will either increase or decrease your score.
Let’s look at how your credit score is calculated.
35% of your credit score comes from your credit history
By making sure all your repayments and bills are paid on time each month, then this part of your score is the easiest to improve, but it’s also the quickest to destroy if you start falling behind. For a quick boost to your credit score, try making smaller, more regular payments on your bills and outstanding debts. Instead of paying monthly, break down your payments to bi-weekly or even weekly and this section of your score will begin to improve.
30% of your credit score comes from your account balances
The Credit Reporting Bureaus add up the total of your available credit limits and then consider the ratio of how high your current balances might be. For example, several maxxed out credit cards all at or near their top limit will give you a high ratio and reduce your score. This also means that several credit cards with very low balances but plenty of unused credit limit is a low ratio, which increases your score.
15% of your credit score comes from your length of time with credit
If you’ve been faithfully paying off your mortgage for some years now, then this has a big benefit in this section of your credit scoring calculations. The banks can easily see that you have discipline and you’re usually very responsible with your money.
But if you’ve gone on a credit binge in the last year and have several credit cards all with high balances near their limits, then banks consider that you’re not very good with handling your financial resposibilities.
10% of your credit score comes from your types of credit
Credit reporting bureaus know that almost all families have a healthy mix of a mortgage, perhaps a car loan and a credit card as part of everyday financial use and will give a good score for this section.
But people with several credit cards, store cards, personal loans or other outstanding debts are showing that they aren’t able to manage their lifestyles on the incomes they receive. This amount of excessive consumer debt can often be a sign of financial irresponsibility and your score will be reduced as a result.
10% of your credit score comes from credit inquiries you’ve made
Each time you apply for credit, it’s reported to the Credit Reporting Bureaus. Your credit enquiries are listed on your report for up to 5 years. If you have a rush of applications in the past 6 months for credit cards or personal loans then the bank might consider that you’re either on a credit binge or that you’re having financial difficulties in other areas.