IMPROVE YOUR SCORE

What's in Your FICO® Score

The FICO® score is a number that summarizes your credit risk, based on snapshot of your data at the three national credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, at a particular point in time. This data can be grouped into five categories:

The percentages in the chart below reflect how important each of the categories is in determining your FICO® score

• Payment information on the types of accounts you have, including credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.
• Whether you have any adverse public records (such as bankruptcy, judgments, suits, liens, wage attachments, etc.), collection items, and/or delinquency (past-due items)
• If you have been past-due on payments, how long past due you've been
• Past due on delinquent accounts or collection items
• How recent the past-due items (delinquency), any adverse public records, or collection items (if any).
• How many past-due items are on file
• How many accounts have been paid as agreed

• The total amount you owe on accounts
• The amount you owe on specific types of account
• The number of accounts you have with balances
• How many of credit lines you are using, or the amount of your balances in relation to the amount of your credit limits on certain types of revolving accounts
• The proportion of installment loan amounts you still owe in comparison to the original loan amount on certain types of installment loans

• The amount of time since your accounts were opened
• The amount of time since your accounts were opened, based on the specific type of account
• The amount of time since your most recent account activity

• The number of recently opened accounts, and the proportion of recently opened accounts, by type of account, in relation to the total number of accounts you have
• The number of recent credit inquiries made
• How much time has passed since the recent account opening(s), by type of account
• How much time has passed since the credit inquiry(s) were made
• Whether you've reestablished positive credit history following past payment problems

• Whether you have various types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage, consumer finance accounts, etc.)
• How many of those accounts you have
• Recent information on your accounts
  
  

Important Things to Remember About Your FICO® Score:

•  A FICO® score takes into consideration all five categories of information, not just one or two.
• No one piece of information or factor alone will determine your score. For instance, if you have filed for bankruptcy in the past, it doesn't necessarily mean you will have a low credit score.
• The importance of any factor depends on the overall information in your credit report.
• For some people, one factor may be more important than for someone else with a different credit history. Plus, as the information in your credit report changes, so does the importance of any factor in determining your FICO® score. Because of this, it's hard to know exactly how important any single factor is in determining your score—even the levels of importance shown here are for the general population, and will be different for different credit profiles. What's important is the mix of information, which varies from person to person, and for any one person over time.
• Your FICO® score only looks at information in your credit report. Lenders, however, look at many things when making a credit decision, including your income, how long you have worked at your present job and the kind of credit you are requesting.
• Your score considers both positive and negative information in your credit report. Late payments will lower your score, but establishing or reestablishing a good track record of making payments on time will raise your FICO® credit score.

         Certain information provided by Fair Isaac Corporation, San Rafael, California