Credit 101: The Fundamentals & Components of a Credit Score

Credit basics

There are five major factors that impact your FICO® credit score.

CreditStrong provides the FICO score to CreditStrong account holders and updates your FICO score monthly free of charge when you have an open CreditStrong account. We also provide the top two factors that are currently impacting your FICO credit score. Unlike the Vantage 3.0 credit score, which is provided by several free credit monitoring websites, FICO is the Score Lenders Use®. 90% of top lenders use FICO scores when making lending decisions.

How FICO Scores Work

Your FICO score is calculated by a computer algorithm that evaluates many sources and types of information on your credit report when you apply for credit. By analyzing the information and patterns in your credit profile to patterns in millions of past credit reports, your FICO score provides lenders a consistent and reliable assessment of how risky it may be to lend you

The Amount You Owe

Amounts Owed reflects how much you owe each creditor individually and in total. It includes your utilization rate for revolving lines of credit (e.g. credit

New Credit

New Credit is the new account opening activity and any recent ‘hard’ credit inquiries from lenders on your credit report. Approximately 10% of a FICO® Score is based on

Payment History and How It Affects Your Credit Score

Payment history is the most important factor in calculating your FICO® credit score. Your payment history accounts for over a third of your overall FICO credit score,

Types of Credit in Use

Credit Mix is the types of credit used. Examples may be revolving credit cards or revolving lines of credit, or installment credit like a fixed loan amount.

Length of Credit History

Five different factors affect your credit score, and your length of credit history is right in the middle in terms of impact, behind payment history and credit

Credit basics

How FICO Scores Work

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