Top Five Components of Your Credit Score
Thursday, August 20th, 2009Everyone in the world today has been troubled by the current state of the economy. The troubles we face have had a bad impact on our credit score leading us to financial strain.
If you have ever applied for a loan for a home or a car, you know the single most important factor in your approval is your credit score.
There has been a lot of confusion of what a credit score really is and how it is worked out. This article is aimed at clearing up all the myths in regards to what makes up a credit score, by providing you with the simple facts.
There are 5 different things you need to look at which your credit score is based on. These include your payment history to lenders, how much you owe to these lenders, your depth of file, how many inquiries have dinged your report and what type of credit you have applied for or have now.
These five variables affect or weigh on your score differently. Payment history at 35 % and outstanding debt at 30% are the heavy hitters. While depth of file is at 15% and both Inquiries and types of credit are both at 10%, these together make up the total score when all are weighted together.
Now, we will proceed into more detail for these individual categories and what they are based on.
Payment history needs no other explanation. It is the heaviest hitter at 35 % of your credit score. Basically it states if you pay your bills in a timely manner. A bill has a certain timeframe in which you are expected to remit payment, when you do so the creditor reports that. When you are delinquent by more than a month, this also is reported.
Outstanding debt ranks second in its effect at 30% on your credit report. Basically this tells how much you still owe the companies that lent money to you. In order to obtain new financing, this needs to be kept low in order to show that you can meet the repayment schedule. A large burden of debt can be your downfall.
The depth of file weighing at 15% simply looks at the time period of your credit history. Even if you dont want to use the credit card that you opened in 1986, you should keep the account active because the age of the account will reflect positively in your score.
At 10% weights in both inquiries and types of credit against your score. The Inquiries of New Credit show who and how often your report has been looked at in order to extend credit to you, this is called a inquiry; the fewer inquiries against your report the better.
At 10% weight is the final category called types of credit. This categorizes the type of financing you presently have and have held in the past. Some can hurt your credit while others bolster it. An instalment loan is held in higher esteem than a loan from a financing company.
Knowledge of how your score is derived helps you to be master of your money and future!