What affects your credit score in the US?

Your credit score is calculated from the data in your credit report. Understanding which factors carry the most weight helps you focus your efforts on what will make the biggest difference.

Factors that help your credit score

• Payment history (roughly 35% of a common FICO score): paying on time is the single most important factor. Even a few months of on-time payments after a rough period begins to rebuild the score.
• Amounts owed and credit utilization (roughly 30%): using a small percentage of your available revolving credit — under 30%, and better still under 10% — signals control.
• Length of credit history (roughly 15%): the age of your oldest account and the average age of all accounts. Keeping old accounts open helps.
• New credit (roughly 10%): few recent applications and few recent hard inquiries.
• Credit mix (roughly 10%): having both revolving accounts such as credit cards and installment accounts such as a car loan, all managed well.

Factors that hurt your credit score

• Payments reported 30 or more days late: the most damaging routine factor, and a single one can matter.
• Charge-offs: recorded when a creditor writes a delinquent balance off, generally after around 180 days. Remains about seven years from the original delinquency.
• Collection accounts: an account placed with or sold to a collector. Newer scoring models ignore paid collections, but older models used by some lenders do not.
• Bankruptcy: Chapter 7 generally remains for around ten years and Chapter 13 for around seven.
• High credit utilization: consistently using a large share of your available revolving credit.
• Multiple hard inquiries in a short period, outside a rate-shopping window.
• Incorrect or fraudulent information: errors on your report can unfairly suppress your score.

Factors that do NOT affect your credit score

• Your income, savings or net worth — none of it appears on a credit report
• Your spouse's or partner's credit history, unless you hold a joint account or one of you is an authorized user
• Checking your own credit report or score (a soft inquiry)
• Previous occupants of your address
• Your race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age or receipt of public assistance — using these is prohibited under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act

How long negative information stays on your report

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, most negative information — late payments, charge-offs and collections — remains for seven years from the date of the original delinquency, then falls off automatically. Chapter 7 bankruptcy generally remains for ten years from the filing date and Chapter 13 for around seven. Hard inquiries stay on the report for two years but generally stop affecting scores after about twelve months.