Your FICO score is built from five categories of information in your credit reports, each weighted differently: payment history (35%), amounts owed (30%), length of credit history (15%), credit mix (10%), and new credit (10%). That is what goes into a FICO score. Everything the model knows about you comes from the files at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, which is why things like income, employer, address, and demographics never enter the calculation. Scores run from 300 to 850, and the higher the number, the lower the risk you look like to a lender.
Payment History (35%)
Whether you pay your bills on time is the single biggest driver of your score.1myFICO. What’s in Your Credit Score The model looks across credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, student loans, and retail accounts, and it does more than note that a payment was late. It tracks how late. A bill 90 days past due hurts far more than one that slipped 30 days, and a recent miss hurts more than one from several years back. Collections, charge-offs, and foreclosures also fall under this factor.
If your record is otherwise clean, a single 30-day late payment can knock a score down 100 points or more. The hit is smaller for people who already have blemishes, but this is where most score damage happens.
How Long Negative Marks Stay
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, most negative information drops off your credit report after seven years, including late payments, collections, and charge-offs.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Bankruptcy is the exception; the statute lets bureaus report it for up to ten years. In practice, the three major bureaus voluntarily remove Chapter 13 bankruptcies after seven years from the date the debtor completed the repayment plan, while Chapter 7 bankruptcies stay the full ten.
Medical Debt Is Treated Differently
The three major credit bureaus voluntarily agreed in 2022 to stop reporting medical collections that are less than a year old or under $500, and to remove paid medical collections entirely. A CFPB rule finalized in early 2025 would have banned medical debt from credit reports altogether, but a federal court vacated it in July 2025, finding the agency exceeded its authority under the FCRA.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Prohibition on Creditors and Consumer Reporting Agencies Concerning Medical Information (Regulation V) The voluntary bureau restrictions remain in place, and fifteen states have passed their own laws limiting medical debt on credit reports.
Amounts Owed (30%)
The second-heaviest factor measures how much you owe against how much credit you have available.1myFICO. What’s in Your Credit Score The key number is your credit utilization ratio: total revolving balances divided by total credit limits. Carry $3,000 across cards with $10,000 in combined limits and your utilization is 30%. The model checks the ratio on each individual card and across all your revolving accounts combined.
Utilization above 30% starts to drag a score down noticeably, and the penalty gets steeper as the ratio climbs.4Experian. What Is a Credit Utilization Rate? People with scores above 800 tend to keep utilization in the single digits. Oddly, 0% is slightly worse than 1%, because the model needs some activity to score. Utilization has no memory, though. Unlike a late payment that lingers for years, a high balance only affects your score while it is being reported. Pay the card down before the statement closes and the ratio resets.
This factor also looks at installment loans. The model compares what you still owe on a mortgage or car loan against the original balance to see how much of the debt you have retired. Owing $18,000 on what started as a $20,000 auto loan looks different from owing $5,000 on that same loan.
Length of Credit History (15%)
Longer histories give the model more to work with and generally help your score.1myFICO. What’s in Your Credit Score Three time-based measures matter here: the age of your oldest account, the age of your newest account, and the average age across all accounts. The model also considers how long it has been since you used certain accounts, so an old card you never touch does not count the same as one you actively manage.
This is the main reason to think twice before closing an old credit card. A closed account in good standing stays on your report for up to ten years after closure, but once it eventually falls off, your average account age can drop sharply.5TransUnion. How Closing Accounts Can Affect Credit Scores A no-annual-fee card with a clean history costs nothing to keep open and keeps your profile older on paper.
Credit Mix (10%)
Borrowers who show experience with different types of credit get a modest boost.1myFICO. What’s in Your Credit Score Revolving accounts (credit cards, retail store cards) and installment accounts (mortgages, auto loans, student loans) call for different repayment behavior, and handling both signals competence. At 10% of the score, though, this is nothing to chase. Never take out a loan you do not need just to diversify your mix; the benefit is too small to justify the interest.
New Credit (10%)
Opening several new accounts in a short stretch raises a flag in the model, especially for people without a long credit history.1myFICO. What’s in Your Credit Score Every time you apply for credit and the lender pulls your report, a hard inquiry is recorded. Soft inquiries, like when you check your own credit or a company pre-screens you for an offer, never affect your score.
Rate Shopping Gets Protection
When you are comparison shopping for a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan, the model treats multiple hard inquiries for the same loan type within a defined window as a single inquiry.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Happens When a Mortgage Lender Checks My Credit? That window runs from 14 to 45 days depending on the FICO version the lender uses.7Experian. How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report? Since you cannot know which version your lender will pull, keeping all your rate-shopping applications inside a 14-day stretch is the safest approach.
What a FICO Score Leaves Out
What the model ignores matters almost as much as what it weighs. FICO scores do not factor in your income, salary, employer, job title, or employment history. Age, race, religion, sex, marital status, and national origin are also excluded; federal law bars scoring models from considering them.8myFICO. What’s Not Included in Your Credit Score
A few other exclusions catch people off guard. Your address does not matter. The interest rates on your accounts do not matter. Child and family support obligations are bypassed. Participation in credit counseling has no effect. And checking your own credit, no matter how often, is a soft inquiry that the model ignores completely.8myFICO. What’s Not Included in Your Credit Score A lender may still weigh your income when deciding whether to approve you, but that happens outside the FICO calculation.
Where Your Score Lands
FICO scores run from 300 to 850, and lenders generally sort them into five tiers:9FICO. The Perfect Credit Score: Understanding the 850 FICO Score
- Exceptional (800–850): the best rates and terms available; utilization in this group averages around 7%.
- Very good (740–799): qualifies for most premium products at close to top-tier pricing.
- Good (670–739): acceptable to most lenders, though rates are higher than the top two tiers see.
- Fair (580–669): approvals happen but often with higher rates or stricter terms; subprime lending usually starts here.
- Poor (300–579): hard to get approved for unsecured credit; secured cards and credit-builder loans are the usual starting points.
The gap between tiers translates straight into money. On a 30-year mortgage, moving from “fair” to “very good” can mean tens of thousands of dollars in interest saved over the life of the loan.
How To See Your Score
Your credit report and your FICO score are not the same thing. You can pull your reports for free at AnnualCreditReport.com, but those reports do not include a score. For a free FICO score, Experian offers one through its free membership, and many credit card issuers now display a FICO score on monthly statements or inside their apps. The version they show may differ from the one a mortgage lender or auto dealer pulls, so expect some variation in the numbers you see.