A credit score is built from five categories of information pulled from your credit report, and under the FICO model each category carries a fixed weight: payment history at 35%, amounts owed at 30%, length of credit history at 15%, credit mix at 10%, and new credit inquiries at 10%.1myFICO. How Are FICO Scores Calculated Those weights turn into a number that usually falls between 300 and 850. Understanding which category a given behavior lands in tells you both what moves the score and how quickly.
Payment History
Whether you pay your bills on time is the single most influential piece of information in the calculation. The record covers credit cards, auto loans, student loans, mortgages, and retail store accounts. A payment reported as 30 days late can produce a noticeable drop, and the hit tends to be larger when the rest of your record is clean.2TransUnion. How Long Do Late Payments Stay on Your Credit Report Late payments are reported in tiers of 30, 60, 90, and 120-plus days, and each tier does more damage than the last.
Serious negative marks stay on the file longer and count more heavily while they’re there. Most adverse information remains for seven years; Chapter 7 bankruptcy can remain for ten years from the filing date.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Foreclosures, repossessions, and collections all follow the seven-year rule. Civil judgments and tax liens used to appear frequently in this category, but after the 2017 National Consumer Assistance Plan settlement the three major bureaus removed nearly all civil judgments and roughly half of tax liens because those records failed new accuracy standards.4Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Removal of Public Records Has Little Effect on Consumers Credit Scores
Amounts Owed
Carrying a balance doesn’t automatically drag the score down. What the model reads is credit utilization, meaning how much of your available revolving credit you’re using. A $2,000 balance on a card with a $10,000 limit is 20% utilization. Scoring models look at utilization card by card and across all revolving accounts combined. Keeping the ratio below 30% is the common guideline, and people with the highest scores tend to sit in the single digits.1myFICO. How Are FICO Scores Calculated
Installment loans factor in here too. The formula considers how much you still owe relative to the original loan amount, so a mortgage where you’ve paid down 60% of the principal reads better than one just opened. High balances across several accounts can signal risk even when every payment is on time.
Utilization has no memory. Unlike a late payment that shadows the file for years, the ratio resets each time your issuer reports a new balance. Pay down a card before the statement closes and the improvement can show up within one billing cycle.
Trended Data in Newer Models
Older FICO models use a single snapshot of your balance on the reporting date. Newer models like FICO 10T also analyze the trajectory of that balance over time.5FICO. The FHFA Announcement, Trended Data and Ten Reasons for FICO Score 10T Someone who carries $8,000 month after month looks different from someone whose balance moved from $8,000 down to $2,000 over six months, even if both report the same amount today. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac originally planned to require FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0 for mortgage applications by late 2025, but the implementation date has been pushed back and is currently undetermined.6Freddie Mac. Credit Score Models and Reports Initiative
Length of Credit History
A longer file gives the model more data. Three measurements feed this factor: the age of your oldest account, the age of your newest account, and the average age across all accounts. Someone whose oldest card was opened 15 years ago has a real advantage over someone two years into their first account.
This is why closing an old card can hurt. If the account you close is your oldest, removing it pulls the average age down and can lower the score. Becoming an authorized user on a family member’s long-standing account works in the opposite direction: once the account appears on your credit report, its age is folded into your history, which can add years of on-time payments to a thin file.
Credit Mix
The formula rewards experience with more than one type of credit. Revolving credit means accounts like credit cards, where you borrow against a limit and the balance moves up and down. Installment credit means fixed loans like auto loans or mortgages that you repay in equal monthly payments. A profile with both types demonstrates a wider range of experience than one with only cards or only loans.
At 10%, credit mix carries the least weight alongside new credit, and the practical benefit shows up mainly for people who have only one type. Opening a loan you don’t need just to add variety costs far more in interest than any score gain is worth.
New Credit and Inquiries
Applying for a credit card, loan, or line of credit produces a hard inquiry when the lender pulls your report. A single hard inquiry usually costs fewer than five points and affects the score for about 12 months, though it remains visible on the report for two years.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Happens When a Mortgage Lender Checks My Credit The larger concern is a cluster of applications close together, which the model reads as a signal of financial distress.
Rate shopping is treated differently. When you’re comparing mortgage or auto loan offers, multiple lender inquiries in a short window are counted as a single inquiry for scoring purposes. FICO uses a 45-day window. VantageScore uses a shorter 14-day window but applies it across all loan types.8TransUnion. How Rate Shopping Can Impact Your Credit Score Concentrate the loan shopping into a few weeks and the inquiries collapse into one.
Hard Inquiries vs. Soft Inquiries
Not every credit check counts. Soft inquiries happen when you check your own credit, when a lender pre-screens you for an offer, or when an employer runs a background check. They have zero impact on the score and aren’t visible to other lenders. Only hard inquiries, which require your permission and are tied to an actual credit application, affect the score. Checking your own report through a monitoring service or AnnualCreditReport.com is a soft pull.
How FICO and VantageScore Weight These Factors Differently
FICO dominates mortgage and auto lending, but VantageScore 4.0, developed jointly by the three major bureaus, is common among credit card issuers and personal loan companies. Both draw from the same credit report data. VantageScore weights payment history at 41% and utilization at 20%, combines length of credit history and credit mix into a single 20% category, and breaks out total balances and available credit as separate smaller factors.1myFICO. How Are FICO Scores Calculated
The same behaviors improve both scores. The models diverge most at the edges. VantageScore can generate a score with as little as one month of history on a single account, while FICO typically requires at least six months. VantageScore 4.0 also incorporates rent and utility payments when those appear on a credit report, which can help people with thin files establish a score.
Medical Debt
Medical collections are treated differently from ordinary collections. In 2023, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion voluntarily stopped reporting medical collections under $500 and removed paid medical debts from credit reports entirely. Medical collections above $500 that remain unpaid can still appear, but not until at least a year after the original delinquency. The CFPB finalized a rule in January 2025 that would have banned all medical debt from credit reports, but a federal court in Texas vacated the rule in July 2025, so it never took effect. The 2023 bureau policies remain in place as commitments rather than binding regulation.
Checking and Disputing What’s in Your File
Federal law guarantees one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three major bureaus through AnnualCreditReport.com, the only site authorized by the government for this purpose.9AnnualCreditReport.com. Getting Your Credit Reports All three bureaus currently offer free weekly online reports through the same site. Pulling your own report is a soft inquiry and does not affect the score.
If you spot an error, you can dispute it directly with the bureau reporting the item, or with the company that furnished the information. The bureau has 30 days to investigate, with a possible 15-day extension if you submit additional information during that window, and must verify, correct, or delete the item.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 US Code 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy Filing a dispute is free, and no law requires you to pay anyone to do it for you.
If a lender denies your application or offers worse terms because of your score, they’re required to send an adverse action notice. That notice must include the score used, the range of possible scores under that model, and the top four factors dragging the score down.11Federal Trade Commission. Using Consumer Reports for Credit Decisions – What to Know About Adverse Action and Risk-Based Pricing Notices Those four factors are the most actionable information available, because they tell you exactly which category is costing you the most points. A credit freeze, separately, blocks new creditors from pulling your report to prevent identity theft and has no effect on the score itself.12Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Credit Freeze or Security Freeze on My Credit Report