
Your FICO Score
FICO is the most common credit score used. The scores range from 300-850, with 850 being excellent.
Your FICO score looks at five categories:
- Payment History (35%): Whether or not you have paid past credit accounts on time.
- Total Debt (30%): the total amount of debt that you have
- Length of Credit History (15%): How long your credit has been active, how long since different accounts have been used, length of specific accounts, and the average age of all of your accounts.
- Type of Credit Used (10%): This looks at your combination of credit cards, loans, mortgages, and retail accounts. Your student loans are part of your credit score.
- New Credit (10%): What your new credit use is. Opening multiple accounts in a short amount of time looks risky.