{"id":37282,"date":"2025-02-04T16:26:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T16:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogsa.kinsta.cloud\/?p=37282"},"modified":"2025-02-04T16:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T16:26:09","slug":"the-five-factors-behind-your-fico-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/2025\/02\/04\/the-five-factors-behind-your-fico-score\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Factors Behind Your FICO Score"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-68af077b4264ff51ea628d18faa88bfa\">A FICO score is a type of credit score that is the industry standard for determining a person&#8217;s credit risk. While many lenders rely on FICO Scores to make faster, fairer, and more accurate lending decisions, it&#8217;s important to note that not all credit scores are FICO Scores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2c506dc471be1db5dbe6c8c162db0c86\">Five different categories play into your FICO credit score. To keep your credit in good standing, you&#8217;ll first want to understand how your score is measured to maintain it effectively. We have listed the five categories and how much each contributes to your score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Payment History (35%)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your payment history reflects if you have paid your accounts consistently and on time over the length of your credit. It also accounts for bankruptcies, collections, and delinquencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Amounts Owed (30%)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All accounts you currently owe will be visible here, including how many accounts you owe and how many you have balances on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Length of Credit History (15%)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally, the longer your credit accounts are open and paid on time, the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Types of Credit (10%)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This includes your number of credit cards, mortgages, installment loans, retail accounts, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0be5bfe93964526fdcca3baf45b6db21\"><em>Revolving credit examples:<\/em> credit cards, retail store cards, gas station cards, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-77c0bdb51285d1d504db330b318c99a3\"><em>Installment credit examples<\/em>: mortgages, auto loans, student loans, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>New Credit (10%)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each new credit inquiry, including time between inquiries, is accounted for. Be sure to consider the impacts when opening a new credit account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-de878eef0f6a1d2cd4455bac10b811ce\" style=\"font-size:27px\"><strong>Tips for Establishing and Maintaining Healthy Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2b25397008e5f4f70eeac5fd0899baab\">Only borrow what you can afford to repay.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7bbb19a623c088368e01f29f88cccfb9\">Make all your payments on time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-eec7322ca71235cc9709b84408c0215b\">Avoid excessive credit requests or inquiries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c76fbab2bfd638fd77e12b150913db29\">Have an emergency account to pay for unexpected expenses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-05e70834f2288bc43fcb259869495dfc\">Check your credit report annually to contest and remove any erroneous information.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c0394805a17c2f87a7a6fb9a8c9a02b2\">Keep a high credit line and a low balance. Credit utilization ratios measure this relationship, and lower is better.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2a35741fdf60beb106e7d6acee48e7dd\">Do not open new store credit cards just to save on a purchase. New accounts can lower your score, and too many payments can be difficult to manage. <em>Saving 10% on a $300 lawnmower means little if it costs you even fractionally more on a $300,000 home loan.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3e4618546a2964da6e50683b9c0e3c1d\">Do not be afraid to use credit. Without credit, you will have no score, which can be just as bad as a low one.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-877e5fb562a64b89c64b7f1e1a86f796\">Maintain a variety of account types. A combination of revolving, installment, secured financing, and excellent payment records will yield a higher score. <em>Still, don&#8217;t just open an account to have diversity, as this is the least influential factor.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A FICO score is a type of credit score that is the industry standard for determining a person&#8217;s credit risk. While many lenders rely on FICO Scores to make faster, fairer, and more accurate lending decisions, it&#8217;s important to note that not all credit scores are FICO Scores. Five different categories play into your FICO&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/2025\/02\/04\/the-five-factors-behind-your-fico-score\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Five Factors Behind Your FICO Score<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":37017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-credit","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.vandykmortgage.com\/keithriley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}