Megan McGinnis' Blog–Get Connected!

Have you ever wondered what makes up your FICO scores, and what it takes to improve your credit?  What can you do if you have a marginally bad credit score and you want to improve it?   First, you have to understand what makes up your credit score and what kinds of accounts help you increase it, as opposed to what makes your credit score bad.

The five basic elements that the credit score is comprised of are listed below.   Take a look at it and follow the basic guidelines outlined  – keep your credit card balances under 30% of the available limit, get rid of your department store cards, don’t open new accounts, don’t get too many credit cards, etc.

35% – Payment History

• Number of accounts paid
• Number of negative public records
• Delinquent accounts, past due items, how long since any late payments

30% – Amounts You Owe (keep under 30% of limit per credit card)

• Types of accounts with balances
• Amounts owed vs. original balances
• Amounts owed vs. credit limits
• Number of zero balance accounts

15% – Length of Credit History (the longer the better)

• Total credit history length
• Length of time since accounts opened
• Time since last activity

10% – Types of Credit Used (many store and credit cards – bad)

• Types of accounts (installment vs. revolving – mortgage, car, credit card, store cards)
• More credit cards lowers the score

10% – New Credit (bad)

• Number or accounts recently opened
• Number of recent credit inquiries
• Time since recent inquiries

Angella’s blog can be found at www.AngellaRaisian.com

Thanks for stopping in and I hope you found this information helpful.