Personal Credit Score Components

Your payment history

Your FICO credit score is derived from five important factors:

    • Your payment history 35% (this page)
    • The amount of money you owe 30%
    • The length of your credit history 15%
    • New debt and credit inquiries 10%
    • Your credit mix 10%


Scroll down for an in-depth look at how your payment history affects your personal credit score.

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How your payment history affects your FICO score

Your payment history is a record of your financial commitments and how responsibly your manage them. Your history includes information from:

    • credit card accounts
    • installment loans
    • mortgages
    • finance company accounts
    • retail accounts

Your payment history with these creditors represents about 35% of your credit score. But not all histories are created equal: for example, having just one 90-day late notice on your report is much worse than having a few 30-day late notices, even if your one 90-day late mark is in the past.

In general, your history does not include payments on accounts such as utilities or phone bills or information from checking or savings accounts. However, making late payments and then defaulting on any such accounts can result in a lower credit score. Your credit score may also suffer depending on how often your payments are received late and the total amount of late payments.

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Most lenders categorize late payments in increments of 30 days. This means that one or two months of late payments could affect your score quite a bit.

To see your own credit score now, visit Equifax.

The most serious problems that affect your score

The most detrimental items in your credit report are also the ones that affect your personal credit score the most (duh).

Out of these, the worst ones are the actions taken against you on public record.

These can include:

    • Bankruptcies
    • Loan defaults and collection items
    • Judgments
    • Suits
    • Liens or repossessions
    • Wage garnishments


Remember: your payment history is the most important determinant of your FICO credit score. However, since it isn't the only factor used to calculate your credit score, you can still overcome an unfavorable payment history by performing well in other areas.


Next: The amount you owe affects your score too