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Guide to Understanding Your Credit Score
Your credit score is an important number that represents your financial strength, but understanding your credit score can be challenging. Continue reading to discover the key factors influencing your credit score and practical steps to enhance your financial standing!
5 Factors that Make Up a Credit Score
Your credit score, ranging from 300-800, reflects your credit history and influences loan interest rates and access to credit. There are five key categories that influence your score.
1. Payment history
Your payment history makes up 35% of your score.
Paying your bills on time is crucial for maintaining a healthy credit score. Missing a payment or a late payment may seem like an easy, repairable mistake, but it can have a lasting impact as it stays on your credit report for up to seven years.
2. Debt-to-credit ratio
Your "owed balance" makes up 30% of your score.
The amount of debt you owe is factored into your debt-to-credit ratio. To help raise your score or build healthy credit, it is essential to keep the amount of debt you own low – you want a smaller amount of debt than the amount of credit allotted.
3. Credit history
The length of your credit history is 15% of your credit score.
Your credit history is a reflection of the length of time you've held a line of credit and how effectively you've managed it. Opening a line of credit is the first step in establishing your credit history. This history typically spans 7-10 years, so it is important to practice healthy credit management right from the beginning.
4. Credit lines
It is important to maintain a manageable number of credit lines. Successfully managing multiple lines of credit and payments is beneficial toward your score; however, owing large amounts in multiple areas drops your score as it creates a higher amount of debt owed. Find the balance that works for you and your financial goals.
5. Recently opened accounts and inquiries
Avoid making too many inquiries for new credit lines or loans, as this can lower your credit score. It's important to only have the essential number of credit accounts to build a strong credit history and fulfill your daily financial needs. Make sure your debts don't exceed your ability to repay them.
Establish Your Desired Score
A great credit score will open doors for you. A bad credit score can hinder your ability to get things done. So, let's establish great credit from the start!
How to start
To kickstart your journey toward achieving your desired credit score, you first need to establish a line of credit. In cases where you lack a credit history, starting with a smaller, more secure line of credit is recommended to ensure a solid foundation for your credit endeavors.
Credit Union 1 offers different lines of credit to meet you where you are in your credit journey. View our card options to start building healthy credit habits and watch your score grow.
Maintain a healthy relationship with your credit
Once you establish a line of credit, it's time to start building your credit score. Keep your debts low and manageable, and always pay your bills on time. Timely payments help build your score and prevent debt from going to collections, which can lower your credit score. Making payments on time, even if it's just the minimum some months, is crucial toward a healthy credit score.
Ways to Build and Manage your Credit
Building and managing your credit can help you achieve your desired score. Below are a few ways to build your own personal credit strategy.
Use your credit card
Practicing healthy spending habits with your line of credit is key to raising your score, and monthly payments are a great way to build credit fast. By using your line of credit for common monthly payments, such as gas or small bills, and paying them off on time, you can help establish credit and raise your score. Try not to use your card for payments you know you wont to be able to pay back by the due date. This can lower your score and increase the interest you pay back over time. Maintaining a positive relationship with your payments means treating your credit as if it is cash in your wallet.
Make payments on time
Timely payments play a large role in your credit score. Set up automatic payments, such as Bill Pay, to manage your bills and ensure they're paid on time.
Credit monitoring
Knowing where you stand with your credit is important, as it will help you make decisions on loans and other forms of credit. Credit Union 1 provides members with a valuable tool known as SavvyMoney Credit Score for monitoring your credit score.
Check out all these great features with SavvyMoney:
- Conveniently check your credit score without any impact on your overall score.
- Utilize the credit simulator tool to assess how your credit score could be impacted by different financial decisions, such as opening new accounts, increasing payments, or obtaining loans.
- Gain valuable insights into the key factors impacting your credit score and receive personalized recommendations to successfully oversee and enhance your credit standing over time.
Reap the Rewards of Your Improved Score
As your credit journey progresses, you will establish additional and larger lines of credit. This phase of your credit journey signifies growth and responsibility in managing your finances. As you demonstrate a history of timely payments and responsible credit utilization, financial institutions may offer you higher credit limits and better loan terms. This can provide you with the opportunity to access more substantial financial resources for larger purchases or unexpected expenses that may arise.
Here are a couple of tips to experience the benefits of your score:
Ask for a better deal
With your new score, you may now be eligible for better interest rates on a line of credit. Reach out to your financial institution, and ask them to take a look at your new and improved circumstances. By doing this you could walk away with a better deal on your existing line of credit.
Refinance high-interest loans
Once you have reached your credit score goal and maintained a healthy score, you may qualify for lower interest rates on your current loans. By refinancing your loans with your higher score, you can save money.
Protect your score
Monitor your credit score regularly by enrolling in SavvyMoney Credit Score on Credit Union 1's online banking platform. This tool allows you to track your score, assess credit usage, monitor progress and protect against identity theft.
