 TITLE: How Do You Check Your Credit Score? CONTENT: What Affects My Credit Scores?\n------------------------------\nIt's important to understand the factors that go into determining your credit scores so you know how to improve them if necessary. For the FICO® Score, the credit score version you will receive through Experian, there are five main factors that impact your score. They are all weighted differently:\n*   **Payment history**: Your payment history—how regularly you pay your bills on time—accounts for 35% of your FICO® Score. Late or missed payments can negatively affect your FICO® Score, while a pattern of making payments on time is the best way to keep it high.\n*   **Amount of debt**: The amount of available debt you're using, referred to as your credit utilization ratio, accounts for 30% of your score. This is calculated by dividing how much credit you're using by the total amount of credit available to you. So if you have three credit cards with a combined credit limit of $10,000, and you have a total combined balance of $3,000 on all three cards, your utilization ratio is 30%. Most experts recommend keeping your ratio below 30%, and for the best scores, below 7%.\n*   **Length of credit history**: How long you've used credit, including your oldest and newest accounts—as well as the average age of all your open accounts—accounts for 15% of your FICO® Score. Generally, the longer you've used credit, the higher your scores.\n*   **Amount of new credit**: The total amount of new credit accounts for 10% of your FICO® Score. This takes into consideration how many accounts you've opened recently and how many recent hard inquiries you have on your credit report. Too many new accounts and inquiries could indicate greater credit risk.\n*   **Credit mix**: The variety of types of credit you're using accounts for 10% of your FICO® Score. If you have different kinds of credit, like credit cards and installment loans, you'll score higher than if you only have one type of credit, such as retail cards.\nWhen you receive your credit score, you should also get some guidelines on your score profile and why your score ranks where it does. This will include information on what's hurting it and what's helping your score, as in the image below:\nThese guidelines will help you figure out what you need to do to maintain a good FICO® Score, and what you need to do to improve it. For example, if bad payment history is one of the reasons your FICO® Score is on the lower side, you should focus on paying your bills on time. Consider automating your payments so you never miss them again. END