What factors actually determine my credit score?
The standard FICO credit score is built from five factors: payment history (35%), credit utilization (30%), length of credit history (15%), credit mix (10%), and new credit (10%). Payment history and utilization together account for two-thirds of the score, which is why disputing inaccurate late payments and incorrect balances tends to move scores the most.
The five factors and what they weigh
FICO's standard scoring model uses five factors. The percentages are approximate — the exact weights vary slightly depending on the version of the model and the specifics of your file — but they hold up well as a guide to what matters:
- Payment history — 35%
- Credit utilization — 30%
- Length of credit history — 15%
- Credit mix — 10%
- New credit — 10%
Two factors do most of the work. Payment history and utilization together make up 65% of the score. The other three add nuance but rarely swing the score the way the first two can.
Payment history (35%)
The single biggest factor. Whether you've paid your accounts on time, and how recently any missed payments occurred. Late payments, collections, charge-offs, bankruptcies, foreclosures, and judgments all sit in this bucket.
Newer negative items hurt more than older ones. A 30-day late mark from last month carries more weight than a 30-day late mark from four years ago. A late payment that's incorrectly reported is the single most common item worth disputing, because correcting one inaccurate late mark can move a score meaningfully.
Credit utilization (30%)
How much of your available credit you're currently using. Calculated as your total revolving balances divided by your total revolving limits. A $1,000 balance on a $5,000 limit is 20% utilization.
Lower is better. Conventional wisdom says keep utilization under 30%; the lowest-rate scoring usually shows up below 10%. Utilization is calculated both per-card and across all your cards, so a single card maxed out can hurt even if your overall utilization looks fine.
Utilization is the one factor that can change quickly. Paying down a balance shows up on your report within a billing cycle and can move your score fast. Inaccurate balances reported by lenders — a balance that should be $0 still showing as $4,200 — are also high-value items to dispute.
Length of credit history (15%)
How long your accounts have been open. Includes the average age of all your accounts, the age of your oldest account, and the age of your newest account.
Older is better. This is the factor that's hardest to change in the short term because it depends on time. It's also why closing your oldest credit card is usually a bad idea — losing that account immediately reduces your average account age.
Items that affect this factor and are worth disputing: accounts incorrectly reported as closed when they're still open, accounts with the wrong "date opened," and accounts that have aged off your report but are still listed.
Credit mix (10%)
The variety of credit types in your file. Revolving credit (credit cards), installment loans (auto, personal, student), mortgages, and retail accounts all count. Having a few different types tends to help; having only one type tends to be neutral or slightly negative.
This is a small factor and not worth optimizing for in isolation. Don't open accounts you don't need just to improve your mix.
New credit (10%)
Recent credit activity. Hard inquiries from credit applications, recently opened accounts, and the rate at which you're applying for credit. Multiple applications in a short window — especially for credit cards — can drag this factor down.
Hard inquiries fade in importance after a few months and fall off your report after two years. Unauthorized hard pulls are disputable.
What this means for dispute work
Knowing which factors carry the most weight tells you where errors hurt the most:
- An inaccurate late payment hits the 35% factor — usually the biggest move when corrected
- An incorrect balance or closed account still reporting a balance hits the 30% factor
- An account with the wrong "date opened" or one that should have aged off hits the 15% factor
- An unauthorized hard inquiry hits the 10% factor
CreditRefresh's AI scans for items in all of these buckets and drafts dispute letters for the ones with grounds. The biggest score movements tend to come from corrections to payment history and utilization, which is where the AI tends to focus first when it finds disputable items.
What doesn't go into your score
A few things that aren't part of the standard FICO formula but get talked about as if they are:
- Income. Lenders look at income separately when deciding whether to extend credit, but it isn't in the score.
- Employment. Same as income — relevant to applications, not to the score.
- Race, age, gender, marital status, ZIP code. These are excluded by federal law from credit scoring.
- Soft inquiries. Don't count. Don't appear to lenders.
Understanding the formula doesn't make the score easy to game. It does make it easier to recognize what's actually moving the number and what isn't.
Related articles
Your three credit scores differ because the bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — operate independently, receive different data from different creditors, update on different schedules, and feed that data into different scoring models. Gaps of 10 to 50 points are normal. Bigger gaps usually signal that one bureau is missing information or has a reporting error worth disputing.
At minimum, once a year per bureau — and right now you can pull free reports weekly from all three bureaus at annualcreditreport.com. Annual review catches errors before they hit major applications. Step up to monthly during active dispute work, and every two weeks after identity theft. CreditRefresh also pulls automatically.
A soft pull is a credit check that doesn't affect your score and isn't visible to other lenders — covering things like checking your own credit, pre-approval offers, and the pulls CreditRefresh runs on your reports. A hard pull is a credit check tied to a credit application that does affect your score, usually by a small amount, and stays visible to lenders for two years.
A charge-off is an accounting designation that a creditor uses when it considers a debt unlikely to be collected — typically after 180 days of non-payment. The debt doesn't disappear when charged off; the creditor either continues collecting, sells the debt to a collector, or writes it off. Charge-offs are major negative items and stay on your report for 7 years from the date of first delinquency.