What affects your credit score?

Payment history — around 35%

Whether you paid on time, and if not, how late and how recently. This is the single heaviest factor in the model and the slowest to repair.

A payment is generally only reported to the bureaus once it is 30 days past due. Being a few days late will likely cost you a late fee from the issuer, but it does not usually appear on your credit report. Past 30 days, it does — and the damage scales with how late: 30, 60, 90, 120+ days are each worse than the last.

Negative marks generally remain on a credit report for seven years from the date of the delinquency. Their weight fades over time — a late payment from six years ago counts for far less than one from six months ago — but it does not disappear before then.

Amounts owed — around 30%

Mostly credit utilization: your balances relative to your credit limits, measured both in aggregate and per card. Also the number of accounts carrying a balance, and how much of an installment loan you have paid down.

This is the fastest-moving factor. Unlike payment history, it carries no memory — bring your reported balances down and the effect shows up on the next report update.

Length of credit history — around 15%

The age of your oldest account, the average age across all accounts, and how long since each was used.

You cannot accelerate this. You can avoid damaging it: closing your oldest card removes it from the average once it eventually drops off your report, and opening several new accounts at once pulls the average down immediately.

New credit — around 10%

Applications and recently opened accounts. Each application usually creates a hard inquiry, which can knock a small number of points off and generally stays visible for two years, though most models only count it for one.

Rate shopping is treated differently. Multiple inquiries for the same type of loan — mortgage, auto, student — within a short window are typically counted as one, so comparing lenders on a single loan is not penalized as several applications. Credit card applications do not get that treatment.

Soft inquiries never affect your score. Checking your own credit, a card issuer pre-screening you, an existing lender reviewing your account — none of these count.

Credit mix — around 10%

Whether you handle both revolving credit (cards, lines of credit) and installment credit (auto loans, mortgages, student loans).

This is the lightest factor and the one least worth acting on. Taking out a loan you do not need in order to improve your mix costs you interest to gain a handful of points. Do not.

Things that do not affect your credit score

The order to work in

1. Get current, stay current. Every other action is worth less than this one.
2. Bring reported balances down. The fastest available improvement — try the credit utilization calculator to see what repaying a specific amount does.
3. Stop applying for things. Give new inquiries and new accounts time to age.
4. Read your report and dispute what is wrong. Errors are common, and correcting one can move a score more than months of good behavior.
5. Wait. Age is a factor you can only earn.