My Credit Score. And More.

A credit score is a three-digit number calculated to indicate your creditworthiness. The higher the score, the more creditworthy you are to a lender. A credit score is calculated from the information in your credit report and considers your on-time payments, the length of your payment history, your mix of different types of credit accounts, and other such factors. It is important to know that your score does not take your age, income, employment, marital status, or your bank account balances into account.

You can learn more about credit scores and scoring models from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

A credit report is a record of your credit history collected by credit reporting agencies. It includes information such as mortgage payments, credit card balances, loan payments, and accounts in collections. It also shows:

• A list of lenders and loan amounts or credit limits
• Your payment history
• Recent credit inquiries (past 2 years)
• Current and past addresses and employers
• Public records, like bankruptcies

By law, you can get one free credit report per year from each major credit bureau. Visit annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228 to request yours. Learn more at consumerfinance.gov.

A good score may mean you have easier access to more credit and lower interest rates. The consumer benefits of a good credit score go beyond the obvious. For example, underwriting processes that use credit scores allow consumers to obtain credit much more quickly than in the past.

Five major categories make up a credit score:

1. 40% Payment History - Essentially, lenders want to know whether you’re good about paying your loans on time.
2. 23% Credit Usage - Also known as credit utilization, is the ratio between the total credit used and your total credit limit on your revolving accounts. It is best to keep your credit usage below 30%.
3. 21% Credit Age - The average of your oldest open credit accounts to your newest open credit accounts determines your credit age. In general, the longer your credit history the better, particularly accounts with a good payment history and no late payments.
4. 11% Credit Mix - It’s important to have a mix of different types of credit like revolving credit and installment loans. Your score will likely be higher if you have a good payment history with both, installment loans, like student loans and mortgages, and revolving credit, like credit cards.
5. 5% Inquiries - Any time you apply for a credit card, or a lender checks your credit for a loan, it’s known as an inquiry. Hard inquiries show on your credit report when your credit is pulled by a lender for a car loan, mortgage, or credit card. However, soft inquiries don’t show on your credit report and occur when you check your credit, or a lender pre-approves you for an offer. Applying for several credit cards or opening multiple credit accounts in a short period creates hard inquiries and could signal an increased credit risk to a lender.

To place a credit freeze on your credit profile, you must contact each of the three major credit bureaus:

• TransUnion - Phone: (888) 909-8872 / Web: Credit Freeze | Freeze My Credit
• Equifax - Phone: (888) 298-0045 / Web: Security Freeze | Freeze or Unfreeze Your Credit Equifax®
• Experian - Phone: (888) 397-3742 / Web: Security Freeze | Experian

You must contact the three major credit bureaus to unfreeze your credit profile. Each bureau has a different process, but each will initially provide you with a PIN to unfreeze your profile.

There are several ways to improve your credit score. However, it’s much more important to focus on improving what’s in your credit report rather than over your credit score. Here are some quick tips to help:

• Pay Your Bills on Time, Every Month. Payment history is the largest factor in your credit score.
• Apply for Credit Only When You Need It. Try not to open too many accounts too frequently. These frequent inquiries can ding your credit.
• Keep Your Outstanding Balances Low. Keep balances below 30 percent of the credit limit on each of your revolving accounts.
• Reduce Your Total Debt. It is not necessarily bad to have debt as long as it’s manageable. Too much debt at high interest rates can get out of hand if a financial emergency comes up. Consider paying down some of your outstanding loans.
• Build Up Credit History. Maintaining a timely payment history for a mix of accounts (e.g. credit cards, auto, mortgage) over a long period can improve your score.

If you find information that you believe is not correct on your credit report, contact the company that issued the account or the credit reporting company that issued the report. You can dispute any inaccuracies found on your TransUnion credit report by navigating to the bottom of the SavvyMoney Credit Report and clicking “dispute”.

For more information visit consumerfinance.gov.