All about your Credit Score ~ Financial Fruits

For the next few weeks I'll be posting blogs focussed on helping you better understand your credit report, credit score and providing you with tips and tools to help you improve your credit health.

I figure you need to understand the makeup of a thing before you can even begin to work on it. To that end, this post is all about the basics of your score.

What are the minimum requirements for a credit score?

You must have the following in order for the credit bureau to figure your credit score:

At least one account that has been open for six months or more
At least one undisputed account that has been reported to the credit bureau within the past six months
No indication of deceased on the credit report (Please note: if you share an account with another person this may affect you if the other account holder is reported deceased).

Your score only looks at information in your credit report

Payment history (35%)

Pay your bills on time.
Get current with missed payments.
Understand that paying off or closing a delinquent won't remove it from your report.
Contact your creditors or a credit counselor if you're having trouble.

Amounts owed (30%)

Keep balances low.
Pay off debt rather then moving it around.
Don't close unused credit cards.
Don't open unneeded credit accounts.

Length of credit history (15%)

Depending on how the rest of your credit report looks, having a longer credit history will increase your credit score.

how long your credit accounts have been established, including the age of your oldest account, the age of your newest account and an average age of all your accounts
how long specific credit accounts have been established
how long it has been since you used certain accounts

Types of credit in use (10%)

Apply for and open only need accounts.
Manage your debt responsibly.
Remember that closing an account doesn't make it go away.

New credit (10%)

Shop for a loan within a focused period of time.
Re-establish your credit history if you've had problems.
Check your credit report.
Don't open new accounts too quickly if you're new to credit

Use the below infographic to help you get started on giving your credit score a tune-up, whether your credit is already pretty good, or needs a serious makeover.