| The Fair Isaac and Company, FICO, uses a number of | | | | relation to their balances, number of zero balances, and |
| indices to compute your score. There are basically five | | | | how much of your revolving credit lines you have |
| indices FICO uses to calculate a score based on your | | | | used. |
| financial activities. They are: your payment history, | | | | The length of your history is another factor the |
| amounts you owe, length of your credit history and | | | | bureaus consider in generating your score. They use |
| types of accounts used. | | | | the length of time since accounts were opened, the |
| Your payment history is a major decider of what your | | | | length of time since the last activity, the duration of |
| score will be. This is because it makes up 35 percent | | | | good financial activity. All of these account for 15 |
| of your total score. In grading your performance in this | | | | percent of your total score. |
| aspect, bureaus look at the number of accounts you | | | | The type of credit used is another decider on what |
| paid as agreed to creditors, collections, and | | | | your final score is. The bureaus take use the total |
| delinquencies such as late payments. | | | | number of accounts and the types of credits you |
| The amounts you owe is another big piece of the pie. | | | | have to compute your scores. This makes 10 percent |
| It accounts for 30 percent of your score. This means | | | | of your score. |
| your payment history and the amounts you owe | | | | New accounts make up the final 10 percent of your |
| together account for about two-thirds of your score. | | | | score. The number of new accounts and inquiries, |
| That is 65 percent. What the bureaus want to see in | | | | duration since the last opened account and inquiries |
| this aspect are: how much you owe and the type of | | | | are all used to compute this 10 percent. |
| accounts, amounts you owe on installment accounts in | | | | |