Understanding your credit can be difficult, so we’re starting a series to break it down for you. First up, we’ll look at the five main factors that affect your credit score.
Payment history affects your score the most, taking into account on-time payments, overdue payments, past bankruptcies, etc.
Debt to credit ratio deals with the amount of credit you’ve used versus how much credit you have available to you, and it’s the second biggest part of calculating your credit score.
Credit history is another piece of your score. This focuses on how long you’ve had accounts open and how long they’ve been active and in good standing.
New credit includes your recently opened accounts, those in proportion to your total number of accounts, number of recent credit inquiries, and any positive credit you’ve reestablished.
The final part of determining your credit score is the type of credit you have, whether it’s a Arvest Visa personal credit card, a retail account, mortgage, or something else.
For the next episode in our “Understanding Your Credit” series, we’ll give you some tips for taking care of your credit.
Loans subject to credit approval. Member FDIC