Will This Affect My Credit Score? Find Out What's NOT Included. | myFICO (2024)

FAQs

What is included not included in determining your credit score? ›

However, they do not consider: Your race, color, religion, national origin, sex and marital status. US law prohibits credit scoring from considering these facts, as well as any receipt of public assistance, or the exercise of any consumer right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Your age.

You can get your free credit report from Annual Credit Report. That is the only free place to get your report. You can get it online: AnnualCreditReport.com, or by phone: 1-877-322-8228.

Your credit report won't, however, list your gender, race, religion, citizenship, political affiliation, medical history, or criminal records (unless you were convicted of a crime related to your finances, e.g. bank fraud).

The most important factor of your FICO Score is your payment history, which makes up 35% of your score. Here's what other factors matter. What Is a Credit Utilization Rate? Your credit utilization rate is the percentage of your revolving accounts' balances that you're using.

Your payment history on loan and credit accounts can play a prominent role in calculating credit scores. Even one late payment on a credit card account or loan can result in a credit score decrease, depending on the scoring model used. In addition, late payments remain on your Equifax credit report for seven years.

The types of bills that affect your credit scores are those that are reported to the national credit bureaus. This includes consumer debts and unpaid bills turned over to collections. If you use Experian Boost, eligible recurring payments could also help credit scores based on your Experian credit report.

Factors that contribute to a higher credit score include a history of on-time payments, low balances on your credit cards, a mix of different credit card and loan accounts, older credit accounts, and minimal inquiries for new credit.

Highlights: Checking your credit reports or credit scores will not impact credit scores. Regularly checking your credit reports and credit scores is a good way to ensure information is accurate. Hard inquiries in response to a credit application do impact credit scores.

Since hard inquiries affect your credit score and what is found may even affect approval, you might be wondering: How many inquiries is too many? The answer differs from lender to lender, but most consider six total inquiries on a report at one time to be too many to gain approval for an additional credit card or loan.

Your credit report does not include your marital status, medical information, buying habits or transactional data, income, bank account balances, criminal records or level of education. It also doesn't include your credit score.

Where is the best place to check your credit score? ›

You can start by going to the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion first by logging on to AnnualCreditReport.com to check your report for free. Each agency gives you access to your report once every 12 months. 4 You'll have to pay them if you want your credit score.

Using more of your credit card balance than usual — even if you pay on time — can reduce your score until a new, lower balance is reported the following month. Closed accounts and lower credit limits can also result in lower scores even if your payment behavior has not changed.

Various weighted factors mean that even with no credit, your credit score could still be low because the length of your credit history or credit mix, for example, could also be low.

1. Payment History: 35% Your payment history carries the most weight in factors that affect your credit score, because it reveals whether you have a history of repaying funds that are loaned to you.

Factors that don't affect your credit score

Rent and utility payments: In most cases, your rent payments and your utility payments are not reported to the credit bureaus, so they do not count toward your score. The exception is if you use a rent-reporting service or if you are late on utility payments.

Factors Not Included in a Credit Score

These include an individual's age, ethnicity, and gender. Financial-related information that is not part of a credit score is a person's salary, job, and employment history.

Credit score calculations do not consider requests a creditor has made for your credit report for a preapproved credit offer, or periodic reviews of your credit report by lenders and creditors you have an existing account with. Checking your own credit also doesn't affect credit scores.

These elements help lenders assess risk and make decisions regarding the extension of credit. Factors such as race, gender, and religion are not considered in credit scoring to ensure fairness. Mistakes on your credit report do not permanently affect your score, and you have the opportunity to improve it over time.