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.

If you're curious about which entries on a credit report will decrease your credit score, the biggest culprits are late payments, missed payments, collection accounts, foreclosure proceedings, and bankruptcy filings.

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).

However, one category that is not included in determining a credit score is personal or demographic Information. This includes age, race, gender, employment, salary, marital status, where you live, or your level of education. These factors are excluded by law and do not affect your creditworthiness.

Making debt payments on time every month benefits your credit scores more than any other single factor—and just one payment made 30 days late can do significant harm to your scores. An account sent to collections, a foreclosure or a bankruptcy can have even deeper, longer-lasting consequences.

A soft credit inquiry, also called a soft credit check or soft pull, is usually done by you or another authorized person, like an employer. Soft credit inquiries don't affect your credit score because you're not actually applying for credit, and these types of inquiries don't necessarily require your permission.

Not paying your bills on time or using most of your available credit are things that can lower your credit score. Keeping your debt low and making all your minimum payments on time helps raise credit scores. Information can remain on your credit report for seven to 10 years.

If you've ever wondered what the highest credit score you can have is, it's 850. That's at the top end of the most common FICO® and VantageScore® credit scores. And these two companies provide some of the most popular credit-scoring models in America.

What shows up on a full credit report? ›

Your credit report includes details about your credit history, including the number of credit accounts you have open, as well as closed accounts; your history of on-time and delinquent payments; accounts that are in collections; the number of times you have applied for credit; and more.

The length of time it will take to improve your credit scores depends on your unique financial situation. At the earliest, you may see a change between 30 and 45 days after you have taken steps to positively impact your credit reports.

FICO scores consider a wide range of information on your credit report. However, they do not consider: Your race, color, religion, national origin, sex and marital status.

Answer. The number of places you have lived is not a factor used to determine your credit score. Credit scores are calculated based on payment history, outstanding balances, credit history length, new credit applications, and credit mix.

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.

Interest rates and annual percentage rates (APRs) on your credit accounts aren't factors used to calculate credit scores, but late or missed payments on those accounts can hurt your credit scores.

In general, the majority of your monthly payments to various service providers won't be reported to the bureaus. Common monthly bills that have no direct impact on your credit score: Utilities (gas, water, and electric service) Insurance payments (auto, renter and homeowner insurance, etc.)

While credit transactions do affect a person's credit score, you may be surprised to learn that these personal factors are not credit score components and don't affect your credit score: Age. Marital status. Income.