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What Makes Up Your Credit Score?
Payment History
Credit payment history determines 35% of a FICO Score. The first thing any lender wants to know is whether you’ve paid past credit accounts on time. This is one of the most important factors in a FICO® Score.
Credit Age
Your credit age plays a role in your final credit score. It consists of factors such as age of oldest credit account, newest credit account, average of all accounts, types of accounts (mortgage, auto loans, etc), and last time each account was used.
Credit Utilization
Your credit utilization is the ratio of the amount of your credit card balances compared to the credit limits you have available. For example, if you have $500 credit balance while your limit is $1000, then your credit utilization is 50%.
Account Mix
Accounts mix (or credit mix) involves different types of accounts that you have, such as revolving accounts, installment accounts, or open accounts. Having a mix of accounts does have an impact on your overall credit score.
Credit Inquiries
When applying for credit, lenders will check your credit score (inquiry), which will impact your credit score depending on your account. A soft inquiry will not affect your score but a hard inquiry on the other hand will.
Credit score range
A Poor Credit Score
If you have a bad / poor credit score then it means you are sitting between the credit score range of 300 to 629, which is were about 22% of Americans are currently sitting. Having a bad credit score does have quite a significant impact on your ability to borrow credit from lenders. Getting anything from an auto loan to an excellent credit card at low interest rates will very difficult to achieve. Auto or home insurance can be higher along with utility deposits that those will higher credit score usually get to skip on will not be likely. Dipping to a bad credit standing usually means you forgot to pay some bills on your credit card or car loan but it isn’t the end of your ability to credit. You can find providers who will be willing to lend and if you continue paying your bills on time your credit can improve over time.
Credit score range
A Fair Credit Score
If you are sitting at fair credit then you are right between bad and good credit. This usually means that you are between the low and mid 600’s. At this credit score range you will have a lot more options available than those with bad credit score ranges. At this point you can start applying for mortgages which typically begin at the score of 620. Auto loans are quite common in this range as well. When it comes to credit cards you begin to have a lot more options as well but not quite to the point where you can enjoy 0% interest rates or high rewards. At this point the most ideal option is to continue to push for a good credit score to open up even more options when it comes to mortgages, loans, credit cards, and more.
Credit score range
A Good Credit Score
A good credit score ranges from 700 to 749 according to the FICO credit range while on a Vantage Score 3.0 you would end up at a B grade. You can check your credit score for free with Credit Sesame to see whether you fall inside the ‘good’ credit range. If you find yourself below the ‘good’ range then you can do several important actions to get yourself back up. First pay your bills on time, watch your balances, don’t go overboard applying for credit, live within your means, mix up your accounts, and finally, look into the future – credit history counts. With a good credit score range you will get a lot of great perks when it comes to applying for credit such as credit cards or loans.
Credit score range
An Excellent Credit Score
If you find yourself sitting at an excellent credit score range then you are on the range of 750 or above according to the FICO range or an A if you are measuring based on the VantageScore 3.0 range. Getting to this position in the credit scale means that your payment history, credit utilization, credit age, credit mix, and inquiries are at the perfect (or excellent) amount. Having excellent credit opens numerous doors to the top credit card offers, best rates of loans, and other offers offered by lenders. This doesn’t mean that you are ‘done’ building your credit, especially if you are on the low end of excellent. It is recommended to continuously improve your credit.

What can hurt your credit score

Hard Credit Inquiries
Checking your credit can affect your score but only if it is a hard credit inquiry. This type of credit check is typically done by creditors when they want to see your entire profile to approve or decline you for a credit application. This is usually a small, temporary decline until you start making payments on your loan.
Loan Default
Defaulting means that you are not keeping up with the terms of your personal or student loan. Some lenders consider your loan in default if you miss one payment, while others allow you to miss a few. Loan defaults remain on your credit history for 7 years and can limit your ability to get new credit at low rates.
Late Payment
Having ANY late payment appear on your credit report will have an impact on your credit score. Other consequences include being charged a late fee and increased interest rates on your account. Keep in mind, not every lender will report to the bureau, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t end up on your file.
Collections
If you miss bill payments, your debt can be sent to a third party that works on behalf of the creditor to collect the amount owed. While having debt sent to collections can negatively impact your score, the severity diminishes over time. Remember: debt collection is federally regulated and you have rights that collection agencies must follow.
Bankruptcy
Filing a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy is common among those who cannot handle their debt and need a way out. The way this impacts your credit score really depends on your current score when you apply for bankruptcy. If you have a good credit score, it will dip quite a bit; if you already had fair or bad credit, the dip won’t be as significant.
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What can help your credit score

Disputing Errors on your Credit Report
The latest FTC report shows that approximately 1 in 4 Americans found at least one significant error on their report. Unfortunately, most people don’t know what to do when they find them. If you spot an error on your credit report, it’s important to file the dispute right away with the correct bureau online and keep following up.
Keep Good Debt
Do not remove debt that has been on your credit report for a while and is in good standing. Leaving good debt and closed accounts is actually good for your credit report. It can help improve your credit score by showing your committment to paying your creditors on time and in full.
Paying Down Debt
Your payment history is the most important factor for your credit score, so you should always try to make full payments on time. If you can’t pay the full amount owing, it’s important to make the minimum payment. This helps improve your credit rating and will eventually open up more doors to lower interest rates and better offers.
Increasing Your Credit Limit
You should always try to use less than 35% of your total available credit. For example, if you have a credit card with a $10,000 limit, you should keep your balance below $3,500 (35%). If you have to make a larger purchase, increasing your credit limit can be a quick and easy way to keep your utilization rate low. For example, by increaseing your credit limit to $15,000 you would be able to spend $5,250 and still maintain 35% utilization.
On-Time Rent Payments
First, ask your landlord if they submit to any of the three major bureaus. Although not every landlord does so, rent can play a role in improving your credit score. Making sure that you are paying your rent on time every month is just as important as paying any bill. Like any late payment, it can show up on your report and negatively impact your credit score.
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Credit Report vs. Credit Score:
What’s the Difference?
FREE Credit Report FREE Credit Score
What is it? Your credit report is a summary of all of your credit history over time. Your credit score is a formula used by bureaus to determine how creditworthy you are.
Where can you get it? You can get your report with Credit Sesame or with a major credit bureau. You can get your credit score from Credit Sesame or other places such as myFico.
What kind of information does it show?
  • Name, address, and social security number
  • Types of credit you use
  • Dates of new credit lines
  • Balances & available credit
  • Accounts that are in collections
  • Any recent credit
  • Information related to bankruptcy, tax liens, and court judgements
  • The amount of debt you owe
  • The length of your credit history
  • What your credit mix is made up of
  • New credit
Who uses which? Your creditor will typically do a hard credit inquiry to see if there is risk to giving you credit. Your utility or phone company will do a soft credit inquiry before making a decision if you have to make a downpayment or not.
How often do credit scores change?
Example Timeline of
Credit Score Changes
More often than not, changes to your credit score will occur in
increments. Typically, you will only see changes of a few points each
month. Even though your credit score looks like it stays pretty
consistent month to month, it can add up to big changes over time.
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Starting to Improve
Your Credit Score
When you open a new line of credit, a few immediate changes are usually made to your credit report. Most instantly, a new hard inquiry will probably be added to your report, and your average age of credit history could drop. Due to these factors, opening a new account is likely to drop your credit score in the short term. However, as you begin to diligently pay off your bills, the additional on-time payments, the higher number of total accounts and your now-growing age of credit history will likely outweigh the initial downsides, and your score can benefit in the long term.
Credit Myths
Credit Myths
Checking your credit hurts
your credit score
Checking your own credit NEVER hurts your score. A self-check is a “soft
inquiry” and does not impact your credit. Other types of credit checks are
also harmless. When you receive a pre-screened credit card offer in the
mail, that’s the result of a soft inquiry. When an employer checks your
credit, also a soft inquiry.
No credit cards = the best
credit score possible
Unless you use credit, the bureaus have no basis for calculating a credit
score. Some alternative credit scores are calculated for people with
limited history with credit products. Those scores examine the consumer’s
history with utility bills, cell phone bills, rent payments and so on. But a top
score is only available for consumers who have had and used credit
products. Simply put, a cash-only lifestyle is great for the budget, but not
for your credit score.
Only some unpaid bills show up
on a credit report
Unfortunately, some bills don’t help you build credit even when you pay on time every month. Cell phones, utilities, rent and medical bills usually fall into that category. Let that account go delinquent, however, and it’s a different story. Even if a creditor doesn’t report your delinquent account directly, if your account is turned over to a collection agency you can bet it’ll show up on your credit report. The threat of bad credit is one way they try to motivate you to pay up.
Paying off debt cleans up
a credit report automatically
While it’s a great strategy to pay debt off and take care of those unpaid
bills, don’t assume that settling up those unpaid bills will automatically
clean up your credit history. Your credit report shows positive and
negative accounts, including collection accounts, discharges, late
payments and bankruptcies some of which can be on your report for up to
ten years.
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We’ve got answers!

Credit is simply the ability for a consumer to be able to borrow money in order to purchase a product or service. You can get credit from a grantor (for example, from a bank), to whom you will need to pay back the full amount and possible interest charges that might add up over the period of time. There are four different types of credit starting with revolving credit, charge card, service credit, and installment credit. When you get credit and pay it back on time your credit rating improves over time and allows you the opportunity to borrow more from grantors. You have several credit scores you can check from the three top credit bureaus to see where your stand in the range. Check your credit often to see where you stand..

The most popular credit scoring system in the United States is based on the FICO (Fair Isaac Corp.) range. This scoring range starts at 300 as the poorest score and goes up to 850 as the highest range possible, or excellent credit. Specifically, bad credit ranges from 300 to 629, fair credit ranges from 630 to 689, good credit ranges from 690 to 719, and finally, excellent credit which ranges from 720 and to 850. Other popular credit score range formulas exist, such as the VantageScore, which is what TransUnion, our credit score provider uses. It too ranges from 300 to 850. Checking your credit score with Credit Sesame is easy and can be done every month to see how your credit is performing.

Checking your credit score is quite easy with Credit Sesame and can be done in 90 seconds. You can do a free credit check once a month with a basic account or get daily free credit checks with a premium account. Once you open your new account you will get an instant credit check from TransUnion, using VantageScore 3.0, which has their own way to calculate credit scores. Other credit score models include the FICO score, which uses a different methodology to calculate your credit. You can use our reports to determine the types of accounts you have open, your credit utilization, and many other important metrics that you need to know in order to understand where you stand on the credit range. This will help you determine your financial health.

When you check your credit score for free with Credit Sesame it makes no impact on your credit score since it is a soft credit check, not a hard credit check. When doing a soft credit check you are only pulling your credit score to view how you are performing, not because you are applying for a loan or other type of credit that you are hoping to get approved for. You do a free credit check online as many times as you like (at a cost if done more than once monthly) and it will not affect your credit standing. If you plan on applying for a loan, then you are saying that the lender can “check my credit” to see if you can be approved. This type of inquiry will affect your credit score.

A Credit Privacy Number (CPN) is a 9 digit number that is free and legal to get depending on how you use it. You will commonly find high-level business or government officials and members using this number that allows them to protect personal information for security reasons. You still need to have a social security number, as the CPN number is not a replacement for it. This number is used for business purposes that can allow a business to build credit, while not affecting in any way your current or past credit history. You will still rely on your credit score for personal use and it will determine you ability to get loans and other types of credit once you apply for it.

There are only certain factors that can affect your credit score. Some of those factors are your payment history, credit utilization rate, credit age, account types, and the amount of credit inquiries you have on your account. More importantly, it also matters that type of inquiries that occurred. If it was a simple soft credit check, that Credit Sesame performs, your credit will not be affected. On the other hand, if you have had a hard credit inquiry, for example applying for a loan, will slowly reduce your credit score. Typically, the reduction in your credit score will be minor and rebounds afterwards.

Everyone begins with a blank slate, without any records or credit score. If you do not have any data on your consumer report you cannot have a credit score since there is nothing to calculate. The credit bureaus will begin collecting your data at the age of 18 if you begin to borrow credit. This means what when you are getting your credit card or loan you will have to go to banks or other lenders that will approve those with no credit history – usually meaning you will end up paying high interest rates. The lender will pull your credit score and find nothing upon credit request. If you are approved and pay you wills on time the lender will typically report it to the bureau.

Credit Sesame will give you your free credit score once a month based on the VantageScore. You can check your credit score everyday but it will cost you. Typically, your credit score will gradually improve over time, so it is best to check on occassion to see a much more significant improvement or decline. If you do choose to check your credit score often you do not have to worry about it affecting your credit score. There are two types of credit inquiries that can happen. Hard inquiries are the types of credit checks that can impact your credit score slightly and is usually done by a creditor. While soft credit checks will not impact your credit score.

1 Sesame Cash is a prepaid debit card issued by Community Federal Savings Bank (CFSB). Building credit with Sesame Cash requires you to also open a virtual secured credit card with CFSB that is reported to the credit bureaus. Use money from your Sesame Cash account to create a virtual secured credit card. Your debit card purchases are then added up to create a balance on your virtual secured credit card. As you make these purchases, an amount equal to the balance on your virtual secured credit card is also set aside in your Sesame Cash account to ensure you can make timely payments to pay off the balance on your virtual secured credit card at the end of each month, allowing you to build a positive payment history. Credit Sesame does not guarantee credit score improvement. Any predicted credit improvement from the use of your virtual secured credit card assumes that you will maintain healthy credit habits, including paying bills on time, keeping credit balances low, avoiding unnecessary inquiries, appropriate financial planning, and more.

2 Cash back offers are powered by Empyr, Inc. and Button, Inc. Cash back requires the activation of any active offer before payment is made. Offers vary by geographic location and are subject to change. Please review the full program terms for more details.

3 This is a limited time offer. To be eligible for cash rewards, a minimum deposit, every 30 days, must be made into your Sesame Cash account. Rewards earnings are available for credit score improvements of ten points or more within a 30-day reward cycle. Improvements are calculated from your baseline credit score, as determined by Credit Sesame. Please review the full program terms for more details, including the minimum deposit amount for this program term.