Posted by Rex Dixon :: June 19, 2007 @ 7:40 pm

If you are interested in a more complete understanding of what factors into your FICO score, you might want to look at this page that explains it all. We will go over them.

Payment History – 35% of your score depends on this. This means, have you paid on time consistently. It is very important to have a solid track record of on-time payments. Late payments and bankruptcies will hurt your score.

Amounts owed – 30% of your score depends on how much you owe. The more you owe, in relation to your credit limit, the lower your score will be.

Length of credit history – 15% of your score depends on this. Note that even if you don’t have a long credit history, if you are responsible with your credit you can have a decent score.

New credit – This makes up 10% of your score, but if you don’t need the additional credit, it is probably a wise choice to save your money and your credit score.

Types of credit used – Again, this only makes up 10% of your score, but it is a component of the overall FICO score. It is good to balance the types of credit that you have between credit cards, installment loans, auto loans, and others.

One thing that you didn’t see above is anything about race, color, religion, national origin, sex, and marital status, and whether you receive public assistance or exercise any right under the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act or the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Interestingly, income is not factored into your FICO either.

Note that Lending Club has a minimum FICO requirement of 640. The average FICO score in America is 723 and about 75% of Americans will meet our minimum.