Golden Road Credit Services Inc.

Credit scores are calculated using a lot of different information, positive and negative, in your credit report. This data can be grouped into five categories:

 

 

Payment History

• Account payment information on specific types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts, mortgage, etc.)
• Presence of adverse public records (bankruptcy, judgments, suits, liens, wage attachments, etc.), collection items, and/or delinquencies (past due items)
• Severity of delinquencies (how long past due)
• Amount past due on delinquent accounts or collection items
• Time since delinquency, adverse public records, or collection items.
• Number of past due items on file
• Number of accounts paid as agreed

Amounts Owed

• Amount owing on accounts
• Amount owing on specific types of accounts
• Lack of a specific type of balances
• Number of accounts with balances
• Proportion of credit lines used (percentage of balance versus total credit limits on certain types of revolving accounts)
• Proportion of installment loan amounts still owing (proportion of balance to original loan amount on certain types of installment loans)

Length of Credit History

• Time since accounts opened
• Time since specific types of account opened
• Time since account activity

New Credit

• Number of recently opened accounts, and proportion of accounts that are recently opened, by type of account
• Number of recent credit inquiries
• Time since recent account openings, by type of account
• Time since credit inquiries
• Re-establishment of positive credit history following past payment problems

Types of Credit Used

• Number of (presence, prevalence, and recent information on) various types of accounts (credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage, consumer finance accounts, etc.)

Please note that:

• A score takes into consideration all these categories of information, not just one or two.
  No single piece of information or factor alone will determine your score.
• The importance of any factor depends on the overall information in your credit report.
  For some people, a given factor may be more important than for someone else with a different credit history. In addition, as the information in your credit report changes, so does the importance of any factor in determining your score. Thus, it's impossible to say exactly how important any single factor is in determining your score. What's important is the mix of information, which varies from person to person, and for any one person over time.
• Your credit score only looks at information in your credit report.
  However, lenders look at many things when making a credit decision including your income, how long you have worked at your present job and the kind of credit you are requesting.
• Your score considers both positive and negative information in your credit report.
  Late payments will lower your score, but establishing or re-establishing a good track record of making payments on time will raise your score.