What a credit score actually is

A credit score is a number between 300 and 850 that lenders use to guess how likely you are to pay back money. It is not a measure of how responsible you are, and it says nothing about your income or savings.

Roughly 35% of the score comes from paying on time and 30% from how much of your available credit you are using. Together those two things decide most of the number.

Scores move slowly on the way up and quickly on the way down. One missed payment can cost more points than a year of perfect ones adds.