Your Credit Score with SavvyMoney

A credit score is a three-digit number calculated to indicate your creditworthiness. The higher the score, the more creditworthy you are to a lender. A credit score is calculated from the information in your credit report and considers your on-time payments, the length of your payment history, your mix of different types of credit accounts, and other such factors. It is important to know that your score does not take your age, income, employment, marital status, or your bank account balances into account.

No. SavvyMoney is entirely free to the user, and no credit card information is required to register.

No. Viewing your score through SavvyMoney is considered a soft inquiry, which does not affect your credit rating.

Credit scores are calculated using information from your credit report. The most common factors include:

• 40% Payment History
  Essentially, lenders want to know whether you’re good about paying your loans on time.
• 23% Credit Usage
  Credit usage, also known as credit utilization, is the ratio between the total credit used and your total credit limit on your revolving accounts. It is best to keep your credit usage below 30%.
• 21% Credit Age
  The average of your oldest open credit accounts to your newest open credit accounts determines your credit age. In general, the longer your credit history the better, particularly accounts with a good payment history and no late payments.
• 11% Credit Mix
  It’s important to have a mix of different types of credit like revolving credit and installment loans. Your score will likely be higher if you have a good payment history with both, installment loans, like student loans and mortgages, and revolving credit, like credit cards.
• 5% Inquiries
  Any time you apply for a credit card, or a lender checks your credit for a loan, it’s known as an inquiry. Hard inquiries show on your credit report when your credit is pulled by a lender for a car loan, mortgage, or credit card. However, soft inquiries don’t show on your credit report and occur when you check your credit, or a lender pre-approves you for an offer.Applying for several credit cards or opening multiple credit accounts in a short period creates hard inquiries and could signal an increased credit risk to a lender.

There are several ways to improve your credit score. However, it’s much more important to focus on improving what’s in your credit report rather than over your credit score. Here are some quick tips to help:

• Pay Your Bills on Time, Every Month. Payment history is the largest factor in your credit score.
• Apply for Credit Only When You Need It. Try not to open too many accounts too frequently. These frequent inquiries can ding your credit.
• Keep Your Outstanding Balances Low. Keep balances below 30 percent of the credit limit on each of your revolving accounts.
• Reduce Your Total Debt. It is not necessarily bad to have debt as long as it’s manageable. Too much debt at high interest rates can get out of hand if a financial emergency comes up. Consider paying down some of your outstanding loans.
• Build Up Credit History. Maintaining a timely payment history for a mix of accounts (e.g. credit cards, auto, mortgage) over a long period can improve your score.