Credit Score

How Your Score is Generated

The three main credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion generate your credit reports with scoring models ranging from 300-850. Your score will never factor in personal information like your race, gender, religion, marital status or national origin.

There are different scoring models but they all generally consider similar factors to calculate your scores, such as:

Payment history: (35 percent) -- Your account payment information, including any delinquencies and public records.
Amounts owed: (30 percent) -- How much you owe on your accounts. The amount of available credit used on revolving accounts is heavily weighted.
Length of credit history: (15 percent) -- How long ago you opened accounts and time since account activity.
Types of credit used: (10 percent) -- The mix of accounts you have, such as revolving and installment.
New credit: (10 percent) -- Your pursuit of new credit, including credit inquiries and the number of recently opened accounts.

The bottom line: Your scores may vary, but they're all based on the information in your credit reports.

Checking your reports regularly can help you see what's impacting your score so you know where you could improve. Financial scams can also wreck your Credit Score.

How Credit Card Balances Affect Your Score

Try to keep your credit card balances of 25% of the limit to help your credit utilization.

Use automatic payment options (for at least the minimum payment) so that your payments are always on time.

Stick to 1-2 new credit lines each year.

Never "round down" a payment.

Check your Credit Score at least once a year to make sure credit is healthy.

Get your free annual report at www.AnnualCreditReport.com

Budgeting

There are many online free budgeting tools. Be sure to check out ours by logging into Home Banking and clicking on the Budgeting Tools Tab.

We recommend the 50/30/20 Rule in Budgeting. 50% of your income goes to fixed costs, 30% to flexible spending, and 20% to financial goals (or wants). Jot down your items and see how close you are to 50/30/20.