Credit Scores: What Actually Moves the Number
beginner A credit score is a single number — 300 to 850 — that lenders use to price your risk. It's built from five factors with fixed weights, and almost everyone gets the priorities backwards. Payment history (35%) and credit utilization (30%) are two-thirds of the score; credit mix and new credit are 10% each. The simulator draws the five factors as one bar where width is how much a factor matters and fill is how well you're doing — so you can see, not just be told, that paying on time and keeping balances low is most of the game.