It's football season, but one score that's important year round is the Fair Isaac Credit Score ("FICO").
A consumer's FICO score is based on five different percentages, as follows:
Thirty five percent of the score is based on payment history. So, if a consumer misses a payment or two in any given year, it can gravely affect his/her score.
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FICO
News 8's Paul Brown sits down with the Finance Guy to see what credit scores are based on.
 
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Thirty percent of the score is based on a consumer's various credit limits and how much credit he/she is actually using. For example, if the consumer has a $1,000 credit limit and is using $999.99, then this will affect his/her score negatively. Instead, it is better to have a couple of pieces of credit with fewer limits used than to use many credit limits to the maximum.
Fifteen percent of the score is based on the length of time that the consumer has held the accounts.
Ten percent of the score depends on weighting and the kind of credit a consumer has. For instance, gasoline cards that are paid off monthly don't represent as important a score as bank credit cards that revolve and are paid off monthly.
The remaining 10 percent of the score is based on the number of credit inquiries a consumer has. If he/she is applying for credit with numerous companies, these companies will make credit inquiries regarding the consumer, which could negatively affect his/her score.
Credit reports can be downloaded free of charge from www.annualcreditreport.com. For an additional fee of $15, consumers can also get their FICO scores.
Another good resource for consumers to find out all about their FICO scores is myfico.com.
Karen Bloomenthal, with the Wall Street Journal, also wrote a related article called "Credit Scores: What You Need to Know Now."
