Don’t be discouraged from seeing all of those percentages; view them as reference for how each is weighted from one another. Payment History is by far the most important (we will talk about getting late payments deleted later on). How much credit can you spend right now versus how much you have spent is a metric to judge risk (we will discuss the best ratio later on). The other pieces are relatively self-explanatory. Length of Credit History is just that, how long you’ve had certain pieces of credit. Credit Mix is the… mix of credit you have, such as credit cards, installment loans, and other types of credit. New Credit is there to weigh how recently you’ve acquired a new piece of credit.

Given we now know what is roughly used to judge us as potential clients for these financial institutions, let’s discuss what a credit profile is. For example, in football, how many touchdowns you have is just as important as how many the other team has scored. In credit terms, there are pieces of credit that give and take; you want more give than take so your scores will rise. Yes, you may have some late payments but your Amounts Owed is sitting at a great ratio, thus more is given than taken. This is a simplification but helps you understand that a credit profile is the result of what gives and what takes. A positive credit profile, like in the previous example, is one that gives more than takes.