FICO® Scores consider a wide range of information on your credit report. However, they do not consider:
Your credit score is one of the most important factors lenders consider when deciding whether to approve you for a loan or credit card. It gives them an idea of how reliably you have repaid debt in the past and how likely you are to repay new debt
Many people worry that certain actions may hurt their credit scores. However, there are quite a few factors that actually have no direct impact on your score Knowing what does NOT affect your credit can help relieve anxiety about harmless behaviors
Here are 10 things that do not affect your credit score
1. Checking Your Own Credit Report
Soft inquiries that you initiate to check your own credit report do not impact your score at all. You can check your credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion as often as you want without hurting your credit.
In fact, checking your credit report regularly can help you catch identity theft or errors early. Monitoring your credit is smart financial practice.
2. Changes in Income
Your income level or source of income is not factored into your credit score calculations. Whether you receive a pay raise, pay cut, go on unemployment, or change jobs does not directly change your credit.
Of course, a significant loss of income could affect your ability to pay bills on time. Late payments will damage your credit score. But the income change itself does not.
3. Personal Details Like Marital Status
Details like your race, marital status, age, and education are not included in your credit reports. Therefore, changes to these personal factors cannot influence your credit score.
For example, getting married, divorced, or having a birthday does not help or hurt your credit.
4. Being Denied for Credit
Simply being denied when you apply for a new credit card or loan does not directly hurt your credit score beyond the hard inquiry. Credit reports do not show whether an application was approved or denied.
5. Paying With Debit Instead of Credit
Using a debit card, prepaid card, or cash for purchases does not build your credit history. However, it also does not damage your credit like missing payments on a credit card could.
6. Shopping Around for the Best Rates
When you rate shop for a mortgage, auto loan, or other major financing within a short window of time, credit scoring models generally treat these inquiries as a single hard inquiry.
Shopping around for the best rates will barely impact your score, if at all. It’s absolutely worth doing.
7. Paying Bills That Don’t Report to Credit Bureaus
If a company does not report your payment history to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, then your history with them cannot influence your credit score.
For example, paying your landlord, a local daycare, or a babysitter on time cannot boost your credit if they don’t report your payments.
8. Authorized User Accounts
Being added as an authorized user on someone else’s credit card does not hurt your credit. You are not responsible for the primary cardholder’s payment history.
However, if the primary user is delinquent on payments, it could damage your score. Only make someone an authorized user if you completely trust them.
9. Getting Married
Spouses may open joint accounts after marriage, but their credit reports remain separate. Your spouse’s credit cannot directly help or hurt your credit score. You both maintain individual credit histories.
10. Paying Someone Else’s Bills
If you kindly pay off a friend or family member’s credit card bill, it will not boost your credit score. Account payment history only impacts the primary account holder’s credit report.
While these 10 factors have no direct impact on your credit score, there are plenty of behaviors that can drastically help or harm your credit. The most important things you can do to maintain excellent credit are:
- Pay all bills on time with no late payments
- Keep credit card balances low
- Limit hard inquiries from new credit applications
- Maintain a mix of credit types like revolving and installment loans
- Avoid collections accounts and bankruptcies
By monitoring your credit report frequently, you can catch any negative items or errors and address them promptly. Keeping tabs on your credit will also give you peace of mind that no identity thieves are damaging your reputation.
Focus on maintaining good financial habits, and you will see your credit score rise steadily over time. Pay no mind to the myths about actions that supposedly hurt your credit but really have no impact at all.
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FICO® Scores consider a wide range of information on your credit report. However, they do not consider:
- Your race, color, religion, national origin, sex and marital status. US law prohibits credit scoring from considering these facts, as well as any receipt of public assistance, or the exercise of any consumer right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act.
- Your age. Other types of scores may consider your age, but FICO Scores dont.
- Your salary, occupation, title, employer, date employed or employment history. Lenders may consider this information, however, as may other types of scores.
- Where you live.
- Any interest rate being charged on a particular credit card or other account.
- Any items reported as child/family support obligations. Child support and family support accounts do not impact your FICO Score because these accounts are bypassed from the score calculation.
- Certain types of inquiries (requests for your credit report). Your scores do not count “consumer-initiated” inquiries – requests you have made for your credit report, in order to check it. They also do not count “promotional inquiries” – requests made by lenders in order to make you a “pre-approved” credit offer – or “administrative inquiries” – requests made by lenders to review your account with them. Requests that are marked as coming from employers are not counted either.
- Any information not found in your credit report.
- Non-bankruptcy public records. Bankrupty public records are the only public records that appear on credit reports, and therefore the only public records that impact FICO Scores. Tax liens, civil judgments, and any other non-bankruptcy public records no longer appear on credit reports and therefore do not impact your FICO Score.
- Any information that is not proven to be predictive of future credit performance.
- Whether or not you are participating in a credit counseling of any kind.
How To Fix A BAD Credit Score ASAP
FAQ
Which of the following does not affect your credit score?
Therefore, the correct answer is B. Income level, as it does not directly influence your credit score.Oct 21, 2024
What will not affect your credit score?
Paying with a debit card
Using a debit card, rather than a credit card, to pay for items typically won’t impact your credit history or credit scores. When you pay with a credit card, you’re essentially borrowing the funds to pay back later. With a debit card, you’re using money you already have in an account.
What doesn’t affect credit score?
Information related to accounts, like your payment history and balances, can impact your credit score, along with recent credit applications or negative items like collections or bankruptcies. It’s important to know that your personal information does not affect your credit score.
Which factor will not affect your credit score?
… The following factors also do not impact your credit score: age, child support/alimony payments, utility/rent/cell phone payments, and bank overdrafts