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Anatomy of Your Credit Score

  • Published By
  • Last Updated

    April 19th 2024

Understanding what hurts or improves your credit score is a great starting point to improving your financial fitness.

So, what makes up your credit score?

While the exact breakdown is not always clear, Credit Reporting Bureaus CRB such as Equifax have provided the general weightings that go towards a credit score.

10% – Length of your credit history, and personal information

10% – Adverse events e.g defaults

30% – Repayment history over the last 2 years

50% – Number of credit enquiries in the last 5 years

Personal info

Personal information that goes into your credit score is not so much about what Netflix shows you watch, but more about an individual’s details which may be used to correlate to a risk rating. Personal details like age and postcode and how old your credit file is, also plays a part in your credit score.

Adverse events

If you go bankrupt or default on debts; expect not only your credit score to be severely impacted, but many established financial institutions may not offer you credit for many years.

Repayments

With Comprehensive Credit Reporting CCR coming into place in Australia in 2018, your repayment history is becoming even more important.

Historically lenders might review your repayment history by looking at your recent bank statements to assess whether you might be creditworthy, but CCR will actually mean that a lot of your repayment history will be shared automatically by financial institutions, so it will become baked into your score.

Joanne

It may seem obvious, but paying back your credit cards and other debts on time will help improve your credit score.

Enquiries

Note

The number of credit enquiries you make, regardless of whether you were approved for the finance or even accepted the offer, generally plays the biggest role in your credit score.

Additionally, the type of credit enquiry can also impact your credit score substantially – because some types of credit enquiries are regarded as high risk indicators.

Check your credit scores with Wisr

If you use your credit cards responsibly, you can certainly maintain good credit scores. Head to your dashboard now and see where you stand.

Check your Scores
Did you find this content helpful?

Disclaimer: This article contains general information only, and is not general advice or personal advice. Wisr Services does not recommend any product or service discussed in this article. You must get your own financial, taxation, or legal advice, and understand any risks before considering whether a product or service discussed in this article may be appropriate for you. We have taken reasonable efforts to ensure that the information is accurate at the time of publishing, but the information is subject to change. We may not update the article to reflect any change.

Joanne is a respected leader of multiple disciplines within Banking, with 17+ years’ experience ranging from credit risk, product management, pricing, analytics and strategic project delivery.

Joanne, Chief Operating Officer

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