Here are the five pieces on your credit report the bureaus use to calculate your credit score. In addition you will find the approximate value each piece carries in the credit scoring model.

1. Payment History (45%)

This is where bad credit items are taken into account on your credit score. It will help to remove bad credit items.

However even if you have bad credit listed here, if the account is more than 4 years old it will not be weighted as heavily. In addition having positive payment history here will reduce the impact bad credit items have.

2. Available Credit to Debt (30%)

This is how much credit do you have available versus the amount of debt. It will lower your score if you have no available credit.

The credit bureaus like to see credit that is available and not being used. This will tell the bureaus that you use your credit responsibly and are not using all of your credit.

3. Length of Credit (5%)

How long have you been using credit? If you are a newbie to the world of credit you can still have a good score.

Do not worry about this aspect. Your use of credit will age naturally and this will not impact your score enough to make any concerted effort.

4. Credit Experience (5%)

What are you accounts on credit in? Do you only have credit cards?

It is said that having diverse credit accounts will help your score. However this is such a small factor that you should not pay extra attention to this.

With time your accounts will become diverse. You will have an auto loan, credit card, boat loan and etcetera.

5. Pursuit of New Credit (15%)

How often is your credit being checked? Are you frequently having your credit run?

If it looks like your credit is being checked continuously it will lower your credit score. The bureaus expect to see credit inquiries but excessive inquires will damage your score.

However there are individuals that literally open new lines of credit every month. These people will have their score lowered because there credit is constantly being checked.

The corresponding weight values are estimates. The credit bureaus have secret scoring models, for some reason they do not want that information to be made public. However if you focus your credit repair efforts on available credit to debt, and payment history you will be able to build a good credit score.