Your payment history is the most important factor of credit scoring. Bankruptcies, collection accounts, slow pays and late payments, foreclosures,

judgments, and liens can negatively affect your credit score. However, an established history of on-time payments and a clean credit history will

positively impact your credit scores and help to increase them over time. The older any negative credit history or adverse credit factors are, the less they

will negatively affect your credit score. Therefore, recent late payments or other derogatory credit will negatively affect your credit much greater than

aged bad credit.

You may not want to disclose your number publicly, but your credit score effects many of your most important business transactions. There's a lot of confusion about this triple-digit rating, so we're here to help you understand your score.

You may be pleasantly surprised to find your number is high, and you have a lot of reasons to keep it that way. But, if your credit score is low, you may be asked to pay a deposit before you can rent an apartment or get a mobile phone. Or, you may pay a higher interest rate for credit cards and loans or be denied altogether. And, you may not be able to get an apartment or a car or home loan.

About Your Score

Using information from your credit reports, credit bureaus calculate the score that is shared with companies and organizations you do business with. Learn how to get your free credit report annually. You have many types of scores, but the most important takeaway is the calculation method for the scores.

Your payment history is the most important factor. In addition to avoiding late fees, paying your bills late even once or twice can have a major impact on your score.

The amounts owed compared to your limits is another very important consideration.

Lenders have more confidence in consumers who have a longer credit history. It may seem counterintuitive, but don't close accounts you have paid off.

Having different types of credit -- credit cards, car loans, home mortgages, student loans -- demonstrates you have managed various debts.

You should limit credit bureau inquiries and the number of new accounts. If you have too many dings on your record, this appears to be a sign of money problems.