What Determines Your Credit Score?

Credit Score in NY

Your credit score has a big influence on many major purchases, especially when it comes to buying a house or a new car. Banks look at individuals' credit scores in order to determine how reliable someone is when it comes to paying back a loan. What it boils down to is that financial organizations want a clear-cut way to know who is or isn't a good investment -- and your credit score is a way to measure that with a three-digit number between 300 (on the low end) and 850 (the highest possible score).

Lots of different things can determine your credit score. The most popularly known, and the two factors that have the biggest influence, are both payment history and the amount you currently owe in debt. Other factors include new credit, credit mix, and the length of your credit history. That last one is particularly important because individuals with a longer credit history will have a better score than someone who has very little debt but just recently established a credit account.

Credit Score?

The best way to keep your credit score up is to keep the amount of credit accounts you have to a minimum, make your payments on time, and preferably, pay above the minimum required amount in order to avoid accumulating debt. Over time, this will put you in a place of good standing with institutions that will approve you for mortgages, new credit cards, and, of course, car loans.

If you're still a little confused or you have other questions, feel free to stop by the Riverhead Hyundai Finance Department. We're happy to help in any way we can!