You can take the necessary steps to grow your score by understanding the following:

Payment history (35%): Your payment history is responsible for 35% of your score. This is the main reason why people are continually saying “pay your bills on time” when it comes to your credit score.

Credit utilization (30%): The amount of credit you are currently using is also known as your credit utilization and is responsible for 30% of your score. The more credit you’re using, the higher your credit utilization, the lower your score can become. It would help if you looked to keep your total credit usage under 30%.

Age of credit history (15%): This is most often referred to as your Average Age of Accounts and is one of the few factors you have almost no control over. Your credit history is basically the age of your oldest credit account, new credit accounts, and the average ages of all the accounts on your credit report.

Credit mix/types of credit (10%): When you look at your report, you’ll notice that there are a few different types of credit on your report. Those can be revolving credit (e.g., credit cards) or installment loans (e.g., car loans or personal loans). Having a mix of credit is a good thing for your score, and it is responsible for 10% of it.

Amount of new credit (10%): Having an account less than 6 months old is usually considered having new credit. Your score will be impacted whenever you add a new account because it will give you a hard inquiry and also decrease your average age of accounts. Be mindful when applying for new credit.