What your credit score is really measuring

Your credit score isn't a judgment of you as a person — it's a snapshot of one thing: how you've handled borrowed money. Lenders use it to price your risk, which sets your interest rate.

Five ingredients make up the score, roughly in order of weight:

Payment history — do you pay on time? (the biggest factor)

Amounts owed — how much of your available credit you're using

Length of history — how long you've had accounts

Credit mix — the variety of account types

New credit — recent applications

The top two — paying on time and not maxing out your cards — drive most of the movement. That's genuinely good news, because those are the two you can influence fastest.

KevaAI's Learn Hub is education, not credit repair — we show you how the system works so you can make your own moves.

Next: The following lessons show the fastest lever you can pull.