The Four Pillars of Your Credit Report

Everything the scoring models measure falls into four pillars: how you pay (payment history), how much you owe (utilization), how long you have been at it (age of history), and what you carry (mix and new credit). Every entry in this anthology hangs on one of these four.

Why it matters

Credit advice sounds like a thousand rules until you see the structure: four pillars, each with a few levers. Learn the pillars and you can grade any piece of advice by which pillar it actually moves.

Key facts

• Payment history is the heaviest pillar - about 35% of a FICO score - and the slowest to repair.
• Utilization, both per-card and overall, is the fastest pillar to change: it rescored as soon as new balances post.
• Age cannot be manufactured; it can only be protected, which is why old no-fee cards stay open.
• New credit and mix share the lightest weight - and the most over-sold advice.

In practice

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