According to Fair Isaac (FICO) and the Consumer Federation of America, the financial category that has the most weight when determining your credit score is payment history , which accounts for 35% of your FICO Score. This factor reflects how consistently you have made your payments on time and is considered the strongest predictor of whether you will pay your debts on time. Lenders prioritize this because it helps them assess the risk of lending to you based on your past payment behavior

. Other factors that impact your credit score include:

• Amounts owed (30%): The total debt you carry and your credit utilization ratio.
• Length of credit history (15%): How long you have had credit accounts.
• Credit mix (10%): The variety of credit types you manage.
• New credit (10%): Recent applications and openings of new credit accounts.

But payment history remains the most heavily weighted category in credit scoring models used by FICO and recognized by the Consumer Federation of America