By now, you may have heard of a credit score. It’s that little three-digit number that can determine whether you are trustworthy enough for a line of credit or not. Depending on life circumstances, your credit could be really high or really low. Either way, knowing how many parts of your report make up your credit score is important. Here are the 5 components of your credit report that could make or break your score:

#1 – Open Credit Card Utilization: This tells creditors how much line of credit is available to you and how much of it you are using already.

#2 – Percent of On Time Payments: This part is a heavy weight on your credit score. It calculates how often you pay your bills on time.

#3 – Number of Derogatory Marks: This part of your credit report tells lenders if you have foreclosures, bankruptcies, collections or liens. They will bring your score down big time.

#4 – Average Age of Open Credit Lines: This determines how long different lines of credit on your report have been open. If you have a long credit history, lenders are able to better judge how well you manage your lines of credit.

#5 – Total Number of Accounts: This averages the total number of accounts you have open. The more you have, the more the lender can see how well you do or don’t manage your lines of credit.

#6 – Number of Hard Inquiries: This tells lenders how many times you’ve shopped around looking for a loan.