Do Credit Reports Include Credit Scores?

By Jim Akin

4 min readMar 6, 2020

Your credit report contains a wealth of information on your history of debt accounts and payments—but it does not include your credit score. Your credit score is based on information found in a credit report, and the good news is you can get all of this information for free when you want to see where your credit stands.

Here's a rundown on the differences between credit reports and credit scores, and how they're related to one another.

Credit Reports

Credit reports are records of your borrowing and repayment history with loans and credit card debt. In the U.S., credit reports are compiled by the three national credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Each bureau formats its reports slightly differently, but all three maintain records that include:

• Your total outstanding debt
• Your history of securing and paying off debts
• Your history of making monthly payments on those debts, including whether payments were made on time, late or missed altogether

Credit reports are updated continually as lenders report your credit usage and borrowing activity to the credit bureaus.

In addition to your borrowing and payment history, credit reports may also reflect other information about your financial history, including:

• Bankruptcies filed
• Charge-offs incurred when any of your loans or accounts were written off as bad debt by one of your creditors
• Foreclosures or vehicle repossessions because you failed to pay a debt

These negative entries can stay on your credit report for up to 10 years. Lenders typically view them as red flags and may consider them grounds for declining a loan application.

Credit Scores

Credit scores are three-digit numbers, derived from the data in one of your credit reports, that reflect the statistical likelihood you will default on a loan (go 90 days without making a payment) in the next 24 months. Credit scores are calculated using complex statistical analysis of your credit report information.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of credit scoring systems lenders use today. The most widely used credit scoring system, the FICO^® Score^Θ and VantageScore^® credit score, assigns scores on a scale of 300 to 850, as do the most recent versions of its main competitor, the VantageScore system.

Each credit scoring system calculates scores in its own way, but in every system, higher scores indicate greater creditworthiness (or lower likelihood of defaulting on a loan).

Every credit scoring model also emphasizes the same positive credit management habits. FICO lists these as the top factors that influence its score:

• Payment history: Paying your bills on time is the single biggest positive influence on your credit score, and even one missed payment can have a negative impact on your score. Payment history accounts for 35% of your FICO^® Score.
• Credit utilization: Your credit utilization ratio is the percentage of your total borrowing limit represented by the sum of all your outstanding credit card balance. Using more than 30% of your available credit can lower your credit score. Credit utilization accounts for 30% of your FICO^® Score.
• Length of your credit history: All other factors being equal, your credit score will tend to increase as your credit history gets longer. There's not much you can do to help this except avoid making mistakes that hurt your credit as you accumulate credit experience. How long you've held credit accounts makes up 15% of your FICO^® Score.
• Credit mix: People with top credit scores often carry a diverse portfolio of credit accounts, such as car loans, one or more credit cards, a student loan, mortgage or other credit products. With positive payment history, a broad credit mix is seen as evidence of good credit management experience. Credit mix accounts for 10% of your FICO^® Score.
• New credit: The number of credit accounts you've recently opened, as well as the number of hard inquiries lenders make when you apply for credit, accounts for 10% of your FICO^® Score. Too many accounts or inquiries can indicate increased risk and can hurt your credit score.