How Is My Credit Score Calculated?
Your credit score is calculated using data from several different sources, such as public databases, financial institutions and utility providers. A few factors play their part in determining your score, including:
- The number of times you’ve made credit enquiries and the types of credit providers you’ve enquired with.
- The types of credit products you’ve previously applied for.
- Your repayment history.
- Any negative credit events, such as missed repayments, account defaults and bankruptcies.
Your credit score is not affected by your bank balances, race or origins, beliefs or affiliations, sexual orientation, lifestyle, or medical history
How Do I Improve My Credit Score?
There are a number of ways that you can improve your credit score, including:
- Ensuring you make your payments on time.
- Avoiding negative credit events, such as defaults, court judgments and bankruptcies.
- Limiting the number of credit enquiries you make over a short period of time. Look for lenders who can give you a quote without impacting your credit score.
If you are already doing all the above and getting a good score, well done! Keep going to keep your credit file healthy. Note that these actions may not necessarily improve your already high score. Over time, age of file increase or events such as credit enquiries drop off the credit file, your score may improve.
Why is My Credit Score Different To What I Have Seen Elsewhere?
Your credit profile may appear differently between credit score providers as each credit bureau collects different information and uses their own method of calculating a credit score.
There are three different credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and Illion, currently operating in Australia, each with their own way of calculating your credit score. SocietyOne’s credit score calculations are powered by Experian, meaning that your score may differ from those powered by Illion and Equifax.
