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There are many factors that contribute to your credit score.  Knowing these factors can help you make decisions that will have a positive impact on your credit.  Keep in mind that your credit score is constantly changing due to the staggering time frames in which information is reported to the bureaus.  Also, not all companies report to all three bureaus, so an account that shows up on a TransUnion report may not show up on an Equifax report and will not be reflected in your Equifax score.

The factors that affect your credit score can be categorized into the following five areas.

• 35% - Payment history. Payment information on credit cards, installment loans (such as a car loan), mortgage loans or finance company accounts. Are there public record items, such as judgments or bankruptcy, and collection items? Details on late or missed payments, including how much was owed, how late the payments were and how recently they occurred. How many accounts show no late payments.
   
• 30% - Outstanding debt. Amount owed on all accounts and on different types of accounts, such as credit cards or installment loans. How many accounts have balances? How close are you to each credit limit?
   
• 15% - Credit history. How long have you been building a credit history? How long specific accounts have been established and how long since you used each account?
   
• 10% - Pursuit of new credit. How many inquiries and new accounts does your report show, and how recent are they? How long has it been since the most recent inquiry? Whether you have made on-time payments to re-build your credit after a period of frequent late payments.
   
• 10% - Types of credit in use. How many accounts are reported for bank cards, travel and entertainment cards, department store cards, installment loans, and so on.

** Source - Fair Isaac **

It also may be of interest to know that when a lender gets your credit report they also get a list of the top 4 reasons that your score is not higher.  Lenders will not generally give you your score, but it is common courtesy to share with you the four reasons they were given.  The following is a list of possible FICO reasons:

• Amount owed on accounts is too high.
• Delinquency on accounts.
• Too few bank revolving accounts.
• Too many bank or national revolving accounts.
• Too many accounts with balances.
• Consumer finance accounts.
• Account payment history too new to rate.
• Too many recent inquiries in the last 12 months.
• Too many accounts opened in the last 12 months.
• Proportion of balances to credit limits is too high on revolving accounts.
• Amount owed on revolving accounts is too high.
• Length of revolving credit history is too short.
• Time since delinquency is too recent or unknown.
• Length of credit history is too short.
• Lack of recent bank revolving information.
• Lack of recent revolving account information.
• No recent non-mortgage balance information.
• Number of accounts with delinquency.
• Too few accounts currently paid as agreed.
• Time since derogatory public record or collection.
• Amount past due on accounts.
• Serious delinquency, derogatory public record, or collection.
• Too many bank or national revolving accounts with balances.
• No recent revolving balances.
• Proportion of loan balances to loan amounts is too high.
• Lack of recent installment loan information.
• Date of last inquiry too recent.
• Time since most recent account opening too short.
• Number of revolving accounts.
• Number of bank revolving or other revolving accounts.
• Number of established accounts.
• No recent bankcard balances.
• Too few accounts with recent payment information.

With a list like that it is easy to get caught up in trying to obtain a perfect credit score, but you have to remember that companies define what is acceptable by selecting a range within which your score must fall.  You should do the same.  A score in the range of 620 to 680 is considered average and is adequate enough to get decent financing.