6 Min Read | Updated: October 31, 2023
Originally Published: February 14, 2020
How a Credit Score Simulator Works
Learn how credit score simulators can help you estimate the potential impact of different financial decisions that can boost or burden your credit score.
At-A-Glance
Credit score simulators can give you a good idea of how specific actions will impact your credit score, but the results are only estimates, not guarantees.
You can use a credit score simulator to educate yourself on how your score can be affected before you make a financial decision.
Before using any credit score simulator, it’s important to know what they can – and can’t – do.
The only way to know with certainty how a specific action or financial decision will affect your credit score is to do it. But using a credit score simulator can give you a pretty good idea of the likely impact of many common financial changes.
What Is a Credit Score Simulator, And How Does It Work?
A credit score simulator is a tool designed to help you understand the factors that go into calculating your credit score. With credit score simulators, you can explore how many points you stand to gain or lose by improving your on-time payment history, closing an account, or asking for a higher credit limit.
Credit score simulators can help you understand how your credit score might change before you take action.1 These tools rely on unique data from your credit profile, such as your credit utilization, payment history, and credit mix, to calculate your current score and create a simulated scenario for potential changes.
More and more banks and other financial service providers are offering credit score simulators. Some of those providers charge for using the tool, while others, like the FICO® Score Simulator from American Express® MyCredit Guide (FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.), offer it for free.
Factors That Affect Your Credit Score
How do credit bureaus calculate your credit score, anyway?
Your credit score is a three-digit number, typically ranging from 300 to 850, that summarizes your creditworthiness and can greatly influence your ability to secure loans, credit cards, and other financial products. The score itself is calculated using a variety of factors.
For FICO scores, this data is grouped into five different categories:2
Payment history: Making on-time payments indicates to lenders that you’re a reliable borrower, and they may be more inclined to extend you a loan or line of credit. Missing payments may damage your credit score.
Amounts owed: The amount that you owe can impact your credit score. Having credit accounts and owing a balance on them won’t necessarily indicate that you’re a high-risk borrower. However, using a high percentage of your available credit could indicate an overreliance on credit. Paying down your balances and increasing your available credit limit is one way to help reduce the percentage of credit that you are using.
Length of credit history: The length of time you’ve had your credit accounts open can affect your credit score. This includes the age of your oldest and newest accounts and the average age of all your credit accounts.
Credit mix: Credit scoring models will also typically consider your credit mix, which includes credit cards, installment loans, mortgages, and more.
New credit: Opening several accounts in a short period of time may indicate a credit risk, especially for people who don’t have established credit.
What to Expect When Using a Credit Score Simulator
Knowing what to expect can help you to get the most out of a credit score simulator. Keep in mind that your results will differ from someone else’s because credit scores are as unique as fingerprints. Below are a few things to consider:
- You’ll need to provide personal information. Credit score simulators rely on your personal data, so be prepared to prove your identity by providing information like your birthdate, address, and Social Security number. You’ll also need to respond to some security triggers, such as identifying a street you once lived on from a list of several options.
- Not all credit score calculations are the same. Not every simulation tool will provide you with the same results. There are three major credit-reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax), and data may vary from one source to another.
- The results are always estimates. The results that credit score simulators provide are estimates, not guarantees or even predictions. That’s partly because the tools simulate only one action in isolation, and in reality, credit scores result from numerous actions happening in concert. It’s also because credit score calculations are complex and subject to change.
Even considering these caveats, a credit score simulator can be a valuable tool to help you improve your credit score over time. For more insight, read “How to Improve Your Credit Score.”
FAQs on How a Credit Score Simulator Works
What is a credit score simulator?
A credit score simulator is a tool that estimates how certain financial decisions may impact your credit score. This can include actions such as paying off a credit card balance, opening a new credit line, or missing a payment.
Are credit score simulation tools free to use?
You can find credit score simulators that are free of charge.
How accurate are credit score simulation tools?
Credit score simulators can only estimate how your credit score may be affected. They cannot guarantee exact results, however, they can assist with planning as they can give you a good indication about what you may be able to expect if you take certain actions.
The Takeaway
Free credit score simulators are readily available and make it possible to estimate the impact of specific activities on your credit score. Although the results are neither absolute nor guaranteed, they are valuable educational tools to help you understand how your credit score is shaped. If you use a simulator and act on what you learn, you may not be surprised by changes in your credit score.
1 “Use a Credit Score Simulator to Road-Test Financial Decisions,” NerdWallet
2 “What’s in my FICO® Scores?,” myFICO
3 “FICO Score vs. VantageScore,” The Balance
Allan Halcrow is a freelance writer concentrating in business, human resources, and diversity and inclusion. He also is the author of four books on management.
All Credit Intel content is written by freelance authors and commissioned and paid for by American Express.
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