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Credit Score Simulator

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About This MicroSim

This MicroSim demonstrates how everyday financial behaviors affect your FICO credit score across five weighted factors: payment history, credit utilization, credit length, credit mix, and new credit. Students toggle behaviors like missed payments or reducing debt and immediately see the score change on a color-coded gauge ranging from 300 (Poor) to 850 (Exceptional). The sim also shows how different credit score ranges affect real-world borrowing costs such as mortgage and auto loan interest rates.

How to Use

  1. Read the gauge at the center-left of the display. The needle and large number show your current credit score, with color-coded ranges from red (Poor) to green (Exceptional).
  2. Review the factor breakdown on the right side. Five horizontal bars show how each factor (Payment History 35%, Credit Utilization 30%, Credit Length 15%, Credit Mix 10%, New Credit 10%) contributes to your overall score.
  3. Toggle financial behaviors using the checkboxes in the control area. Negative behaviors include "Missed payment," "Maxed credit card," and "Opened new account." Positive behaviors include "Paid on time 6 months" and "Reduced debt 50%."
  4. Observe the impact on both the overall score gauge and the individual factor bars. Notice which factors are most sensitive to your choices.
  5. Check the Typical Impact section on the right to see how your score affects mortgage and auto loan interest rates.
  6. Click the Reset button to return all behaviors to their default state and start over.

Iframe Embed Code

You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:

<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/economics-course/sims/credit-score/main.html"
        height="522px"
        width="100%"
        scrolling="no"></iframe>

Lesson Plan

Grade Level

9-12 (High School Economics)

Duration

10-15 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of borrowing and lending
  • Familiarity with the concept of interest rates
  • Awareness that banks and lenders evaluate borrowers before issuing loans

Activities

  1. Exploration (5 min): Toggle each behavior one at a time and record which single action causes the largest score change. Rank the five behaviors from most impactful to least impactful.
  2. Guided Practice (5 min): Start with a baseline score, then simulate a "worst case" scenario by checking all negative behaviors. Note the score and resulting interest rates. Then simulate a "best case" by checking only positive behaviors. Calculate how much more a person with a poor score would pay over 30 years on a $250,000 mortgage compared to someone with an excellent score.
  3. Assessment (5 min): Write a brief action plan for a fictional person with a 580 credit score. Identify which two behaviors they should change first and explain why, based on the factor weights shown in the simulator.

Assessment

  • Students can identify the five factors that make up a FICO credit score and their relative weights
  • Students can explain how specific financial behaviors raise or lower a credit score
  • Students can connect credit scores to real-world borrowing costs and calculate the financial impact of different score ranges

References

  1. Credit Score - Wikipedia overview of credit scoring systems, history, and how scores are calculated
  2. What Is a Credit Score? - Investopedia article explaining FICO score components and ranges
  3. Credit and Debt - Khan Academy lessons on credit, debt, and interest rates