There is no single score
Canada has two national credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion. Each holds its own file on you, and each can produce several different scores depending on which model a lender asks for. The number a free app shows you is usually not the number your mortgage lender pulled.
This matters less than it sounds. The inputs are broadly the same across models, so improving the inputs improves every score. Chasing a specific number from a specific app is wasted effort.
What actually moves the number
In rough order of weight:
1. Payment history
Whether you pay on time, and how badly you have missed in the past. This is the single largest factor and the slowest to repair. A payment reported 30 days late does more damage than almost anything else on this list.
Paying the minimum on time is, for scoring purposes, a payment made on time. It is terrible for your finances and neutral-to-fine for your score — which is a good illustration of why a credit score is not a measure of financial health.
2. Utilisation
How much of your available revolving credit you are using. This is calculated on the balance reported to the bureau, which is usually your statement balance — not what remains after you pay.
That produces a counter-intuitive result: someone who charges heavily and pays in full every month can still show high utilisation, because the statement balance is what gets reported. If utilisation is your constraint, pay down the card before the statement closes, not before the due date.
3. Length of history
The age of your accounts, particularly your oldest. This is why closing an old card you no longer use can lower your score: you lose both the account age and its credit limit, which raises utilisation on what remains.
4. Credit mix and new credit
A mix of revolving (cards, lines of credit) and instalment (loans) credit is viewed slightly more favourably than one type alone. Recent applications count against you modestly.
Hard and soft inquiries
A hard inquiry is recorded when you apply for credit and can lower your score slightly. A soft inquiry — checking your own report, or a pre-approval screen — does not affect it at all.
Checking your own credit report is always a soft inquiry. There is no downside to doing it regularly, and no version of this where looking at your own file hurts you.
Get your report free, from both bureaus
You are entitled to your credit report at no cost from both Equifax and TransUnion. The free report is the thing worth reading — it lists the actual accounts, balances and any collections, which is far more actionable than a three-digit summary.
Read it for errors. Accounts you do not recognise, balances that are wrong, and items that should have aged off are all disputable, and disputing them is free.
What to do with this
- Pull both reports and read the account list, not just the score.
- Set up automatic minimum payments so a missed date is impossible, then pay the real balance separately.
- If you are about to apply for a mortgage, avoid new credit applications for several months beforehand.
- Do not close your oldest card without a reason better than tidiness.
Dollar limits and rates in this article change over time. The linked sources are the authoritative versions — check them before acting on anything here.