Consumers are really confused about what goes into their credit scores.

As a credit expert and a former NFCC-certified credit counselor, I've heard every myth in the book about how credit scores work. In fact, I've even counseled people who were so convinced by something wrong they'd heard from a friend or saw on TV, that I could not change their minds.

So let's set the record straight.

There are many financial behaviors that, surprisingly, have no impact on your credit scores. As a general rule of thumb, if it doesn't have to do with debt, it doesn't impact your scores. However, knowing more of the specifics can save you the time and heartbreak that comes from acting on bad information.

The main information that impacts your credit scores is your history with managing credit cards, loans, and unpaid bills that turn into debt. Despite what you may have heard, the following information has no impact whatsoever.

Most of the information you see in your credit reports is factored into your credit scores, but personal information is an exception.

The following personal details are only listed in your reports to help confirm your identity, but not to calculate your scores:

• Name (including names you've used in the past)

• Date of birth

• Social Security number

• Phone numbers

• Home addresses

• Names of your employers

Another popular myth about how credit scores are calculated is that your demographic information (such as income level, ethnicity, or age) is included.

It's understandable why people believe this, since it's well documented that demographics have a major impact on consumers' finances. If you're struggling financially, for example, you're more likely to miss a debt payment. As a result, you could end up with damaged credit, making it difficult to qualify for loans and credit cards from reputable creditors.

However, it's important to know that your credit scores are based solely on the information in your credit reports, and they do not contain demographic information. So while it is accurate to say that demographics impact credit, that data is not used to calculate your scores.

The most popular credit myth I've heard is that pulling your own credit reports hurts your credit scores.

This myth can be incredibly harmful, since it keeps people from learning what's in their credit reports, making necessary improvements, and even catching early signs of identity theft.

The truth is that pulling your own credit reports not only has no impact, but it's also essential for building and maintaining good credit scores. You can pull all three of your credit reports (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.

There's a lot of confusion about how your credit scores are impacted when someone checks your credit.

If you apply for a loan or credit card, and your credit is pulled to determine if you qualify, your credit can be impacted. These credit pulls show up on your reports as "hard inquiries," and according to FICO, you will usually lose less than five points for each pull.

When your credit information is pulled for reasons other than a credit application, the pull shows on your reports as a "soft inquiry" and does not impact your scores. These are some common situations that can cause a soft inquiry:

• A creditor pulls your information to send you an unsolicited offer

• You pull your own credit reports

• Your information is pulled to determine if you qualify for a non-debt product or service (e.g., rental unit, utilities, and insurance)

It's natural to assume that all bills impact your credit scores. But the truth is, if it's not debt, paying a bill doesn't impact your scores. Here are some common bill payments that are not reported on your credit reports and have no impact on your scores:

• Rent

• Utility bills (including cell phone)

• Medical bills

• Subscriptions and memberships

• Rent-to-own agreements

However, these types of bills can impact your credit if you fall behind on the payment and the bill becomes debt. If that debt is turned over to collections, and is reported to the credit bureaus, you will usually see a big drop in your credit scores.

If you have problems with managing your bank accounts, such as overdrafts, bounced checks or unpaid banking fees, your credit scores will not be impacted.

Problems with bank accounts can, however, hurt you in other ways. Issues with your checking or savings account can appear on your ChexSystems report or your Early Warning Services (EWS) report and make it hard for you to open new bank accounts in the future.

Read more: Does closing a bank account hurt your credit score?

Applying for new credit cards and loans can hurt your credit scores, since these applications result in hard inquiries to your credit. But if your application is denied, there is no additional damage.

In fact, the opposite can be true. If you're approved for a new account, and you decide to open it, your scores can initially drop. That's because new accounts impact several factors that go into your credit score calculations, including your amount of debt owed and your average length of credit history.

As a credit counselor, I often spoke to people who believed mistakes they had made decades ago were still hurting their credit. Fortunately, they were incorrect.

The truth is that (with the exception of Chapter 7 bankruptcy) all negative information is removed from your credit reports after seven years. That includes missed payments and collection accounts. For Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the information is removed 10 years after the initial filing.

The good news is that for any negative item you currently have on your credit report, the repercussions lessen with time. In other words, the older the negative information is, the less it impacts your scores. That's why it's important to add new, on-time debt payments to your credit reports if you want to improve your credit scores.

Now that you know what's not included in your credit scores, let's set the record straight about what is included.

According to FICO, these are the five categories of information used to calculate your credit scores, and how heavily each category is weighed:

• Payment history (35%): This refers to whether or not you make credit card and loan payments on time. Being late by 30 days or more can cause your scores to drop by as much as 100 points.

• Amounts owed (30%): This is how your credit card balances compare to your card limits, and how your loan balances compare to the original loan amounts. The smaller the balance in comparison to the limit, the better, especially when it comes to credit cards.

• Length of credit history (15%): Your length of history with debt accounts matters. In general, longer is better. If you want a perfect 850 credit score, you likely need accounts at least 30 years old.

• New credit (10%): Applications for new credit cards and loans have an impact. These appear on your credit reports as hard inquiries for two years, but only impact your scores for one year.

• Credit mix (10%): Your mix of different types of credit cards and loans plays a role. This category isn't very impactful, so it's not worth applying for a new account just to raise your scores.

What's the most common myth when it comes to the five credit score categories? Many people incorrectly believe they need to get their credit card balance just below 30% of the limit in order to maximize their credit scores.

But according to FICO, there is no magic number. However, the lower your balance, the better. On top of that, paying off your credit cards each month will help you avoid interest charges, late fees, and damage to your credit scores.