The higher your score, the higher the risk you will default on your payments; the lower your score, the more likely you are to make on-time payments even when the economy experiences a downturn. The criteria to receive the FICO Resilience Index is the same as what is required to receive a FICO credit score: Your credit profile must show at least one open account that has been reported to a credit bureau within the past six months or more. The FICO Resilience Index measures consumers by many of the same factors that credit scores do — including your payment history, outstanding balances, length of credit history, new credit and credit mix — with a big focus on borrowers who maintain a low credit utilization rate (meaning a low balance in comparison to their credit limit).