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What is a Good Credit Score?

An Introduction & Overview

A good credit score is important to your future borrowing abilities, and could affect whether you get that new car or even insurance or a new job. Yet only around 30% of Americans know their scores, and 78% of our credit scores are said to contain errors. So very few likely even know what a good score is so they can clean up their reports and raise their number.

The Impact of Your Credit Score

Your score affects how lenders, insurers, and even employers, perceive you as a risk. For instance, the median (which means half the people surveyed were higher than this score and half were lower) nationwide FICO score is around 723. Someone with that score applying for a loan will fare well, but the further you get below that mark, the more costly the loan will become—if you even get it. People with scores around 600 have been known to get loans, but it costs them dearly.

What is a Good Credit Score?

A good credit score, however, is considered 700 and above, although the best rates are reserved for those with scores above the median. Remember that the median is not the average score, it’s the score that splits the population of Americans with credit scores in half—half of the people with credit scores are lower than 723 and half are higher.





FICO Score
Grade
Typical Mortgage Rates *
720-850
Excellent
A (e.g., 6.2%)
700-719
Very Good
A + 0.13%
675-699
Good
A + 0.65%
620-674
Fair
A + 1.80%
560-619
Bad
A + 4.30%
500-619
Very Bad
A + 5.00%

 

Credit Score and Mortgage Rates

 

*Typical Mortgage Rates Are Given As An Example Only.
Please check current rates with your lender.

 

 

The VantageScore System

If you're looking for information on VantageScore system, go to VantageScore page.


 

  

  




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Latest News

4/23/08

A credit inquiry typically lowers your score by five points or less. Credit inquiries reduce credit scores because lenders believe that multiple inquiries are associated with high risk of default.

 

 

1/20/08

With the introduction of the VantageScore in addition to the FICO score, consumers are confused about the credit score range and about the credit scoring in general. Here are the main differences between the two credit scoring systems.

11/28/07

Zopa Ltd., a United Kingdom player in the person-to-person online lending market, is starting operations in the U.S. where it will join a handful of other companies, including Prosper Marketplace Inc.'s Prosper.com, that have popularized the market in recent years.

 

6/25/07

Equifax Inc. emphasized that VantageScore(sm) and the Equifax Risk Score 3.0 are not - and never have been - impacted by the authorized user manipulation. Authorized user information is excluded in calculating both VantageScore and the Equifax Risk Score 3.0.

 

6/18/07

Although Fair Isaac Corp., the Minneapolis company that created the FICO score doesn't give out many details about the changes, the company spokesman said there will be more segments in their scoring model.

6/11/07

As credit scores take more important role in many parts of our lives, more ideas are popping up everyday to boost our credit scores. Recently, some borrowers with low credit scores are turning to a fast-growing business on the Internet: “Credit Renting.”

6/8/07

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of two large insurers, limiting the circumstances under which companies must tell customers their credit ratings are affecting the amount they pay.

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