Your guide to credit score ranges

Understanding credit score ranges is really important.

Knowing where you fall on a credit score range can be immensely helpful because it can give you an idea of whether you’ll qualify for a new loan or credit card. Your credit scores can also help determine the interest rates you’re offered — higher rates could add up to lots of money over time.

Understanding your credit scores

First off, you have more than one credit score, and there are a few reasons for that.

There are different scores for specific products. For example, there are special auto and home insurance credit scores. There are also different credit-scoring models, like FICO and VantageScore, which means you could have scores according to each model. Even the same model could give a different score depending on whether it uses data from your Equifax, Experian or TransUnion credit report.

Lastly, there are multiple consumer credit bureaus that provide credit reports on which scores are based. So depending on what information each bureau gets from individual lenders — and that can differ — the data used to compile your reports and build your scores could vary from bureau to bureau.

FICO and VantageScore Solutions create the most widely used consumer credit scores, and these companies update their scoring models from time to time.

VantageScore 3.0® credit score ranges

Here’s what the ranges look like for VantageScore 3.0.

FICO credit score ranges

FICO® 8 and 9 consumer score ranges

FICO industry-specific score ranges

What credit score ranges mean for you

Poor: 300 to low-600s

You might not be able to get approved for a loan or unsecured credit card at all. If a lender or issuer does approve an application, it likely won’t offer the best terms or lowest possible interest rate. If you’re looking for a credit card, you may have better luck with a secured credit card.

Fair to good: Low-600s to mid-700s

You’re more likely to get approved for financial products and may be able to shop around and compare options among different lenders. But you still might not get the best terms.

Very good and excellent/exceptional: Above mid-700s

A lender could deny an application for another reason, such as having a high debt-to-income ratio, but those with top credit scores likely won’t have their applications denied because of their credit scores. People in this score range are also most likely to get offered a low interest rate and may have the most options when it comes to choosing repayment periods or other terms.

What your credit score means depends on the model

As you can see, different credit-scoring models may have different ranges and scoring criteria. That means the same credit score could represent something different depending on which credit model a lender uses.

A VantageScore 3.0 score of 661 could put you in the good range for example, while a 661 FICO score may be considered fair.

And lenders create or use their own standards when making credit-based decisions. In other words, what one lender might consider “very good” another could consider “good.”

Even with all the variability, knowing where you generally fall on the credit score range can still be important. Your range could help you determine which financial products you’re eligible for and the terms a lender might offer you.

Bottom line

Ultimately, lenders may set their own credit ranges and criteria for approving an application. But if you know where you stand on a credit score range, you can make educated guesses about your financial profile.