Credit Score Range – Episode #87
Is the credit score range 1-100? 350-850? Does it matter? Probably one of the greatest points of confusion in credit scoring is all the different models that exist. Of course, these models all have different credit score ranges making an apples to apples comparison difficult. I see it all the time. “Yippie, my credit score is a 845!” That’s a great, near perfect, score on the FICO score scale. But on the VantageScore range that’s a “B” grade as it’s well below the 990 perfect score. Here are the credit score ranges for the largest scoring models.
Credit Score Ranges by Model
- FICO score system goes from 300 to 850
- VantageScore goes from 500 to 990
- Experian’s PLUS score goes from 330 to 830
If you are thinking about a loan, you should know that most lenders use FICO scores and that it is well worth saving $1000s over the life of the loan to check your FICO scores instead of relying on non-FICO scores to guide you. In addition, all 3 FICO scores from all 3 bureaus should be checked if you are looking at a refinance or a home loan.
Credit Score Review – Episode #86
Credit Score Review
When you get your credit score or credit scores, you need to review your score(s) to find out where you are and where you need to go.
To evaluate where you are, you need to know what kind of credit score you have. Is it a FICO credit score? One of the non-FICO credit scores? Once you know this, you need to look at the range of the credit scores to see where your credit score rates. By rates, do I mean percentile vs. others? No , that’s not that interesting, Who cares how you compare to others if the whole group is doing poorly? For instance, it used to be that a 720 was a great score and now a 760 seems to be the new great credit score. Therefore, you need to know where your score falls in relationship to the interest rates charged by credit score.
myFICO.com has a great chart on their home page that shows the relationship of credit scores to interest rates. This shows you where you fall. Have a great score? Great, make sure you get educated to keep your score high. We recommend FICO score monitoring product Score Watch. Low score? You might be tempted by those ads to raise your credit score. Don’t mind them, you can raise your score on your own. Even the FTC agrees with this. Don’t get tempted by credit repair shops as well. If anything, you want to seek out credit counseling from a U.S. Department of Justice approved agency.
