For a score with a range between 300 and 850, a credit score of 700 or above is generally considered good. A score of 800 or above on the same range is considered to be excellent.
What Is a Good FICO® Score?
The base FICO® Scores range from 300 to 850, and a good credit score is between 670 and 739 within that range.
FICO creates different types of consumer credit scores. There are “base” FICO Scores that the company makes for lenders in multiple industries to use, as well as industry-specific credit scores for credit card issuers and auto lenders. FICO’s industry-specific credit scores have a different range—250 to 900. However, the middle categories have the same groupings and a “good” industry-specific FICO® Score is still 670 to 739.
What Is a Good VantageScore?
VantageScore’s first two credit scoring models had ranges of 501 to 990. The two newest VantageScore credit scores (VantageScore 3.0 and 4.0) use a 300 to 850 range—the same as the base FICO® Scores. For the latest models, VantageScore defines 661 to 780 as its good range.
What Is a Good Credit Score to Buy a House?
To increase your odds of approval and qualify for a lower-rate mortgage, you should aim to have a credit score in the good range. That’s a FICO score of 670 or higher.The minimum credit score needed to buy a house can range from 500 to 700, but will ultimately depend on the type of mortgage loan you’re applying for and your lender. Most lenders require a minimum credit score of 620 to buy a house with a conventional mortgage. Other types of mortgages have different credit score requirements:
FHA home loans typically require a credit score of at least 500 if you put 10% down or 580 if you put 3.5% down.
USDA loans don’t have a set credit score requirement, but lenders typically require a score of at least 580.
VA loans also don’t have a set minimum credit score, but lenders typically require a score of 620 or higher.
Remember that your credit score plays a role in determining the interest rate and payment terms on a mortgage loan. Lenders base the interest they charge on how risky they view you as a borrower. So while it may be possible to get a mortgage with bad credit, you’re typically better off improving your score before you apply for a mortgage to qualify for good terms.
What Is a Good Credit Score to Buy a Car?
While there isn’t a set minimum credit score to buy a car, you should aim to have a score of 670 or higher, which puts you in the good credit range. You’ll qualify for better auto loan terms with a higher credit score.Auto lenders view low credit as a sign of risk, so an applicant with poor or fair credit will pay more in interest to borrow a car loan. If your FICO® Score is below 670, aim to build credit before you buy a car. Reaching the “good” credit score range may help you qualify for lower interest and better terms.
What Affects Your Credit Scores?
Common factors can affect all your credit scores, and these are often split into five categories:
Payment history: Making on-time payments on your credit accounts can help your scores. But missing payments, having an account sent to collections or filing bankruptcy could hurt your scores.
Credit usage: How many of your accounts have balances, how much you owe and your credit utilization rate—the portion of your credit limit that you’re using on revolving accounts—all come into play here.
Length of credit history: This category includes the average age of all your credit accounts, along with the age of your oldest and newest accounts.
Types of accounts: Also called “credit mix,” this considers whether you’re managing both installment accounts (such as a car loan, personal loan or mortgage) and revolving accounts (such as credit cards and other types of credit lines). Showing that you can manage both types of accounts responsibly generally helps your scores.
Recent activity: This considers whether you’ve recently applied for or opened new accounts.
FICO and VantageScore take different approaches to explaining the relative importance of the categories.
