Key takeaway: You have many FICO® scores, all of which range from poor to excellent, with a good score typically falling between 670 and 739. While each FICO score weighs its credit factors a little differently, you can improve them all with good credit-building habits.
A good FICO score typically falls between 670 and 739, but you don’t have just one FICO score.
All FICO scores range from poor to excellent, but the numbers in those ranges can vary, depending on the type of credit scoring model. Industry-specific scoring models have larger ranges, while other models — like the popular FICO® Score 8 — follow a standardized base range.
VantageScore® 3.0, the credit scoring model available on Credit Karma, follows the same range as FICO® Score 8, but weighs its credit score factors differently. You can see your VantageScore® 3.0 credit scores and credit reports from TransUnion and Equifax for free on Credit Karma.
Let’s take a deeper look at what’s considered to be a good FICO score and how to improve your credit if your scores fall on the lower end of the scoring spectrum.
- What does a good FICO score mean?
- FICO vs. VantageScore credit scores
- How to improve your credit
- What’s next?
- FAQs about FICO credit scores
What does a good FICO score mean?
Having a good FICO score means that it’s near or slightly above the average of U.S. consumers, according to myFICO.
Knowing where your FICO scores stand can help you understand what financial products you may qualify for, but having good credit scores isn’t the only thing that matters to lenders.
Lenders have their own criteria for what they consider to be good or bad credit. They could have unique requirements for accepting applications and for deciding what terms and rates to offer. Those requirements often include other credit factors like your debt-to-income ratio (DTI) and the number of accounts you’ve opened recently.
So, even if you have excellent FICO scores, your application could be denied.
Base FICO scores vs. industry-specific FICO scores
Base FICO credit scores are often what you see when you check your FICO scores through a free service, such as a credit card account, or when you pay to access your FICO scores online. They’re designed to work across a range of products as a general assessment of credit risk.
FICO’s industry-specific credit scores are tailored for certain credit products, including credit cards, auto loans and mortgage loans. If you have good base FICO scores, though, you’re likely to also have good FICO® Auto Scores or FICO® Bankcard Scores.
The base FICO scores range from 300 to 850, while the industry-specific scores range from 250 to 900. While industry-specific score ranges may vary, here’s how the FICO® Score 8 base and industry-specific scores look when broken down into credit category ranges:
| Poor | Fair | Good | Very good | Excellent | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FICO® Score 8 | 300–579 | 580–669 | 670–739 | 740–799 | 800–850 |
| FICO® 8 industry-specific scores | 250–579 | 580–669 | 670–739 | 740–799 | 800–850 |
The latest FICO base scoring model is FICO® Score 10. But, some lenders still use FICO® Score 8 models, and some conventional mortgage lenders may use even older FICO scoring models.
What factors affect your FICO scores?
Your FICO scores are affected by a variety of factors, and each scoring model weighs those factors differently. Here’s a breakdown of what credit factors affect FICO’s most widely used credit scoring model, FICO® Score 8:
Image: ccupdateutilization-fico-2- Payment history (35%): This is the most important factor to your FICO credit scores and looks at how often you pay your bills on time.
- Amounts owed (30%): This factor focuses on how much debt you carry. As part of that, it looks at your credit utilization rate, or the amount of debt you owe compared to your total available credit. Having a high credit utilization rate can be seen as a negative to some lenders.
- Length of credit history (15%): This factor looks at the age of your oldest account, newest account and the average age of all your accounts. The longer your credit history, the better.
- New credit (10%): This considers how many new accounts you’ve opened or applied to recently. New credit applications typically trigger hard inquiries, which can bring your score down temporarily.
- Credit mix (10%): This shows how many types of credit accounts you have. You can certainly build credit without having a mix of accounts, but lenders typically consider it a good thing if you can handle different types of financial products.
FICO vs. VantageScore credit scores
FICO’s base score range is the same as VantageScore’s, but each model categorizes those ranges differently. Here’s the difference between credit ranges for FICO® Score 8 and VantageScore® 3.0:
| FICO® Score 8 | VantageScore® 3.0 |
|---|---|
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Another main difference between FICO and VantageScore scoring models is how much credit history they need to generate credit scores.
To generate a FICO score for yourself, you’ll typically need to have at least one account with at least six months of credit history reported to the credit bureaus. VantageScore, on the other hand, can generate a score with just one month of credit history on one account.
How to improve your credit
While the FICO® credit score ranges vary depending on the model, the same basic factors go into determining your scores. That’s why building good credit habits should help you improve your FICO scores across the board.
Here are some tips to help you get started:
Make on-time payments, every time
Your payment history is the largest factors in determining FICO credit scores. Making on-time payments, even if it’s only a minimum payment, can help you build a good credit history.
A late payment could hurt your scores and stay on your credit reports for up to seven years. The damage will also increase the longer a bill goes unpaid. While making a minimum payment will count as an on-time payment, you should also try to pay your bill in full each month to avoid racking up credit card debt.
Keep your credit utilization ratio low
Overall credit utilization refers to how much of your available revolving credit you use at any given time. If you have credit cards and no other revolving credit accounts, you can figure out your credit utilization rate by dividing your total credit card balances by your total credit card limits and then multiplying that number by 100 to get a percentage.
For example, if you have three credit cards with a combined credit limit of $4,000, having a combined balance of $1,000 would put your credit utilization at 25%
This percentage is used by credit scoring models because it’s often correlated with lending risk. If you’re close to maxing out your cards when you apply for new credit, for example, the lender may think that you’d have trouble repaying your new bills.
While there’s no magic number for credit utilization, most experts recommend keeping your overall credit utilization below 30%. But, those with the highest scores tend to have credit utilization ratios below 10%.
What’s next?
Building up to a good FICO score takes consistency and patience. To help you stay on track, consider checking your FICO credit scores at least once a month. You can check your FICO® Score 8 for free through certain banks and credit card issuers, as well as through a free account with Experian, one of the main credit bureaus.
If you want a holistic view of your credit scores, check your VantageScore credit scores, too. Credit Karma provides free credit reports and VantageScore® 3.0 credit scores from TransUnion and Equifax.
Knowing where your credit scores lie can help you determine whether your application is likely to get approved and whether it makes more sense to focus on building your credit and applying later.
FAQs about FICO credit scores
A FICO Score is one type of credit score, but it’s not the only kind. You may have several different credit scores, including multiple versions of your FICO Score, as well as scores from other models such as VantageScore. These scores are calculated using different scoring models and data sources, which means they often vary. As a result, you don’t have just one credit score. Your score can differ depending on the scoring model used, where the underlying credit data comes from and even when it’s calculated.
FICO typically classifies a good score as one that falls between 670 and 739, meaning it’s near or slightly above the average score among U.S. consumers. Many lenders view this range favorably, but that doesn’t mean having a good FICO score guarantees credit approval. What’s considered “good” by FICO might not meet a specific lender’s requirements.
There are dozens of FICO Score versions, with about 20 widely used across the mortgage, credit card and auto lending industries. When you check your FICO Score for free, you’re typically shown your FICO Score 8, the most commonly used version. Still, lenders may rely on different FICO Score versions depending on the type of credit they offer.
FICO and VantageScore are both companies that create credit scoring models using the information in your credit reports. But, they have different rules for who can be scored and how certain credit behaviors are weighed.
To generate a FICO score, you need to have at least one account that’s been open for at least six months and reported to a credit bureau within the last six months. VantageScore models are more flexible: they can often generate a score for a person with just one account and a shorter credit history, using data reported within the last 24 months.