So you’re in the market for a major purchase in your life, you need to rent an apartment, or you’re trying to land a job, knowing what your credit score is and just how good your credit score is essential. Having a good credit score can make your life much easier, your score will allow you to obtain the lowest available interest rates, and encourage someone to put more trust in you.
So what is a good credit score? The range of what people consider to be a good credit score can vary. You will find that many different sites on the net will all be answering the same question with different answers. The reason is that there’s no real explanation to what exactly a good credit score is. It’s all determined by lender/person and their guidelines. However, after being in the mortgage industry over the past seven years, I can tell you what most lenders consider to be good and scores they like to see:
Credit score Chart & Range
760-850 Excellent
700-759 Very Good
660-699 Good
620-659 Not Good
580-619 Poor
500-579 Very Poor
Having a good credit score will also save you a lot of money. The lower your credit score is, the higher your interest rate will be no matter what you’re borrowing money for. It’s always extremely important to keep your credit score healthy. If you’re not already in the “good range,” here are a few tips that you can work on to improve your credit:
- You always need to pay your bills on time
- If you have missed a payment, get current as soon as possible and stay current
- Keep the balance on your credit cards lower than 30% of the credit line that is available to you
- Payoff your bills if you have any in collections
A good credit score range can also change from one day to another depending on what the economy is doing. For example, prior to 2007, mortgage lending was a lot more lenient then it is today. In another words, a good credit score (a score that will get you approved without a substantial amount in assets and will give you the lowest interest rate) then is a lot different than it is now post “the great recession.”
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
so i have a credit score of 606 and i had 3 nines on my credit report. i paid them off today and in hopefully 30 days my credit score will go up i was just wondering if anyone knew about how much it will jump.
Hi Dwayne,
I apologize, but there isn’t really anyway for me to determine how much your credit score would go up.
If you are a member of Bank of America Privacy Assistance (provided by third-party Intersections), which is a credit monitoring service, you can analyze your credit score based on each sceanrios.
For example, it will provide your credit score as of last available date (whenever you purchased the service) and select “Credit Analyzer” and customize credit scenario where you enter the data (credit card balances or new credit inquiries or new loan) for all your outstanding debts (credit cards & mortgage/auto loans). Once you have entered the information, click analyze and the software will provide you a new score and impact to your score (i.e. New score 630 with Estimated Impact +24).