Your credit score can make the difference between being denied or approved for credit\u2014and between paying a high or low interest rate. A strong score can help you qualify to rent an apartment and even get utilities turned on without a deposit.<\/p>\n
Your score is a three-digit number calculated using statistical criteria based on information in your credit history. It\u2019s designed to predict risk\u2014in particular, the likelihood you\u2019ll become seriously delinquent on your obligations within two years of the assessment.<\/p>\n
There are several scoring models, but the market is dominated by FICO<\/strong>. According to myFICO.com<\/strong>, the consumer site for the FICO developer, 90%<\/strong> of U.S. financial institutions use FICO scores in their decision-making process.<\/p>\n FICO<\/strong> ranges from 300 to 850<\/strong> (higher score = lower risk). Each person has three<\/strong> FICO scores, one for each major bureau (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax<\/strong>). Unfortunately, consumers currently can access only their TransUnion<\/strong> and Equifax<\/strong> FICO scores; Experian<\/strong> ended its agreement with myFICO.com in 2009<\/strong>.<\/p>\n If your goal is to reach the level that unlocks the best rates, perks, and offers, 760<\/strong> is the magic number.<\/p>\n In an excellent piece at LearnVest<\/strong>, Jacqui Kenyon<\/strong> describes her quest to raise her score\u2014checking it regularly and adjusting her spending and saving habits as she learned more about FICO\u2019s \u201cmysterious\u201d math. She aimed for 850<\/strong>, but discovered it doesn\u2019t make much sense:<\/p>\n Anthony Sprauve<\/strong>, director of PR at FICO, says: \u201cIf you have a FICO score above 760<\/strong>, you\u2019re going to get the best rates and opportunities<\/strong>. Aiming higher sounds nice, but it\u2019s not necessary<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Bingham<\/strong> noted that a perfect 850<\/strong> may not even be possible:<\/p>\n \u201cThe highest I\u2019ve ever seen was 847<\/strong>,\u201d says Bingham, who monitored 1,500<\/strong> scores for years while studying scoring methodologies. Sprauve adds that when FICO analyzes scores, it does so in ranges<\/strong>, so even if someone had 850<\/strong>, they wouldn\u2019t actually see it as such.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing wrong with wanting to raise your score<\/strong>, especially if past habits or old debts left it a bit battered. But the biggest benefits<\/strong> cluster around 760<\/strong>, a far more attainable<\/strong> goal than 850. Yes, even higher scores can get the absolute best terms on cards, loans, and financing\u2014but you don\u2019t need perfection<\/strong> to access those benefits.<\/p>\n Remember, scores are evaluated in bands<\/strong>: if something knocks you down from 760<\/strong>, your advantages might drop a notch. Even so, improving your score is worthwhile\u2014just don\u2019t obsess. As we\u2019ve said, the people with the best scores treat credit as a tool they control<\/strong>, not a force they have to fight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your credit score can make the difference between being denied or approved for credit\u2014and between paying a high or low […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-en","category-credit-legal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3295,"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions\/3295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/safecreditsolutions.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The takeaway<\/h2>\n