What Is a Good Credit Score? Score Ranges Explained

FICO scores run from 300 to 850, and lenders generally group that range into five bands. Where you land determines a lot more than a single approval or denial — it shapes the interest rate you're offered, which is often the more expensive part of the decision.

The five bands

• 300–579 — Poor.Approval for new credit is difficult, and what's available usually comes with high rates or requires a deposit (secured cards).
• 580–669 — Fair. Mainstream credit becomes accessible, but rates run well above average and larger loans may need a co-signer.
• 670–739 — Good. The threshold most lenders treat as the baseline for standard approval and reasonable rates. Roughly the middle of the U.S. distribution.
• 740–799 — Very Good. Meaningfully better pricing on mortgages, auto loans, and cards — often the range where the best advertised rates actually apply.
• 800–850 — Exceptional. The top tier. Beyond very good, additional points rarely unlock further pricing improvements — the difference between 810 and 850 is usually invisible to a lender.

What the gap between bands actually costs

The practical difference between bands shows up most clearly on a mortgage. On a 30-year loan, the rate spread between a borrower in the Fair band and one in the Very Good band has historically run somewhere around half a percentage point to a full point, depending on market conditions and loan type — on a $300,000 loan, that's tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. Auto loans and credit cards show the same pattern at a smaller scale.

VantageScore uses similar bands, not identical ones

FICO isn't the only model in use. VantageScore, the other major scoring model, also runs 300–850 but sets its band cutoffs slightly differently, and different lenders pull different model versions for different products. It's normal to see a somewhat different number depending on where you check — the band you land in matters more than matching an exact figure across sources.

It moves faster than people expect

A score isn't a fixed trait — it's a snapshot recalculated every time new data is reported, and the two heaviest factors (payment history and utilization) both respond within a single billing cycle. Someone in the Fair band who pays down revolving balances and stays current can often move into Good within a few months, not years.