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An excellent credit score is a FICO® Score of 800 to 850 or a VantageScore of 781 to 850.
FICO is the credit scoring system that's most widely used by lenders. VantageScore isn't as popular, but it's often the score provided by free credit score tools.
Having a credit score in this range is great for your personal finances. With excellent credit, you're likely to qualify for the top credit cards and the lowest interest rate on loans. Whether you have excellent credit and you want to take advantage of it or you're trying to get there, here's everything you need to know.
An excellent credit score is one that's in the highest credit score range. Under the FICO scoring model, it's technically referred to as exceptional credit, and it's from 800 to 850. Under the VantageScore model, excellent credit is between 781 and 850. Excellent credit isn't uncommon. According to research by The Ascent about the average credit score in the U.S., 23% of Americans have an exceptional credit score.
There are several factors that each credit bureau uses to calculate your credit score, and understanding them can help you maintain or improve your credit. These factors are:
Of those five categories, payment history and credit utilization carry the most weight. Length of credit history, new credit, and credit mix all play a smaller role. They're still important, but not as important as the top two.
Excellent credit makes life easier and less expensive. Here are the biggest benefits of having an excellent credit score:
Your credit score is almost certainly going to play a major role in your personal finances. That's why a high credit score is a smart financial goal.
No, you don't need excellent credit. It doesn't hurt, but a good credit score can be more than enough.
A FICO® Score of at least 720, which is within FICO's good credit score range, will get you most of the same benefits as excellent credit. You should have no trouble passing a credit check or securing low interest rates on a loan. Your credit score will also be high enough to qualify for most credit cards on the market. Keep in mind that a high credit score never guarantees an approval.
The only area where an even higher credit score can help is a mortgage. To get the lowest mortgage interest rates, it typically takes a FICO® Score of 760 or higher. That's still below the threshold for excellent credit, though.
If you want to increase your credit score, follow these tips:
These financial tips work no matter what your current credit score is. The same advice applies to building credit whether your score currently sits in the bad credit or good credit range.
It does, however, take more work if your goal is excellent credit. You can stick to the same general rules, but it may be necessary to aim even higher with them. For example, instead of just keeping your credit utilization ratio below 30%, you could need to get it below 20%. You also might need to add a year or more to your credit history and maintain a track record of on-time payments.
Although excellent credit is nice to have, you probably don't need it. There aren't any new benefits that come along with having a FICO® Score of 800 instead of 760. But the steps you need to follow for an excellent credit score are smart financial habits regardless. Whether you end up with excellent credit or not, they'll get you a credit score high enough for everything you need.
Yes, but only about 1.2% of Americans who hold credit have a perfect 850 FICO® Score, according to Experian data. People with perfect credit scores held 6.4 credit cards and carried $3,000 of debt on average. By comparison, the same study found that the average American had 3.8 credit cards and about $6,500 in debt.
To bump up your credit score, make all payments on time and dispute any errors on your credit reports. Paying down debt and getting your revolving credit balances below 30% will also boost your credit. Your credit score also tends to increase over time since age of credit accounts for part of your score.
Yes, since an excellent credit score is a credit score of 800 or higher using the FICO credit scoring system. But for the VantageScore model, 781 or higher is considered excellent.
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