A credit score is a number given to a consumer which shows lenders and financial services providers how risky it is to give that consumer credit or a product.
What is a credit score?
A credit score is a number generally ranging from 330 to 850. A lower score indicates a user as being more risky and a higher score; less risky.
Why is a credit score important?
Your credit score is important because it is the main factor which lenders and financial services providers use to judge whether or not to give you their products.
If you are given a product, it also is a big factor in how expensive that product is for you.
Where does a credit score come from?
Credit Scores are issued by credit bureau’s.
Credit bureau’s collect user information and then come up with a score based on different factors. These differ from credit bureau to credit bureau. This means different bureau’s may have different scores for users.
The sources of information they use are varied and include:
- Loan providers
- Banks
- Retailers
How often does my credit score get updated?
Scores are meant to be updated every month at the credit bureau’s, however this is sometimes not the case and the information they present can be more than 3 months old.
How can I improve my credit score?
For a comprehensive guide to improving your credit score, see here.
Your credit score can be improved through a number of ways.
Our Credit Score page will list information on what you’re doing well and not so well when you get your free credit score. Some (but not all) factors which affect your credit score are:
- Late payments on accounts
- Number of credit accounts open
- Number of years of credit history
- History of account repayment
- Number of credit requests
What is the difference between a credit score and a credit report?
Your Credit Score is a number we pull from the credit bureau’s. It is a single number.
Your Credit Report is the information that the credit bureau’s have on file for you. This includes personal details as well as financial information (open accounts and debt etc.).
Our Credit Report is laid out in an easy to understand format which helps you understand exactly what info the bureau’s have on record for you.
Some of the details listed in your credit report have an effect on your credit score, like the number of accounts etc.
It is important to understand your credit report so that you know how to improve your credit score.
Why is my credit score different for different bureau’s?
Different credit bureau’s collect different information on consumers.
They also process this information differently from one another. This means different bureau’s might view your profile differently.
For this reason, it is often valuable seeing what your details across multiple bureau’s is, as not all lenders use the same bureau’s.
Each credit bureau has a different scale on which they rate their consumers. See below.
What are the credit score ranges for each credit bureau?
Experian
Experian’s credit score ranges are:
300 – 579: Poor | |
580 – 669: Fair | |
670 – 739: Good | |
740 – 799: Excellent | |
800 – 850: Exceptional |
Transunion
0 – 486: Very Bad |
487 – 526: Poor |
527 – 582: Fair |
583 – 613: Average |
614 – 680: Good |
681 – 766: Excellent |
767+: Exceptional |
Compuscan
:0 – 618: Poor |
619 – 633: Fair |
634 – 649: Good |
659 – 669: Excellent |
670+: Exceptional |
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Questions Specifically About Your Credit Score or Credit Report?
Any other questions?
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