Credit Score Ranges Explained: What the 300 to 850 Scale Means
Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850. Within that shared scale, education pages group results into bands such as poor, fair, good, very good, and exceptional. The band labels are descriptive shorthand, and lenders apply their own cutoffs for each product.
This guide is general educational information for U.S. readers. It is not financial advice and does not describe your individual credit file. Figures such as score ranges and timeline estimates are typical examples, not promises.
Key takeaways
- Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850.
- Both providers share the same outer limits but calculate scores with different factor weightings; VantageScore does not publish fixed percentages.
- FICO publishes approximate factor weights: payment history 35%, amounts owed 30%, length of credit history 15%, new credit 10%, and credit mix 10%.
- No federal law sets the boundaries between band labels, and lenders set their own cutoffs by product.
- The three nationwide credit reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and each maintains a separate file.
- Most negative information stays on a credit report for 7 years; a Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for 10 years.
Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850. That shared scale is the starting point for any discussion of credit score ranges: the outer limits are the same across the two major score providers, while the bands inside the scale, and the cutoffs lenders apply to them, are not.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau describes a credit score as a snapshot of the information in a credit report at a particular moment, which is one reason a score can differ from one month to the next even when nothing dramatic has happened.
What are the credit score ranges?
Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850. Within that scale, a higher number generally reflects a credit file that lenders have historically treated as lower risk, and a lower number reflects a file with more of the characteristics lenders associate with missed payments.
Both providers use the same outer limits, but they do not calculate scores in the same way.
| Score provider | Published range | How factors are weighted |
|---|---|---|
| FICO Score | 300 to 850 | Publishes approximate weights for five factor categories |
| VantageScore | 300 to 850 | Uses its own weighting and does not publish fixed percentages |
Why two providers can share a scale but not a result
A credit score is calculated from the contents of a credit file, and files differ. The three nationwide credit reporting agencies are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Not every creditor reports to all three, and the same account can appear with different balances or dates at different agencies. A score built from one file therefore may not match a score built from another, even when both use the same 300 to 850 scale.
The model version matters as well. A lender may request one version of a score while a consumer-facing service displays another, and the two numbers can sit at different points on the scale for the same file. The comparison is covered in more detail in FICO vs. VantageScore.
What the bands inside the range mean
Consumer education pages commonly describe the scale using band labels such as poor, fair, good, very good, and exceptional. These labels are descriptive shorthand rather than legal categories. Nothing in federal law sets where one band ends and the next begins, and a lender is free to set its own cutoff for a particular product. A bank pricing an auto loan may look for a different number than an issuer reviewing a store card application.
Each score provider publishes its own description of its bands, which is why two education pages can describe the same number differently. A band label describes how a file tends to look relative to other files. It does not predict what a specific lender will decide, because income, existing debt, and that lender's own underwriting standards also enter the decision.
What is a good credit score?
"Good" is a relative term on a fixed scale. In practice it usually means a score comfortably above the cutoff for the product being applied for, which is why there is no universal answer. The bands published by score providers and education sites are reference points; the number that matters for a given application is the one the lender uses, from the model and the file that lender pulls.
The scale and the report are also different things. A score is calculated from report data; it is not a separate record stored alongside your accounts. The underlying details live in credit reports.
What factors are considered in a score
FICO publishes approximate weights for the five categories it considers. VantageScore uses its own weighting and does not publish fixed percentages.
| FICO factor | Approximate weight | What the category reflects |
|---|---|---|
| Payment history | 35% | Whether payments were made on time |
| Amounts owed | 30% | Balances relative to credit limits and total debt |
| Length of credit history | 15% | How long accounts have been open and in use |
| New credit | 10% | Recently opened accounts and hard inquiries |
| Credit mix | 10% | The variety of account types on file |
Payment history
This is the largest single category in the FICO model. Late payments, collections, and public records are among the items that fall here. Most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for 7 years. The relationship between reported payment records and the category is covered in payment history and credit scores.
Amounts owed
This category looks at balances relative to limits, often described as utilization, both across individual revolving accounts and in total. The mechanics are explained in credit utilization explained.
Length of credit history
Older accounts with ongoing activity are treated differently from newly opened ones. See length of credit history explained.
New credit
Opening several accounts in a short window is one of the signals this category captures. Hard inquiries typically remain on a credit report for 2 years.
Credit mix
Installment loans and revolving accounts are counted differently within the model. See credit mix explained.
How long different items stay on a report
The timelines that shape what a score can reflect come largely from the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA, 15 U.S.C. section 1681), which was enacted in 1970 and amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act in 2003.
- Most negative information, including late payments: 7 years.
- Chapter 7 bankruptcy: 10 years.
- Chapter 13 bankruptcy: 7 years.
- Hard inquiries: 2 years.
- Initial fraud alert: 1 year. Extended fraud alert: 7 years.
FCRA section 605A covers fraud alerts and section 605B covers blocking of information that resulted from identity theft. A security freeze is free to place, temporarily lift, or remove under federal law. Related pages include credit freeze and identity theft.
Where the numbers on the scale come from
The FCRA gives consumers the right to a free credit report from each nationwide agency every 12 months, and the three agencies currently provide free reports weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com. Under the FCRA, a credit reporting agency generally must investigate a dispute within 30 days, and that period can extend to 45 days if the consumer provides additional information during the initial 30-day window.
Oversight of consumer financial products sits largely with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and began operating in 2011. The Experian and Equifax education libraries publish additional background on how score models treat particular account types. The Federal Reserve's G.19 release reports total outstanding consumer credit, which provides context for how household borrowing changes over time.
Reading a score range in context
A few points apply to every number between 300 and 850:
- The scale is shared, but the scores are not interchangeable across providers or files.
- A score reflects one file at one moment rather than a permanent rating.
- Band labels are descriptive, and lender cutoffs vary by product and by institution.
- Score providers periodically update their models, so the version a lender uses can differ from the version a consumer sees.
For the surrounding topics, the credit scores hub and how credit scores are calculated cover how the categories fit together. Monitoring services that display a score typically refresh it periodically and pull from one agency's file; what is being shown is described on the credit monitoring page, and the difference between a self-check and a lender's pull is covered under credit check.
This page is published for education only and is not financial advice.
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Frequently asked questions
What are the credit score ranges?
Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850. Within that shared scale, education pages group results into bands such as poor, fair, good, very good, and exceptional, but no federal law sets where those bands begin and end.
What is a good credit score?
There is no universal number. A score that is comfortably above the cutoff for the product being applied for is usually what people mean by "good," and because lenders set their own cutoffs by product and by institution, the standard changes depending on the application.
Do FICO and VantageScore use the same range?
Yes. Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850. They differ in how they weight the information in a credit file: FICO publishes approximate factor weights, while VantageScore uses its own weighting and does not publish fixed percentages.
What is the lowest possible credit score?
For the models that use the 300 to 850 scale, 300 is the bottom of the published range and 850 is the top. Individual scores fall somewhere between those two ends depending on the contents of the credit file used to calculate them.
How long does negative information stay on a credit report?
Most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for 7 years. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for 10 years and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays for 7 years. Hard inquiries typically remain for 2 years.
How often can I get a free credit report?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers the right to a free credit report from each nationwide agency every 12 months, and the three agencies currently provide free reports weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com.
Related guides
- How Credit Scores Are Calculated
- Fico Vs Vantagescore
- Payment History And Credit Scores
- Credit Utilization Explained
- Length Of Credit History Explained
- Credit Mix Explained
Related terms
- Credit Score
- Credit Report
- Fico Score
- Vantagescore
- Credit Utilization
- Hard Inquiry
- Credit Reporting Agency