What Is a Bad Credit Score? The Ranges and What They Mean
A bad credit score generally means a FICO or VantageScore result in the lower part of the 300 to 850 range, where lenders see a higher risk of missed payments. There is no single official cutoff. Each lender sets its own threshold, so the same score can read differently across products.
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, and results near the bottom are labeled poor or very poor by the scoring companies.
- No federal rule or industry-wide cutoff defines a bad credit score; each lender sets its own minimum standards for each product it offers.
- FICO weighs payment history at about 35% and amounts owed at about 30%, while VantageScore uses its own factor weighting and does not publish fixed percentages.
- Most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for 7 years, while a Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for 10 years and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy for 7 years.
- Because Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each maintain a separate file, a score drawn from one report may not match a score drawn from another.
- Under the FCRA, a credit reporting agency generally must investigate a dispute within 30 days, extendable to 45 days if additional information is supplied during the initial window.
There is no single number that officially separates a bad credit score from a good one. Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850, and a result near the bottom of that range is generally described as poor or bad. What actually counts as bad depends on the scoring model's published bands and on the lender reviewing the file.
How the common score bands are labeled
Scoring companies divide the range into labeled segments so that consumers and lenders share a vocabulary. Experian publishes a commonly cited breakdown for both FICO and VantageScore, and the labels run from very poor at the bottom of the scale to exceptional at the top. The exact cutoffs differ between the two models, and the words used for each band are not standardized across the industry.
| Band label | FICO range | VantageScore range |
|---|---|---|
| Poor or very poor | 300–579 | 300–600 |
| Fair | 580–669 | 601–660 |
| Good | 670–739 | 661–780 |
| Very good or excellent | 740–850 | 781–850 |
The practical effect is that a result in the low 600s can be labeled fair under one model and good under the other. Nothing about that difference changes the underlying credit file. The same history is simply being sorted into slightly different buckets.
Why no fixed cutoff decides the outcome
Lenders do not use one national threshold. Each lender sets its own credit standards, and those standards can differ by product. A file that falls below the cutoff for one credit card may clear the cutoff for another card, an auto loan, or a mortgage, because the lender is weighing the same history against different criteria.
Scoring models also produce different numbers from the same credit report. FICO and VantageScore use their own formulas and their own factor weighting, which is why someone who checks two scores on the same day may see two different results. The comparison in FICO vs VantageScore explains where the two models diverge.
Score versions matter as well. A lender may pull an older scoring model while a consumer-facing dashboard shows a newer one, so a number displayed in an app is a reference point rather than the exact figure a specific lender used.
What the scoring factors are
FICO publishes the approximate weights of the five categories it considers, which makes the mechanics behind a low score easier to follow.
| Factor | Approximate weight in FICO scores |
|---|---|
| Payment history | 35% |
| Amounts owed | 30% |
| Length of credit history | 15% |
| New credit | 10% |
| Credit mix | 10% |
VantageScore uses its own factor weighting and does not publish fixed percentages. Both models are built from the same raw material: the account and inquiry history held by the three nationwide credit reporting agencies, which are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Within those categories, payment history and the balances carried relative to credit limits carry the most weight in the FICO model. A file with several recent late payments, or with revolving balances close to the account limits, tends to sit lower in the range than a file with similar age and mix but a clean payment record. The guide to how credit scores are calculated walks through the arithmetic, and credit utilization explained covers the balance-to-limit relationship.
Where the information behind a score comes from
Credit reports are the input. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA, 15 U.S.C. section 1681), consumers are entitled to a free credit report from each nationwide agency every 12 months, and the three agencies currently provide free reports weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com. Because each agency maintains its own file, the three reports can differ from one another, and a score built from one report may not match a score built from another.
The FCRA was enacted in 1970 and amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act in 2003. One of the rights it created is the dispute process: 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. The credit reports hub and the credit score hub go deeper on both topics.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and operating since 2011, publishes consumer-facing material on credit reports and scores, including explainers on the difference between a report and a score.
How long negative information stays on a report
A low score is usually the product of items that age off the report on a schedule set by federal law.
- Most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for 7 years.
- A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays on a credit report for 10 years.
- A Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays for 7 years.
- Hard inquiries typically remain on a credit report for 2 years.
Because these items carry different durations, the age of a problem matters as much as its severity when a file is read. A single late payment from five years ago sits in a different position than one from last month, even though both are reported as late payments. Payment history and credit scores and length of credit history explained cover the timing side of the file.
Reading a score without overreading it
A score is a snapshot of one file at one moment under one model. It does not describe income, savings, employment, or the reason a payment was missed. Lenders that use a score also review the underlying report, and many weigh additional measures such as debt-to-income ratios when they evaluate an application.
Monitoring services typically display a score from one model alongside report data from one or more agencies. That view is useful for spotting changes over time, and credit monitoring explains what those services do and do not cover. For the underlying records rather than a summary, checking a credit report and the credit profile describe the documents involved.
At a macro level, borrowing is tracked separately from any individual score. The Federal Reserve publishes consumer credit statistics, and its G.19 release reports total outstanding consumer credit across the economy. That figure says nothing about a particular file, but it places the household-level data in a wider frame.
The data-security layer
Because scores are computed from reported data, errors and fraud can place a file in a position that does not reflect its actual history. Federal law provides tools for both situations.
- An initial fraud alert lasts 1 year; an extended fraud alert lasts 7 years. FCRA section 605A (15 U.S.C. section 1681c-1) covers fraud alerts.
- A security freeze is free to place, temporarily lift, or remove under federal law.
- FCRA section 605B (15 U.S.C. section 1681c-2) covers the blocking of information that results from identity theft, including the role of an identity theft report.
If your identity is stolen, it can be reported at IdentityTheft.gov and to the IRS using Form 14039. Identity theft, credit freeze, and credit lock describe how those controls differ from one another.
What the range does not say
Two files can produce the same score for entirely different reasons, and one file can produce two different scores under two models. The word "bad" describes a position on a scale published by a scoring company. It is not a judgment about a person and not a prediction about a particular application.
For a wider view of the scale and the labels attached to each segment, see credit score ranges explained.
This page is published for education only and is not financial advice.
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Frequently asked questions
What counts as a bad credit score?
There is no official cutoff. The scoring companies publish labeled bands that place results near the bottom of the 300 to 850 range in a poor or very poor segment, and lenders each set their own minimum standards on top of those bands. The same score can therefore be treated differently by two lenders, or by one lender across two products.
Is a poor credit score the same as a bad credit score?
The two phrases are used interchangeably in most consumer-facing material. The label attached to a score comes from the scoring company that produced it, and the cutoffs differ between FICO and VantageScore, so the exact wording is not standardized.
Do all three credit bureaus produce the same score?
No. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each maintain a separate file, and a score is calculated from one file using one scoring model. Because the files can contain different information and the models weight factors differently, scores can differ between agencies and between models.
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, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays for 7 years, and hard inquiries typically remain for 2 years.
Does a bad credit score automatically mean a loan application will be denied?
Not automatically. A score is one input a lender reviews. Lenders apply their own credit standards, and many also consider income, existing debts, and the details of the credit report itself. A score below one lender's cutoff may fall above another lender's cutoff for a different product.
What can cause a score to move from one month to the next?
Report data changes constantly. A newly reported balance, a new account, a hard inquiry, an account closing, or an item reaching the end of its reporting period can all shift the calculation. The FICO model, for example, weights payment history at about 35% and amounts owed at about 30%, so changes in those categories carry the most influence.
Related guides
- How Credit Scores Are Calculated
- Credit Score Ranges Explained
- Fico Vs Vantagescore
- Payment History And Credit Scores
- Credit Utilization Explained
- Length Of Credit History Explained