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What's a Good Number for a Credit Score?

I recently had a question from one of our loyal visitors - "My credit score is 695. Is that considered a good number for a credit score?". John B. from Texas.

695 is considered by most to be a fairly good credit score, but not great. Any score below 700 could probably use some improvement. If your goal is to obtain a loan/mortgage with the absolute best interest rates lenders have to offer, then you will want to work on raising your credit score to at least 725, that's where the "very good" to "excellent" range typically begins.

How to raise your credit score 30 points

Raising your credit score 30 points or more takes some time, how much time and how difficult the task, depends on your current situation. First you have to figure out why your credit score is low in the first place. If you've experienced an event such as bankruptcy, repossession, late or missed payments it might take a while for your credit score to recover from such a blow.

However, sometimes the culprit is an error on your credit report. Have you checked over your report thoroughly to make sure your creditors have reported your account and payment information correctly? For example, maybe XYZ Auto Finance Company erroneously reported that you had missed a payment a couple months ago? Errors do happen, be sure to check your report for any errors and get them fixed ASAP, and get your credit score back on track.

No errors, no bankruptcy...now what?

If there are no errors on your credit report, and no bankruptcy, repo etc., then what about your credit card balances? For the best credit score possible, keep your credit card balances low. What's considered low? Keeping your CC balances 25% or less of your total credit line is a good guideline.

My CC balance is around 50% of my total credit limit, is that a problem?

Yes it is! Anything above 50% will drag down your credit score quite a bit. For example we'll say you have two credit cards, one has a $3,000 credit limit, the other has a $5,000 limit. Your total "credit line" or "credit limit" on your credit cards would then be $8,000. If you carry a total balance on both cards of $4,000, your total balance would be occupying 50% of your total credit limit, this is not good for your credit score. If this sounds like your situation, work on paying down your credit card balances as much as possible.

If you cannot figure out why your credit score is low, it could be because you have too much debt such as personal loans, student loans etc. Or it could simply be that your credit history is too short. In any event, our credit score estimator may be able to help you figure out what is bringing down your credit score, give it a try.

Did you know that you can access your own credit report and score without damaging your credit, and it won't lower your credit score no matter how many times you do it? Did you know that you can also get your credit report and credit score for free? Here's how.