Credit Score Ranges Explained: What 580, 670 and 740 Actually Get You

Scores are reported as a continuous number, but pricing is not continuous. It jumps at thresholds. A borrower at 679 and a borrower at 680 are financially identical people receiving materially different offers, and knowing where those cliffs sit changes what you aim for.

The ranges

FICO Scores run 300 to 850. The standard published tiers:

VantageScore uses the same 300–850 scale but different labels: 750+ excellent, 700–749 good, 650–699 fair, 600–649 poor, below 600 very poor. The two families do not produce identical numbers for the same person — differences of 20 to 40 points are common — so treat your score as a band rather than a precise figure.

The median sits around 710–715, meaning half of people with a credit file score above that. "Average" is therefore decent, and the interesting thresholds are the ones above and below it.

What each tier actually unlocks

760+ — you stop paying the credit tax

This is the tier where the pricing curve flattens. Above roughly 760, additional points buy you almost nothing: a 790 and an 850 borrower generally receive the same mortgage rate.

• Best available rates on every product
• Premium rewards cards, high limits, and approval with minimal friction
• Lowest insurance tiers where credit-based scoring applies
• Rental applications pass screening without a second look
• No utility or mobile deposits

If you are at 760 or above, stop optimising your score. It is not a vanity metric with a leaderboard — it is a discount code, and yours is already fully applied. Spend the attention on investing or paying down debt instead.

740–759 — one threshold short

Worth pushing past, because mortgage pricing has a well-known break around 740. In many rate sheets the 740+ tier prices better than 720–739, and the difference on a large loan is real money.

If you are at 725–739 and buying a home within two years, this is the highest-value twenty points available to you. Usually it comes down to utilisation — see our improvement guide for how fast that moves.

670–739 — good, but paying for it

You will be approved for most things. You will not get the best price on any of them.

• Mortgages: available, including conventional products, but at a higher rate than the 740+ tier
• Auto loans: approved, typically 1–2.5 points above the best tier
• Credit cards: approved for mainstream cards, generally not premium travel products
• Insurance: middle tiers
• Renting: fine

The gap between 700 and 760 on a $320,000 mortgage has historically been worth roughly $60–$90 a month, or $25,000–$35,000 over the life of the loan. That is the size of the prize for moving from "good" to "very good."

620–669 — the FHA zone

This is where conventional lending gets difficult and government-backed products become the main route.

• FHA loans: many lenders require 580+ for the minimum down payment, with 500–579 requiring a substantially larger deposit. In practice most FHA lenders impose their own minimum above the programme floor, commonly 620–640.
• Conventional mortgages: available from some lenders at higher rates and with heavier scrutiny, or unavailable
• Auto loans: approved, but subprime pricing — commonly 10–16% APR
• Credit cards: secured cards and subprime unsecured cards with annual fees
• Renting: applications may require a larger deposit or a guarantor
• Insurance: noticeably higher premiums where permitted

If you are in this band, the return on score improvement is the highest it will ever be. Every twenty points is worth real monthly money.

580–619 — limited access

Approval becomes genuinely difficult across most products. Options are largely secured cards, subprime auto finance at high rates, FHA lending with a bigger deposit, and credit-builder products. This is the band where credit-builder loans and secured cards earn their keep — the goal is not a good rate, it is establishing a reportable payment history.

Below 580 — rebuilding mode

Most mainstream credit is unavailable. Focus on: secured cards with a small deposit used at under 10% and paid in full monthly; a credit-builder loan from a credit union; disputing every error on your report; and time. Serious negatives fall off after seven years, bankruptcies after seven to ten.

The specific dollar cost of each tier

Illustrative, using typical spreads rather than any one lender's rate sheet:

The mortgage column is why this matters. Everything else on the table is a rounding error next to it.

How to find your real number

1. Get all three reports free at annualcreditreport.com. Different bureaus hold different data, and a score from one is not a score from another.
2. Check the score your bank shows you. Useful for trend tracking. Understand it is probably not the version a mortgage lender will pull.
3. If you are mortgage shopping, ask the lender which score and tier they use. Then you know exactly what you are aiming at.
4. Do not buy a score from a third-party service when free versions exist.

What moves you between tiers

The factors and their weights are covered in detail in our improvement guide, but the summary for tier-jumping purposes:

That last row deserves emphasis. A surprising number of people who reach the top tier keep treating their score as something to maximise. It is a means to cheaper credit, and once you have the cheapest credit available the work is done.

Reviewed for accuracy against our editorial guidelines. Figures quoted are illustrative and reflect publicly available rates at the time of the last update; always confirm current terms with the provider.