A credit score of 670 or higher is generally considered good. Under the FICO scoring model, which most lenders use, “good” falls between 670 and 739, while VantageScore labels scores from 661 to 780 as good. Both scales top out at 850, and both start treating you noticeably better once you cross into that mid-to-upper 600s range.
FICO and VantageScore Tiers
Two main scoring models generate the three-digit number lenders see when you apply for credit. FICO is by far the more common in lending decisions, but VantageScore appears on many free credit-monitoring tools. Their ranges overlap but aren’t identical.
FICO breaks scores into five tiers:
- Exceptional: 800 to 850
- Very Good: 740 to 799
- Good: 670 to 739
- Fair: 580 to 669
- Poor: 579 and below
VantageScore uses slightly different labels and cutoffs:
- Excellent: 781 to 850
- Good: 661 to 780
- Fair: 601 to 660
- Poor: 500 to 600
- Very Poor: 300 to 499
The practical takeaway: if your score is around 670 or above on either model, you’re in “good” territory. That doesn’t mean 670 and 740 get you the same deal, though. Lenders use your exact score to set your interest rate, and every 20 to 40 points can shift the terms you’re offered.
What a Good Score Gets You on a Mortgage
The difference between a good credit score and a fair one shows up clearly in mortgage pricing. As of March 2026, average 30-year fixed mortgage rates on a $350,000 conventional loan looked like this across FICO scores:
- 620 (fair): 7.14%
- 660 (fair): 6.88%
- 700 (good): 6.63%
- 740 (very good): 6.44%
- 780+ (exceptional): 6.25%
Moving from a 620 score to a 700 score on a $350,000 mortgage saves roughly half a percentage point in interest. Over 30 years, that translates to tens of thousands of dollars in total interest paid. Getting from 700 to 780 saves another third of a point or so, but the biggest jump in savings happens when you move out of the fair range and into good territory.
Notice that rates flatten once you reach about 780. Scores above that still look great on paper, but lenders are already giving you their best pricing at that level.
How It Affects Auto Loans and Credit Cards
Auto lenders group borrowers into broad tiers rather than pricing every 20-point increment. “Prime” borrowers, those with scores roughly 661 to 780, paid an average of 6.27% on new car loans and 9.98% on used car loans as of late 2025. “Super prime” borrowers at 781 and above averaged 4.66% on new cars and 7.70% on used ones. That gap between prime and super prime is more than 1.5 percentage points on a new car, which on a $35,000 five-year loan adds up to roughly $1,500 in extra interest.
For credit cards, a good score opens the door to most rewards cards, including popular cash-back and travel options. Card issuers rarely publish a hard minimum score, but industry guidance consistently points to the good-or-better range as the threshold where approval odds improve significantly. If your score sits below 670 on the FICO scale, you’re more likely to be limited to secured cards or basic cards with no rewards.
Why Your Score Might Differ Between Services
If you check your score through your bank’s app and then check it on a free monitoring site, you may see two different numbers. This is normal. Your bank might show a FICO score while the monitoring site shows a VantageScore. Even within the FICO family, there are dozens of versions tailored to specific industries like auto lending or mortgage lending. Each version weighs your credit history slightly differently.
What matters most is the general range. If you’re seeing 690 on one platform and 710 on another, both are telling the same story: you’re in good shape, with room to improve.
What Factors Push Your Score Higher
Five components determine your FICO score, and knowing their weight helps you focus on what actually moves the needle.
Payment history is the single biggest factor, accounting for about 35% of your score. One missed payment reported 30 days late can drop a good score by 50 points or more. The simplest thing you can do for your credit is pay every bill on time, every month.
Credit utilization, the percentage of your available credit you’re currently using, makes up about 30%. Keeping your balances below 30% of your total credit limit is a common guideline, but people with scores above 750 tend to use less than 10%. If you carry a $3,000 balance on a card with a $10,000 limit, that’s 30% utilization. Paying it down to $1,000 would drop you to 10% and likely bump your score within a billing cycle or two.
The remaining factors are length of credit history (15%), your mix of credit types like installment loans and revolving accounts (10%), and recent credit inquiries (10%). These matter, but they’re harder to change quickly. Keeping old accounts open, even if you rarely use them, helps your average account age. Spacing out new credit applications avoids clusters of hard inquiries that can shave a few points each.
Newer Scoring Models on the Horizon
The mortgage industry is in the process of transitioning to FICO 10T and VantageScore 4.0, both of which were validated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in 2022. These newer models incorporate additional data like rent payment history, which could help people with thinner credit files qualify for better rates. The 670-and-above “good” threshold isn’t expected to change, but the newer models may shift some borrowers into higher tiers if they have a track record of on-time rent payments that older models ignored.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expect to publish historical FICO 10T scores in summer 2026, with full adoption coming later. For now, lenders still rely on older FICO versions for most decisions, so the current score ranges remain the ones that matter for your next application.
Getting From Fair to Good
If your score is in the high 500s or 600s, crossing into the good range is one of the most financially meaningful jumps you can make. The first two levers to pull are on-time payments and utilization, since together they control about 65% of your score. Set up autopay for at least the minimum on every account so a forgotten bill doesn’t derail your progress. Then focus on paying down revolving balances, starting with whichever card has the highest utilization ratio.
Dispute any errors on your credit reports through the bureaus’ online portals. Mistakes like a balance reported incorrectly or an account that isn’t yours can drag your score down for no reason. You’re entitled to free reports weekly from all three bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com, so checking for errors costs nothing.
Most people who focus on these basics can move from fair to good within six to twelve months. The timeline depends on how far you need to climb and whether any negative marks like collections or late payments are aging off your report. Negative items lose their scoring impact gradually and fall off entirely after seven years.