What is a bad credit score?
Where the lines fall for FICO and VantageScore, what “subprime” means, and what a low score costs you in practice.
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US credit, without the sales pitch
What a bad credit score really means — and how to fix it
Credit scores decide your interest rates, your deposits and sometimes your apartment. Here is how they are built, where the “bad” line sits, and the steps that actually move the number.
FICO and VantageScore both run from 300 to 850. Below about 580 most lenders treat a score as poor.
Start with the basics
How credit scores are calculated
The five factors behind a FICO Score and how much each one weighs — and what never counts at all.
Read the guide →How to rebuild bad credit
A realistic order of steps, from the first on-time payment to a score lenders like, with timelines.
Read the guide →Common myths
- “Checking my own score hurts it.”It does not. Your own check is a soft inquiry and is never part of the score.
- “Closing old cards helps.”Often the opposite: you lose available credit, so your utilization goes up.
- “My income is part of my score.”Income is not in your credit report. Lenders may ask for it separately.
- “Paying a collection erases it.”Not always. Newer scoring models ignore paid collections; older ones still count them.
- “I have one credit score.”You have dozens: different models, versions and bureaus give different numbers.
- “Carrying a balance builds credit.”No. Paying the statement in full shows the same on-time history and costs nothing.
More guides
Errors on your credit report and how to dispute them
How to get all three reports for free, what to look for and how the dispute process works.
Read the guide →FICO and VantageScore ranges
Both scales side by side, with a quick lookup: type a score and see its band.
Open the ranges →Credit glossary
Utilization, hard inquiry, charge-off, thin file — the words lenders use, explained in a sentence or two.
Open the glossary →