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Sign up freeYour credit score gives you an idea of how companies may view you when you apply for credit. A higher score means lenders see you as lower risk. So, a good score will be good news if you're hoping to get a new credit card, apply for a loan, or even a mortgage. Whatever you need credit for, making sure your score's good, or even better excellent, means you're more likely to be accepted, and offered better rates. Here, we'll take a look at what a good credit score is, how it's calculated, and what factors make it ‘good’.
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Sign up freeThere's no 'magic' number when it comes to your score. Different companies will be looking for different things in potential customers, so while you may be one lender's cup of tea, you may not tick all the boxes for another. We provide a score from between 0-999 and consider a 'good' score to be anywhere between 881 and 960, with 'fair' or average between 721 and 880. Before you apply for credit, it's a really good idea to check your free Experian Credit Score, so you can make more informed choices when it comes to applying for credit.
Whenever you apply for credit, lenders will look at information from your credit report, application form, plus any information they hold on you (if you're an existing customer). All this data is then used to calculate your credit score. Every lender has a different way of calculating it, largely because they all have access to different information but they also have different lending criteria.
Generally, the higher your score, the better your chances of being accepted for credit, at the best rates.
Credit reference agencies (also known as CRAs) like ourselves, calculate a version of your credit score. How each CRA calculates this varies but there are certain factors they all consider, including - how much you owe, how often you apply for credit, and whether your payments are made on time. You can read more about the factors that influence your score in our guide to what affects your score.
There are plenty of things you can do to help improve your score, but it can take time and patience, and some will-power too.
Ways to improve your score:
Once you've got your score where you want it to be, here's our tips on how to keep it healthy: