Know Your FICO Scores and Credit Reports | myFICO (2024)

FAQs

How do you know your FICO score? ›

The first place you should check for your free FICO Score is with your credit card issuer. Many card issuers provide their cardholders with free access to their credit score. While there's a good chance you'll have access to your credit score, the key is whether it's your FICO Score or VantageScore.

A credit score is a three-digit number that measures your financial health and how well you manage credit and debt. FICO scores are a specific type of score that lenders can use when making borrowing decisions. The FICO credit scoring system is the most widely used credit score.

A FICO Score is a three-digit number based on the information in your credit reports. It helps lenders determine how likely you are to repay a loan. This, in turn, affects how much you can borrow, how many months you have to repay, and how much it will cost (the interest rate).

FICO ^® Score Open Access is a program that helps educate consumers on FICO ^® Scores and increases consumer access to FICO ^® Scores. FICO works with over 200 financial institutions to give their customers absolutely free access to the FICO ^® Scores they use to manage credit accounts.

Many credit card companies, banks and loan companies have started providing credit scores for their customers. It may be on your statement, or you can access it online by logging into your account. Purchase credit scores directly from one of the three major credit bureaus or other provider, such as FICO.

Good news: Credit scores aren't impacted by checking your own credit reports or credit scores. In fact, regularly checking your credit reports and credit scores is an important way to ensure your personal and account information is correct, and may help detect signs of potential identity theft.

A perfect credit score of 850 is hard to get, but an excellent credit score is more achievable. If you want to get the best credit cards, mortgages and competitive loan rates — which can save you money over time — excellent credit can help you qualify. “Excellent” is the highest tier of credit scores you can have.

Your Credit Karma score should be the same or close to your FICO Score, which is what any prospective lender will probably check. The range of your credit score (such as “good” or “very good”) is more important than the precise number, which will vary by source and edge up or down often.

Is my FICO score more important than my credit score? ›

"For years, there has been a lot of confusion among consumers over which credit scores matter. While there are many types of credit scores, FICO Scores matter the most because the majority of lenders use these scores to decide whether to approve loan applicants and at what interest rates."

Your FICO Score is a credit score. But if your FICO score is different from another of your credit scores, it may be that the score you're viewing was calculated using one of the other scoring models that exist.

Creditors often use FICO scores to decide whether to approve an application for a loan or a credit card. It gives them a picture of how you've handled credit in the past. They also check other information, such as your income and existing debt obligations, to see whether you have the means to repay them.

There is no single credit score that's considered the most accurate. The truth is, there are several types of credit scores available to lenders—and many versions of each of those scores. Scores are calculated based on many of the same factors. But thinking of these scores in terms of accuracy can still be misleading.

Highlights: While older models of credit scores used to go as high as 900, you can no longer achieve a 900 credit score. The highest score you can receive today is 850. Anything above 800 is considered an excellent credit score.

The main categories considered are a person's payment history (35%), amounts owed (30%), length of credit history (15%), new credit accounts (10%), and types of credit used (10%). FICO scores are available from each of the three major credit bureaus, based on information contained in consumers' credit reports.

Advertiser Disclosure

Other factors may include: your credit profile and what products we think you want. It is this compensation that enables Credit Karma to provide you with services like free access to your credit scores and free monitoring of your credit and financial accounts.

When you check your credit scores for the first time, you might be surprised to find a three-digit number, even if you've never used credit before. That's because your credit score doesn't start at zero. In fact, the lowest possible score from FICO® and VantageScore® is 300.