What is an excellent credit score?

A lot of people can achieve good credit scores by practicing responsible financial habits, such as making on-time payments, but it takes a little extra knowledge — and some credit card savvy — to take your credit score from good to excellent.

But is having excellent credit worth it? If you want better financial opportunities, absolutely. Credit scores make up a huge part of our financial lives, so it’s to your advantage to learn how to get your credit score as high as possible — and getting an excellent credit score is just about as high as you can go.

So, how do you know if you have excellent credit? What is an excellent credit score and is there an easy way to get it? Let’s take a closer look at what is considered an excellent credit score, as well as what you can do to boost your credit score into the excellent range.

Do you have an excellent credit score?

According to the FICO credit scoring model, an excellent credit score falls between 800 and 850 points. FICO, or the Fair Isaac Corporation, operates one of the most popular credit scoring systems in the industry — in fact, myFICO reports that over 90 percent of top lenders use FICO credit scores to help them make lending decisions.

Another popular scoring model is VantageScore, which has several different models, the most important ones being VantageScore 3.0 and VantageScore 4.0. The most notable difference between FICO and VantageScore is the scoring range. With VantageScore, scores range from 300 to 850, and the factors that go into calculating a score are determined on a scale from “less influential” to “extremely influential.” If you have an excellent VantageScore, your credit score will be between 781 and 850.

If your credit score falls within the excellent credit score range, your credit is as good as it gets. Yes, you could try to achieve a perfect credit score, but you don’t need to actively work on building your credit the way you might if you had fair credit or bad credit. Instead, you can focus on maintaining your excellent credit score by practicing the responsible credit habits that helped you earn your score in the first place, like paying your bills on time and keeping your balances low.

What are the full credit score ranges?

What is an excellent credit score range? How does it compare to the other credit score ranges? Here’s a breakdown of the five FICO credit score ranges followed by the VantageScore ranges:

What are the factors that impact your credit score?

The FICO credit scoring model uses five factors to determine your credit score: payment history, credit utilization, credit history, credit mix and recent credit applications. VantageScore calculates scores a bit differently, but under the same set of criteria. Let’s take a closer look at how each of those factors impacts your credit score with both FICO and VantageScore:

FICO Score vs. VantageScore

The exact percentage breakdown that makes up your credit score, as well as the information that goes into each factor, can vary based not only on whether you’re looking at a FICO score or a VantageScore, but also on what credit model your lender or the credit bureau is using. That’s why you might see slight differences across the scores between the three major credit bureaus.

This chart shows the FICO score breakdown as posted by FICO, as well as the breakdown of VantageScore 3.0.

Steps to improve your credit score

If you want to learn how to get an excellent credit score — or if you already have excellent credit and want to work toward that perfect 850 — here are some steps you can take to improve your credit score:

1. Work on building positive payment history. Start by making on-time payments every month, if you aren’t doing so already. Since 35 percent of your credit score is based on your payment history, making on-time payments is one of the best things you can do to boost your credit score.
2. Start paying down your balances. The lower you can get those balances, the more available credit you’ll have, which is good for your credit utilization ratio and even better for your credit score. Keeping a low credit utilization — below 30 percent at least, but ideally within single digits — is another surefire way to keep a strong credit standing.
3. Try to increase your available credit. This will happen naturally if you pay down your balances, but you can also increase your available credit by requesting a credit limit increase or applying for a new credit card. If your credit already falls in the Very Good range, going online and requesting a credit limit increase on one of your existing credit cards might give you the point boost you need to take you over 800.
4. Keep an eye on your credit score. You’ll want to track your credit score on a regular basis — you can request your free report at AnnualCreditReport.com — and review your credit reports to ensure that all of the information is accurate and up to date.

Understanding how your credit score fluctuates based on your outstanding balances, new credit applications and overall credit history can help you make adjustments that will benefit your credit score both now and in the long run.

To quickly determine your current credit utilization ratio and get started on some of these improvements, check out Bankrate’s credit utilization ratio calculator.

Benefits of having excellent credit

There are numerous financial benefits of having excellent credit. When you have excellent credit, you can access the best credit cards on the market — including the top travel credit cards, the best cash-back credit cards, the best credit cards for dining out and more.

Those with higher credit scores can also sometimes see better credit card offers when going through the credit card prequalification process, especially with third-party tools. Bankrate’s CardMatch tool, for example, will match you with personalized card offers, including those with features like boosted welcome bonuses that you might not be able to get from the card issuer directly.

Credit cards for those with excellent credit scores generally offer lower interest rates, thanks to your strong credit history. When lenders trust you to pay back your debt promptly and responsibly, they have less of an incentive to charge high interest rates — which means you can expect to receive lower interest rates not only on your credit cards, but also on auto loans, personal loans and mortgages.

Plus, your excellent credit will never stand in the way of your ability to rent an apartment, open utility accounts or — if your employer checks credit before hiring — get a job.

The bottom line

You have an excellent credit score if your credit score falls within the 800 to 850 range for FICO — which is most commonly used by lenders — and the 781 to 850 range for VantageScore. With an excellent credit score, you’ll have access to more and better financial opportunities, including the ability to apply confidently to top credit cards and the potential to get better card and loan interest rates.

But having an excellent credit score doesn’t mean your credit journey is over. If you want to maintain that score, you still need to be diligent about not overspending, keeping your credit utilization ratio in check and paying your bills on time every month. If you don’t have an excellent credit score but want one, similar rules apply. You’ll need to build a positive payment history, make sure your credit utilization ratio stays low and keep track of your credit score closely.