Credit score ranges: what 300 to 850 really means

Nearly every credit score a lender pulls on you today sits on a scale from 300 to 850. FICO’s base scores use it, and so do VantageScore 3.0 and 4.0. That agreement is newer than most people realize, and leftovers from older scales still turn up in old articles, bank brochures and the occasional app. No wonder so many people aren’t sure what their number is actually “out of.”

The odd numbers you may have seen (250, 280, 990) each belong to a real score, 350 belongs to none, and only two scales decide most loans. FICO’s own labels have a quirk too: the bottom tier is wider than the next three combined.

Every scale you might see, in one table

Five ranges are in circulation, and only two of them matter for most lending decisions. The table lists who actually looks at each one.

The first two rows cover the scores behind most approvals. myFICO describes the industry-specific versions as ranging “from 250-900 (compared to 300-850 for base FICO Scores),” and those versions only enter the picture when you apply for a car loan or a credit card with a lender that has chosen them. For a full rundown of who pulls which version, see FICO 8, 9, 10 and 10T: which version lenders use.

What FICO’s tier labels mean, and why the bottom one is so wide

FICO splits its 300 to 850 scale into five named bands. The labels and cutoffs below are FICO’s own, from myFICO. The third column is simple arithmetic: how many possible scores fall inside each band.

Look at that last column. The Poor band holds 280 possible scores. Fair, Good and Very Good together hold 220. So “Poor” lumps together a 510, which might reflect a recent charge-off or several collections, and a 575, which sits five points from Fair. If your score is in the high 500s, the label undersells where you are. You’re closer to Fair than a 510 is to you.

The bands also get narrower as you climb. FICO describes Fair as below the U.S. average “though many lenders will approve loans with this score,” Good as “near or slightly above the average,” and Very Good as above average. Exceptional, 800 and up, is only 51 points wide. In FICO’s own framing, an 810 and an 850 sit in the same bucket, something to remember before you spend a year chasing 850.

Labels are not lending rules

No lender approves you because FICO calls you “Good.” Lenders work from cutoffs written into their own guidelines or a loan program’s rules. FHA, for example, keeps a 580 minimum for its maximum-financing option and allows 500 to 579 with a 90% loan-to-value cap, and HUD restated both thresholds in October 2026 when it added new score models. Individual lenders can set higher minimums on top of that. If you’re near a real cutoff like 580, that number matters far more than which label you fall under.

Other publishers draw the lines elsewhere

Equifax’s educational score uses its own bands: Poor 280 to 559, Fair 560 to 659, Good 660 to 724, Very Good 725 to 759 and Excellent 760 to 850. A 665 is “Fair” on FICO’s chart and “Good” on Equifax’s. The number hasn’t moved, and neither label changes what a lender does. VantageScore tier names also vary depending on who is displaying them, so treat any VantageScore label you see as something that app picked rather than an official cutoff.

Why some places say 250, 280 or 990

Each odd number belongs to a specific score, and none of them is what most lenders pull.

250 to 900. These are FICO’s industry-specific scores, built for one kind of lending. myFICO says the Auto Scores are used in most auto financing decisions, and the Bankcard Scores are used by many card issuers. Because the scale is wider, a 760 on a Bankcard Score is not the same reading as a 760 on FICO 8.

280 to 850. This is the Equifax Credit Score, which Equifax calls “an educational credit score designed to give you an idea of where your credit stands.” Equifax says lenders “will not use” it to judge your creditworthiness.

501 to 990. This was the original VantageScore scale. VantageScore launched in March 2006 on what it called “an easy-to-understand scale range of 501-990,” and TransUnion’s product material from the VantageScore 2.0 era lists letter grades from A (901 to 990) down to F (501 to 600). In March 2013, VantageScore 3.0 “adopted a 300-850 scale range,” and 4.0 kept it. If an article quotes a 990 ceiling, it’s describing a retired model.

Where does a 350 floor come from?

No current FICO, VantageScore or bureau-branded score we could find starts at 350. The figure still gets repeated online, often on pages that seem to have misremembered 300. If a source tells you scores run from 350 to 850, treat it as an error. If an app or lender shows you a score with a 350 floor, ask what model produced it. Lenders and consumers both have access to many scoring formulas, as the CFPB has pointed out, and a number without a named model is close to meaningless.

A number means nothing without its scale

The same three digits can sit in very different places depending on the scale. Take a score of 700 and work the arithmetic.

On a 300 to 850 scale, 700 is 400 points above the floor. The full span is 550 points, so 700 is 400 ÷ 550 = 0.727, about 73% of the way to the top.

The same relative position on other scales:

• On the old 501 to 990 scale: 501 + (0.727 × 489) = about 857.
• On the 250 to 900 industry scale: 250 + (0.727 × 650) = about 723.

This math only shows why a bare number can’t be compared across scales. Don’t use it as a conversion. Each model ranks people with its own formula, so your real Bankcard Score could be higher or lower than 723, and nobody can turn a VantageScore into a FICO Score with a calculator. Compare a score only with the same model from the same bureau, ideally over time.

What to do with your own number

Start by finding out exactly what you’re looking at, then compare it with the cutoff that matters for your next application.

• Identify the model and bureau. The fine print under most app scores names both, such as “VantageScore 3.0, TransUnion.” If it doesn’t, assume it isn’t what a lender will pull. FICO vs. VantageScore explains how far apart the two can land.
• Find the real threshold for your goal. Mortgage programs, auto lenders and card issuers each set their own cutoffs. Write down the one that applies and measure how far you are from it.
• Decode a score you’ve been given. If a score arrived without much explanation, the score decoder helps you place it.
• Check the reports behind the score. Every score is calculated from a credit report. You can pull yours from all three bureaus free every week at AnnualCreditReport.com and look for errors before a lender does.
• Put it in context. If you want to know how you compare with everyone else, see the average credit score in 2026.