What Is The Highest Credit Score Possible?
Keeping track of and maintaining a high credit score is a big obsession to many (I’m not sure why, but some people think it’s really important). However, a lot of people don’t seem to understand where the numbers come from, what they mean, or even the range of possible scores!
The Highest Fico Credit Score Possible Is 850
The highest credit score you can have is 850 (if you’re using the Fico score from The Fair Isaac Corporation). While there are other scores from various credit agencies, the Fico score seems to have really taken over to the point that for 99% of consumers, you can safely ignore the other scores and focus solely on your Fico score.
Fair Issac arrives at your score by combining a ton of data that is supposed to indicate your average credit-worthiness. I say average because it’s not necessarily your credit-worthiness that is calculated; rather, it’s the credit-worthiness of the average person in your situation. This score is important when trying to secure a loan, mortgage, capitalization or anything financial in nature because it represents about how risky the average person in your position would be to extend credit to.
At 850, the banks are likely to be quite generous in lending money to you because with such a high number, the chance for you to default on a loan is well below 1%. Your number shows that you take your financial obligations very seriously and pay all your bills on time. Take note, your credit score may actually take a dive if you don’t have any outstanding loans because financial institutions will tend to see you as a risker customer. No credit is worse than bad credit in a lot of ways.
Where To Get Your Credit Score
Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t many truly no-strings free ways to get your credit score (you can get your credit report free, however). Your best bet is to either purchase your credit score from one of the major credit reporting bureaus (Equifax will give you your credit score from all three credit bureaus for a small fee) or go directly to the source and by from myFico.com, which is a bit cheaper. However, the different bureaus do still maintain different scoring systems, so I would probably go with the Equifax product
if I were looking to take out a loan in the near future.
Another way of calculating financial health is Equifax’s Beacon credit score, which as far as credit score range is concerned, has the same lows. However, when it comes to the question of what is the highest credit score, it would be 750 since this is synonymous to excellent credit. Once again, the charts are wide open as to what is the highest credit score possible.
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