7 Habits of People With Excellent Credit Scores

Want to improve your credit score?

photo illustration of budgeting
(Image credit: iStockphoto)

Want to improve your credit score? Take a page from the best. People with excellent scores know that following a few basic rules is the key to success. Adopting their habits could boost your score into the stratosphere, opening the door to the best interest rates and terms on loans. And capturing the lowest loan rates can save you a bundle of money in the long run.

The two big consumer credit scoring companies are FICO, whose scores are most commonly used in lending decisions, and VantageScore, a company created by the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) whose scores have been gaining ground among lenders. The latest models of both scores operate on a scale of 300 to 850. Generally, a score of 750 or higher is considered excellent.

Once you know your score, you can start taking steps to raise it by following these seven habits of people with excellent credit scores.

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Lisa Gerstner
Editor, Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine

Lisa has been the editor of Kiplinger Personal Finance since June 2023. Previously, she spent more than a decade reporting and writing for the magazine on a variety of topics, including credit, banking and retirement. She has shared her expertise as a guest on the Today Show, CNN, Fox, NPR, Cheddar and many other media outlets around the nation. Lisa graduated from Ball State University and received the school’s “Graduate of the Last Decade” award in 2014. A military spouse, she has moved around the U.S. and currently lives in the Philadelphia area with her husband and two sons.