FICO Score 8

What is FICO Score 8? It is a scoring model, not a score of 8. The 8 is the version FICO sells. The number that model produces is a three-digit rank from 300 to 850. A report that prints “FICO Score 8” is naming the product. The score itself, if it is that product, will be a number in the hundreds.

FICO Score 9 is a later model. A lender buying Score 8 is not buying Score 9. FICO Auto Score 8 and FICO Bankcard Score 8 are industry versions of that family. They often use a 250–900 scale. They are not the same object as the Score 8 a consumer app may show.

FICO Score 8 chart

FICO publishes rating categories on that 300–850 scale. The chart is the range, not a formula that turns one payment into points.

Poor 300–579 Fair 580–669 Good 670–739 Very good 740–799 Exceptional 800–850

300 580 670 740 800 850

FICO Score 8 range. The 8 is the model version. The score itself runs from 300 to 850.

Rating	FICO Score 8
Poor	300–579
Fair	580–669
Good	670–739
Very good	740–799
Exceptional	800–850

FICO’s published categories on the 300–850 scale. A lender can still use a different cutoff.

Those labels are FICO’s published categories, as myFICO’s credit-education pages describe them. A card issuer or auto lender can still approve, price, or decline using a cutoff that is not on this chart. “Good” on the chart is not a promise that a given lender will treat 670 the same way.

FICO lists five parts for scores used in most lending: payment history about 35 percent, amounts owed about 30 percent, length of history about 15 percent, new credit about 10 percent, and credit mix about 10 percent. Those weights are not an equation a person can solve. How those five parts work on a full file is in what makes up your credit score.

A lender may buy FICO Score 8, an older or newer version, or an industry option. A number in a bank app may be a FICO Score, a VantageScore, or a proprietary rank. Movement in one of those numbers is not movement in the others. The file underneath them is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The score is a product that reads the file.