What Is a Good Credit Score — FICO and CIBIL Ranges Explained

The US median FICO 8 score sits at roughly 717 according to FICO's own published data for 2024, which means roughly half the US adult population has a "good" credit score by FICO's own definition. The Indian median CIBIL score is a moving target without an official published number, but TransUnion's consumer reports suggest the typical Indian credit-active borrower sits between 700 and 730 — just inside or just below the "good" band that starts at 750. The headline question "what is a good credit score" hides a more useful question: a score good enough for what?

The bands themselves have specific definitions in both systems. What each band unlocks in real-world loan pricing and approval odds is where the score actually matters. A score of 720 versus 760 on FICO can be the difference between qualifying for a mortgage and qualifying for the best-advertised rate on the same mortgage, which over a 30-year term works out to tens of thousands of dollars in interest.

The FICO score ranges

FICO publishes five bands on its 300–850 scale, used in roughly 90% of US lending decisions:

FICO band	Range	Population share (approx.)	What it unlocks
Poor	300–579	~16%	Most credit declined; secured cards and subprime products only
Fair	580–669	~17%	Some credit cards and auto loans approved at high rates
Good	670–739	~21%	Most mainstream credit products approved at standard rates
Very Good	740–799	~25%	Best-advertised mortgage and auto loan rates open up
Exceptional	800–850	~21%	Premium cards with best rewards; lowest available rates on secured loans

The population shares are approximate and drawn from FICO's own published distribution data for 2024. The largest single band is the 740–799 "very good" range, which is also the lowest band where most lenders extend their best-published rates without further qualification.

VantageScore, the competing model used by Credit Karma and some lenders, uses similar bands but with slightly different cutoffs (Poor 300–600, Fair 601–660, Good 661–780, Excellent 781–850). When a free-credit-monitoring service shows a number different from your FICO score, it's usually showing a VantageScore — the underlying credit data is the same but the model is different.

The CIBIL score ranges

TransUnion CIBIL operates on a 300–900 scale, with the following commonly-cited bands:

CIBIL band	Range	What it unlocks in India
Poor	300–549	Most unsecured credit declined; secured loans only at high rates
Fair	550–649	Some credit cards and personal loans approved at premium rates
Good	650–749	Most credit products approved at standard published rates
Excellent	750–900	Best-published home loan, car loan, and credit card rates

The 750-and-above threshold is the widely-quoted target for Indian borrowers because that is the band at which most banks — SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak — apply their best published interest rates without additional rate adjustments. Below 750, the same banks will often approve the loan but at a rate 0.5–2.0 percentage points above the published headline.

The other Indian bureaus (Experian, Equifax, CRIF High Mark) use the same 300–900 range with similar band definitions, though the exact band cutoffs vary slightly. Most lenders pull from CIBIL first and check at least one other bureau for large loans.

What each band actually unlocks — US lending

The headline-rate impact of a score band shows up most clearly on long-tenure secured loans, where small rate differences compound over decades.

US 30-year fixed mortgage, late 2024 (illustrative spreads from Freddie Mac PMMS and FICO loan savings calculator):

FICO band	Approximate rate range	Monthly payment on $300,000	Total interest over 30 years
760+	6.50%	$1,896	$382,400
700–759	6.85%	$1,966	$407,800
660–699	7.20%	$2,036	$433,000
620–659	7.65%	$2,127	$465,500
Below 620	8.50%+	$2,307	$530,500+

The 760+ borrower pays approximately $148,000 less in total interest over 30 years than the sub-620 borrower on the identical $300,000 loan. This is the most extreme single example of why credit scores matter, but the same pattern holds at smaller scales for car loans, personal loans, and credit cards.

For credit cards specifically, the Federal Reserve G.19 report put the average APR on US credit card accounts assessed interest at roughly 24% in late 2024. Borrowers with FICO 740+ generally see card APRs in the 18–22% range; borrowers with FICO under 620 typically see APRs in the 28–32% range when approved at all.

What each band actually unlocks — India lending

For Indian home loans in 2024, the same pattern holds at the bureau level:

CIBIL band	Typical home loan rate (SBI/HDFC/ICICI)	EMI on ₹50 lakh, 20-year	Total interest
800+	8.50%	₹43,400	₹54.2 lakh
750–799	8.75%	₹44,200	₹56.1 lakh
700–749	9.25%	₹45,800	₹59.9 lakh
650–699	10.00%	₹48,300	₹65.9 lakh
Below 650	Often declined or 11%+	₹51,600+	₹73.8 lakh+

The 800+ borrower pays approximately ₹19.6 lakh less in total interest over 20 years than the sub-650 borrower on the identical ₹50 lakh loan. For Indian credit cards, the score band determines both approval odds and credit limit assignment more than it changes the headline APR — Indian credit card rates cluster in the 36–42% effective annualised range across most issuers regardless of bureau score, but a higher score qualifies the borrower for higher-limit cards and premium rewards products.

For personal loans and auto loans, the spread between excellent and poor CIBIL borrowers is typically 4–10 percentage points in the published-rate menu, with similar approval-odds effects.

What "good" actually means in practice

The score band names — "good," "very good," "exceptional" — sound like grades on a school report card. They aren't. A more useful framing: each band is a different price tier on every credit product you might apply for over the next few years.

Good (670–739 FICO / 650–749 CIBIL) is the threshold of access. Most mainstream credit products approve at this level, at rates that are reasonable but not the best advertised. This is enough to get a mortgage, a car loan, a credit card with normal rewards, an apartment lease, and a typical job that runs a credit check.

Very good (740–799 FICO) and excellent (750–900 CIBIL) is the threshold of best pricing. The published headline rates on mortgages, auto loans, and premium credit cards generally apply at this level without further adjustment. The pricing improvement from "good" to "very good" is the largest discrete jump on the score curve in dollar or rupee terms over a long-tenure loan.

Exceptional (800+ FICO) is largely cosmetic in terms of rate impact. The pricing on most products is the same at 800 as at 760. The exceptional band matters mostly for premium-product access (the best-rewards credit cards, jumbo mortgages, certain types of business credit) and for the small comfort margin against an unexpected score drop.

The practical implication is that the score-improvement effort with the highest dollar return is moving from the high-fair to the low-very-good band — roughly 660 to 760. That's where the loan-rate savings per score point are largest. For details on which factors actually move the score, see our piece on how credit scores are calculated.

How to know your current score

Both US and Indian bureaus offer free annual credit reports. In the US, annualcreditreport.com is the federally-mandated free source for Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion reports. The reports don't include a score; for free FICO scores, many credit cards (Discover, Citi, Capital One, Bank of America) provide them on monthly statements.

In India, all four bureaus (CIBIL, Experian, Equifax, CRIF High Mark) are required by RBI to provide one free full credit report per year per consumer. Indian fintech platforms (Paisabazaar, BankBazaar, Cred) also display CIBIL scores for free.

Checking your own score is a soft inquiry that does not affect the score. Only hard inquiries from lenders processing credit applications affect it. Monitoring your score monthly is normal and harmless.

Common misconceptions about credit score bands

The first misconception is that 850 (or 900) is the realistic target. Less than 2% of US borrowers have a perfect 850 FICO. The very-good band starts at 740 and gets the borrower the best-published rates on most products; chasing the last 50 points has minimal practical return.

The second is that closing accounts raises the score. Closing a credit card removes that card's available credit from the utilization calculation, which usually raises overall utilization on remaining balances and lowers the score. Old, unused cards with no annual fee should generally stay open.

The third is that paying off a loan immediately raises the score. The closed loan stops contributing to active payment history and to credit mix, which can produce a small short-term score drop. The longer-term effect is positive but the immediate one can be the opposite of what borrowers expect.

The fourth is that there is one universal credit score. A US borrower has at least three FICO 8 scores (one per bureau), plus FICO 9, FICO 10, multiple industry-specific FICO variants (auto, mortgage, bankcard), and at least one VantageScore. The numbers vary by 10–40 points across these models. The lender that approves a specific loan is the only entity that knows which model they used.

What experts say

myFICO's score range page is the canonical source for the 300–850 FICO band definitions cited above. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's mortgage rate guide shows live rate spreads by credit band. Freddie Mac's PMMS weekly survey is the underlying source for US 30-year fixed mortgage rates.

For Indian borrowers, TransUnion CIBIL's score page covers the 300–900 range and band definitions. The Reserve Bank of India's home loan and personal loan rate disclosures track the published-rate menus across major Indian banks.

For the underlying credit data that any score sits on top of, see what is a credit report. For the credit utilization ratio that drives nearly a third of any score, see credit utilization.

Frequently asked questions

What is considered a good credit score on the FICO scale? FICO defines 'good' as a score from 670 to 739, 'very good' as 740 to 799, and 'exceptional' as 800 to 850. The US median FICO 8 score is around 717 (FICO, 2024 data), which sits in the good range. Most prime lending products — mortgages at the best advertised rate, premium credit cards, low-rate auto loans — open up at 740 and above.

What is considered a good CIBIL score in India? TransUnion CIBIL considers 750 and above to be a good score. Above 800 is excellent. Most banks in India price home loans, personal loans, and credit cards at their best published rates only for borrowers above 750. Below 650 the score is considered poor and most unsecured credit is either declined or priced 4–10 percentage points above the published rate.

What does each credit score band actually mean for loan rates? On a US 30-year mortgage in late 2024, the spread between excellent (760+) and fair (660-679) FICO was roughly 0.5 to 0.8 percentage points (Freddie Mac PMMS). On a $300,000 loan that's $50,000-$80,000 in extra interest over 30 years. On an Indian home loan in 2024, the spread between a 780+ CIBIL borrower and a 650 borrower was roughly 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points, which is ₹4-12 lakh on a ₹50 lakh loan.

Is a 700 credit score good? Yes — 700 sits in the 'good' band on FICO (670-739) and the 'good' band on CIBIL (650-749). It will qualify you for most mainstream credit products at reasonable rates, but not at the best-advertised rates, which generally require 740+ on FICO or 780+ on CIBIL. The gap between 700 and 760 is where the largest pricing improvements happen on long-tenure loans.

In summary

A "good" credit score is 670–739 on FICO and 650–749 on CIBIL. The bands above — very good (740–799 FICO) and excellent (750–900 CIBIL) — unlock the best-published rates on mortgages, auto loans, and premium credit cards. The score-improvement effort with the highest dollar return is moving from the high-fair to the low-very-good band, roughly 660 to 760, where loan-rate savings per score point are largest.

Below the very-good band the rate menu adjusts upward by 0.25–2.0 percentage points, and on a 20–30 year mortgage that means ₹15–20 lakh in India or $50,000–$150,000 in the US in extra total interest. The score is a price.

Sources

• myFICO, What Is a Good Credit Score — myfico.com/credit-education/credit-scores
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mortgage Rate Explorer — consumerfinance.gov/owning-a-home/explore-rates
• Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey — freddiemac.com/pmms
• TransUnion CIBIL, Credit Score — cibil.com/credit-score
• Federal Reserve, Consumer Credit G.19 — federalreserve.gov/releases/g19/current