What is a good credit score?

Each credit reference agency uses a slightly different set of metrics to determine credit scores, the three main ones are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. There is no minimum universal credit score needed to get car finance, it will depend on the lender you’re getting finance from and which credit reference agency they use.

What is the average credit score in the UK?

The current UK averages for the main credit reference agencies are 797 for Experian, 585 for Equifax and 573 for TransUnion.

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Credit Scores Explained

What Is A Credit Score?

To put it simply, your credit score is essentially your financial footprint. It looks at your financial history, to help lenders assess how “safe” you are going to be to lend money to. What we mean by “safe”, is how likely it is that you’re going to pay the loan back based on your financial history. It’s not possible to see whether you’re going to be able to make the specific repayments for the entirety of the contract, but your history will give them a good indication of whether or not you’re reliable.

Your credit score is going to be influenced by a number of different factors. Some of these can include:

whether you have ever been declared bankrupt
if you’ve made late payments on your bills
if you’ve ever missed loan payments in the past

The difference between a bad and a good credit rating

As far as your credit score is concerned, if you make your payments regularly and on time, your credit score will be far better than if you don’t.

Good

A good credit rating means that you are more reliable in financial terms. In the past, you have likely paid all of your bills on time, you don’t pay late or not pay at all.

Bad

If you have a poor credit rating, you might be someone who misses payments frequently or pays them late. The reasons for these might not be entirely your fault or were beyond your control, but your credit score won’t take any of that into account.

How are credit scores graded?

Each of the main credit agencies uses a different grading scale, but as a general rule, the higher the number, the better your chances of being accepted are.

Below are an example of how the three main CRA’s grade their credit scores.

Experian Credit Scores

Excellent	Very Good	Good	Poor	Very Poor
961 - 999	881 - 960	721 - 880	561 - 720	0 - 560

Equifax Credit Scores

Excellent	Very Good	Good	Poor	Very Poor
811 - 1000	671 - 810	531 - 670	439 - 530	0 - 438

TransUnion Credit Scores

Excellent	Good	Ok	Needs some work	Needs work
628 - 710	604 - 627	566 - 603	551 - 565	0 - 550

Credit Scores Explained

What Is A Credit Score?

The difference between a bad and a good credit rating

Good

Bad

How to improve your credit score

Check your credit score

Getting car finance if you have poor credit

Credit Score FAq's

How are credit scores graded?

Experian Credit Scores

Equifax Credit Scores

TransUnion Credit Scores

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