786 Credit Score

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A 786 credit score is not a good credit score; it’s an excellent one. A credit score of 786 should qualify you for most loans, credit cards and other lines of credit. But you won’t always get the best terms. That’s because a 786 credit score isn’t quite perfect credit. It’s a lot closer than you might think, though, to both credit perfection and plain old good credit. So you might want to double-check your latest credit score to see exactly where you stand.

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For starters, most people consider excellent credit to be a score of 720+. But we actually recommend setting the bar a bit higher, at 750+, based on the approval rates we’ve seen for loans and lines of credit. So you can’t get complacent. Fortunately, there’s plenty of incentive, considering that perfect credit is within reach. Any credit score of 800+ counts as perfect credit because when you’re in that club, credit score improvement will no longer save you money.

Here’s how a 786 credit score compares:

Credit Score	Credit Rating
650	Fair Credit
700	Good Credit
786	Excellent Credit
800	Perfect Credit

Below, you can learn more about what a 786 credit score means and the steps you’ll need to take if you want to join the 800+ credit score club.

What Does a 750 Credit Score Mean for Your Wallet?

A 786 credit score is well above the national average of 679, according to the latest data from TransUnion. As a result, such a score generally gives you access to some of the best loans and lines of credit. The very best rates, rewards and fees may still be out of reach, though, as you’ll see in the table below.

Here’s what a 786 credit score gets you:

Type of Credit	Do You Qualify?
Any Credit Card	NO
No-Annual-Fee Credit Card	YES
Big Initial Credit Card Bonus	YES
Credit Card with 0% Financing	YES
No-Foreign-Fee Credit Card	YES
Favorite Store’s Credit Card	YES
Airline/Hotel Credit Card	YES
Best Mortgage Rate	NO
Auto Loan with 0% Intro Rate	MAYBE
Lowest Auto Insurance Premium	NO
Best Personal Loan Rate	MAYBE
Apartment Rental	YES

How to Get a 786 Credit Score

There’s no secret for getting a 786 credit score. Rather, it simply requires consistency and commitment. You need to pay your bills on time, use only a portion of the credit made available to you, and generally work to make any mistakes you’ve made look like freak occurrences rather than standard practice. You also need to know exactly where you’re starting from and then actually track your progress over time to hold yourself accountable. So make sure to regularly check your latest credit score for free on WalletHub as you work your way to a 786 credit score.

You can find specific recommendations for what we recommend doing in your situation on your personalized credit analysis page. And below, you can check out some of the most common steps people need to take to get a credit score of 786.

Here’s how to get a 786 credit score:

1. Always Pay Your Bills on Time: Payment history is the most important part of any credit score because it directly answers the question of whether a lender can expect to get its money back from you. Missed payments are the trademark of a risky borrower, indicating irresponsibility and potential financial distress. So it’s important to have as few as possible on your credit report and to surround any that do appear with lots of months where you pay by the due date.You can find some strategies that may come in handy in WalletHub’s guide to never missing due dates.
2. Pay Off Your Credit Card Debt: Credit card debt is extremely costly, and we collectively owe way too much of it right now. Having a lot of debt puts pressure on your finances, making missed payments more likely. It also makes you a riskier candidate to borrow because you will have less income and fewer assets available to afford a new loan or line of credit. And that is exactly what credit scores measure.Paying off credit card debt will also reduce your credit utilization, which is a key ingredient in your credit score. You get a better idea of how exactly to go about this from WalletHub’s guide on paying off credit card debt.
3. Take Advantage of Free Credit Monitoring: You don’t want fraud or credit report errors to derail your pursuit of a 786 credit score. And while free credit monitoring won’t prevent such things from happening, it will make sure you know about them immediately. And that will give you the chance to sort out any problems before they do much, if any, damage.On that note, you should probably review your latest credit report for anything fishy, too, just to be safe.

How to Improve Your Credit Score From 786 to 800+

A credit score of 786 is on the brink of perfection, and you probably won’t have to change much to join the 800+ credit score club. Your personalized credit analysis from WalletHub will tell you what needs improvement and exactly how to fix it.

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A few things in particular tend to stand between a credit score of 786 and perfect credit, though. And if you do nothing else, make sure to take the following steps.

1. Reduce Your Credit Utilization: People with credit scores in the 800s use less than 5% of their available credit, according to VantageScore, while people with scores from 701 to 750 have 27% credit utilization. You definitely want to keep your credit utilization below 30% on all of your credit card accounts. And the lower it is, the better. There are a few ways to improve your credit utilization. You can charge less to your credit cards. You can make bigger monthly payments, if you don’t always pay in full already. You can also pay your bill multiple times per month to reduce the balance listed on your monthly statement, which is what’s used to calculate credit utilization.
2. Pay Down Debt: The average American household has roughly $8,000 in credit card debt. That type of burden can quickly become unmanageable, leading to missed payments, default, collections accounts and other types of negative information being added to your credit report. So the more debt you have relative to your income, the riskier you’ll seem to lenders. And since that’s exactly what a credit score measures, paying off amounts owed generally leads to credit score gains.
3. Avoid Hard Inquiries: Each time you apply for a loan or line of credit, there’s a “hard inquiry” on your credit report, when the lender reviews your credit history to see if you qualify. That hard inquiry can lower your credit score slightly for about six months. So if an 850 credit score is your aim, take note that applying for credit could affect your timeline.

Of course, you’ll also need to pay all your bills on time every month and otherwise manage your finances responsibly if you want to maintain your 786 credit score, let alone improve it. You can track your progress for free on WalletHub, the only site with free credit scores and reports that are updated everyday.