A credit score of 650 is at the high end of the “fair” credit tier, just shy of the 660 needed to qualify as having “good” credit. Reaching good credit is key not only because it will help you save on everything from credit cards to car insurance, but also because it could open the doors to a new apartment or even certain jobs.
Besides, you can’t reach top WalletFitness without excellent credit, and you can’t get excellent credit without first graduating from a credit score of 650 to a “good” rating. Below, you can learn all about what you can and cannot do with a 650 credit score, the types of people who have 650 credit scores and the steps you can take to put more points on the board.
Step one, of course, should be to check your latest credit score. Credit scores can change a lot from day to day or week to week, so you might already have a higher score than you think. And WalletHub is the only place where you can get free credit scores that are updated on a daily basis.
What Does A 650 Credit Score Get You?
| Item | Do You Qualify? |
|---|---|
| Any Credit Card | NO |
| No Annual Fee Credit Card | YES |
| Big Initial Credit Card Bonus | NO |
| Credit Card with 0% Financing | YES |
| No Foreign Fee Credit Card | YES |
| Favorite Store’s Credit Card | YES |
| Airline/Hotel Credit Card | NO |
| Best Mortgage Rates | NO |
| Auto Loan with 0% Intro Rate | NO |
| Lowest Auto Insurance Premiums | NO |
| Personal Loan | MAYBE |
| Apartment Rental | MAYBE |
There’s not much of a difference between a 650 credit score and a 660 credit score, except for the fact that 660 is the beginning of the “good” credit tier. That’s important because lenders and landlords often have specific cutoff points for approval, and 660 is the most common one. So by adding just 10 points to your credit score, you could open the door to some serious savings.
You can find some tips that will help put you over the top of fair credit in our credit-improvement guide. You can also track your progress in real time on your free WalletHub account. Just bear in mind that lenders are the ones who ultimately determine which scores belong to each credit tier (i.e., good, excellent, etc.), and their definitions often differ.
Who Has A 650 Credit Score?
| Age Group | 650+ Credit Score |
|---|---|
| 18-24 | 43% |
| 25-34 | 47% |
| 35-44 | 51% |
| 45-54 | 58% |
| 55-64 | 69% |
| 65+ | 83% |
| Income Bracket | 650+ Credit Score |
|---|---|
| < $30K | 23% |
| $30,000 - $49,999 | 47% |
| $50,000 - $74,999 | 84% |
| $75,000 - $99,999 | 87% |
| $100K+ | 88% |
Source: WalletHub data, as of 11/18/2016
As you can see, most people who are at least 35 years old have a credit score of 650 or higher. And even younger folks nearly have a majority. This just goes to show that people with 650 credit scores come in all shapes and sizes, with diverse backgrounds and differing financial obligations.
As a result, the grades for each component of your credit score, which you can find on the Credit Analysis page of your free WalletHub account, might not exactly match those of another individual with a 650 score. But the sample scorecard below will give you a pretty good idea of what a 650 score is made of.
Sample Scorecard – 650 Credit Score:
- Payment History: C = 98% on-time payments
- Credit Utilization: B = 10% - 29% utilization
- Debt Load: A = Debt-to-income ratio below 0.28
- Account Age: B = Average tradeline is 7 or 8 years old
- Account Diversity: C = 2 account types or 5 - 9 total accounts
- Hard Credit Inquiries: A = Fewer than 3 in past 24 months
- Collections Accounts & Public Records: A = 0 collections accounts and public records
These are by no means the only credit-score grades capable of producing a score of 650, nor will they necessarily result in that exact rating. However, this is representative of the type of scorecard someone with a 650 credit score can expect: plenty As and Bs, but no failing grades to be found.