Yes, a 788 FICO score is considered very good to excellent, placing you well above the national average and in a strong position to get the best interest rates and terms on loans and credit cards, as it falls within the 740-799 "Very Good" range and nears the "Exceptional" category (800-850).
Pay Your Bills on Time, Every Time: Timely payment of bills is the single most important factor influencing your credit score. Make it a priority to pay all your bills— Keep Your Credit Card Balances Low: Maintain low credit card balances relative to your credit limits.
With this score, you can enjoy a wide range of financial opportunities—such as getting approved for the best credit card offers, quicker loan approvals, and lowest interest rates for car loans and even home loans. You may also negotiate for better loan terms or receive pre-approved offers, helping you save more.
According to the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO), the highest possible FICO® Credit Score is 850, and only 1.7% of the U.S. population has it (as of April 2023). When you know what your score means you can better plan for new credit options.
Is 788 a bad credit score? No, a 788 credit score is excellent. It falls in the 'very good' range, demonstrating strong creditworthiness. With this score, lenders see you as low-risk, making it easy to secure loans and credit cards with favorable interest rates and terms.
Pay your bills on time
Prioritize and schedule your monthly payments, making sure to pay at least the minimum payment on time every month on all your accounts. Try to pay more than what's due whenever possible. This helps to pay down debt faster, save on interest expense and may improve your credit score.
The 15/3 credit card payment method is a strategy to potentially boost your credit score by making two payments per billing cycle: one about 15 days before your statement closes (to lower reported utilization) and another around 3 days before the payment due date (to cover the rest and avoid late fees), though its actual impact on credit scoring is debated. It works by keeping your reported balance lower when the card issuer reports to bureaus, but experts note the specific timing isn't magical, and focusing on the reporting date is key.
Learn more about your credit score
A 788 credit score is Very Good, but it can be even better.
Yes, you can likely get a $50,000 loan with a 700 credit score, as this falls into the "good" credit range (670-739) that unlocks better rates, but approval also hinges on your income, debt-to-income (DTI) ratio (ideally below 36%), and overall credit history, with lenders looking for stability and repayment ability, so prequalifying with multiple lenders helps compare terms.
For most people, increasing a credit score by 100 points in a month isn't going to happen. But if you pay your bills on time, eliminate your consumer debt, don't run large balances on your cards and maintain a mix of both consumer and secured borrowing, an increase in your credit could happen within months.
Preapproved offers for credit cards and personal loans typically don't impact your credit score, while mortgage and auto loan preapproval typically involve a hard inquiry, which affects your credit.
Pay your bills on time
Your payment history makes up 35% of your FICO® Score, so making sure that you pay your credit and bills on time is a big deal. Late payments on things like credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, or student loans can significantly impact your score.
It's partly true: most negative items like late payments and collections are removed from your credit report after about seven years, but the underlying debt often still exists, and bankruptcies (Chapter 7) last 10 years, so your credit isn't entirely "clear" but mostly refreshed from old negatives. The 7-year clock starts from the date of the original delinquency, not when you paid it off or sent to collections, and the debt itself can still be pursued by collectors.
No, a FICO score is a specific type of credit score, not the same thing as all credit scores, though it's the most widely used brand by lenders. Think of "credit score" as a general term for a number predicting risk, while FICO is a specific brand (from Fair Isaac Corp.) and model, like VantageScore is another popular brand, and some lenders even have their own. All FICO scores are credit scores, but not all credit scores are FICO scores.
Whether you pay bills on time is the biggest factor that influences your FICO score. To maintain a good score, it's important to keep up with payments. Late payments can stay on your credit report up to seven years.
Yes, you can likely get a $50,000 loan with a 700 credit score, as this falls into the "good" credit range (670-739) that unlocks better rates, but approval also hinges on your income, debt-to-income (DTI) ratio (ideally below 36%), and overall credit history, with lenders looking for stability and repayment ability, so prequalifying with multiple lenders helps compare terms.