What Is A Good Credit Score in South Africa?

You may have gotten your credit report with a free online credit checker before and seen a three-digit number called your credit score. It begs the question, “What is a good credit score in South Africa?” Different bureaus use different scores, like FICO and VantageScore, for instance. However, when it comes down to it, a score of around 680 is generally a good indicator that you’re responsible with finance.

This post breaks down the good credit scores, the different kinds of credit scores, and how credit scores are calculated.

What is A Good Credit Score?

The bureaus have different ranges for what encompasses a good score. For instance, TransUnions’ breakdown is:

Excellent: 767 – 999
• Good: 681 – 766
• Favourable: 614 – 680
• Average: 583 – 613
• Below Average: 527 – 582
• Unfavourable: 487 – 526
• Poor: 0 – 486

Generally, a score above 680 is considered good to excellent.

You Have TWO Credit Scores

There are two credit scoring models: FICO and VantageScore. The world’s three major credit bureaus, Experion, Transunion, and Equifax developed VantageScore in 2006 as an alternative to 1989’s FICO score. The two offer different sorts of information on consumers’ credit history, depending on lenders’ requests.

Both FICO and VantageScore use a 300-850 range as an indicator of creditworthiness. The higher your score, the better your credit history. If you have a bad VantageScore, you’ll likely have a bad FICO score, too.

What’s The Difference?

The two scoring models weigh different factors different. Under the FICO model, your payment history (late payments, missed payments, etc.) weighs the most. Whereas under the VantageScore model, your credit card balances and utilisation ratio weigh the most.

FICO Score Calculations

FICO uses numerical portions of your credit history to manage score calculations.

  • 35% is your payment history
  • 30 is how much you owe
  • 15% is the length of your credit history
  • 10% is your credit mix
  • 10% is new credit

FICO is mostly about credit habits, not necessarily how much credit you’ve taken out.

VantageScore Calculations

VantageScore calculates your score based on what most influences the credit industry.

  • Most influential: total credit usage, how much credit you have available, and your balance.
  • The next most influential: credit mix and experience
  • Moderately influential: payment history
  • Less influential: age of credit history
  • Least influential: new accounts

As previously discussed: a good score on one most likely means you’ll have a good score on the other, too.

To conclude, a good credit score in South Africa is anything north of 680, and you can be scored with two primary models: FICO and VantageScore. If you would like to check your credit score for free now, try Credit Boost’s credit checker.

What is a good credit score in South Africa?

If you have bad marks on your credit score, be sure to talk to Cape Town Legal Consultants. We can remove anything from debt review to judgments.