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With Credit Sesame, you’ll see your TransUnion credit score and all the factors that influence it. We make it easy to understand where you stand and help you plan your next steps.
See the best loans offers
We do an in-depth credit and debt analysis to find you the best interest rates based on your credit score. Whether you’re looking for a home loan, personal loan, car loan, or student loan—we make it easy to save more money.
Find the best credit cards
Choosing the right credit card can be confusing. We make it easy to find cards based on your current credit score, hobbies, and goals. You’ll also see your approval odds, so you can always apply with confidence.
Build your credit score1
With Credit Sesame, you’ll see your TransUnion credit score and all the factors that influence it. We make it easy to understand where you stand and help you plan your next steps.
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for FREE.
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No trials.
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At Credit Sesame, we believe that better credit changes everything. We also believe checking your credit score should be FREE. Over the last decade, we’ve helped millions of people see their score, improve their credit, and reach their financial goals. Now it’s your turn! We’ll take a look at your credit score, credit history, and current debt to show you ways to save money on loans, credit cards, and your home mortgage. All 100% free.
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What Makes Up Your Credit Score?
Credit Inquiries
When applying for credit, lenders will check your credit score (inquiry), which will impact your credit score depending on your account. A soft inquiry will not affect your score but a hard inquiry on the other hand will.
Payment history
Credit payment history determines 35% of a FICO Score. The first thing any lender wants to know is whether you’ve paid past credit accounts on time. This is one of the most important factors in a FICO
Credit Age
Your credit age plays a role in your final credit score. It consists of factors such as age of oldest credit account, newest credit account, average of all accounts, types of accounts (mortgage, auto loans, etc), and last time each account was used.
Credit Utilization
Your credit utilization is the ratio of the amount of your credit card balances compared to the credit limits you have available. For example, if you have $500 credit balance while your limit is $1000, then your credit utilization is 50%.
Account Mix
Accounts mix (or credit mix) involves different types of accounts that you have, such as revolving accounts, installment accounts, or open accounts. Having a mix of accounts does have an impact on your overall credit score.
Credit Inquiries
When applying for credit, lenders will check your credit score (inquiry), which will impact your credit score depending on your account. A soft inquiry will not affect your score but a hard inquiry on the other hand will.
Payment history
Credit payment history determines 35% of a FICO Score. The first thing any lender wants to know is whether you’ve paid past credit accounts on time. This is one of the most important factors in a FICO
Credit score range
An Excellent Credit Score
If you find yourself sitting at an excellent credit score range then you are on the range of 750 or above according to the FICO range or an A if you are measuring based on the VantageScore 3.0 range. Getting to this position in the credit scale means that your payment history, credit utilization, credit age, credit mix, and inquiries are at the perfect (or excellent) amount. Having excellent credit opens numerous doors to the top credit card offers, best rates of loans, and other offers offered by lenders. This doesn’t mean that you are ‘done’ building your credit, especially if you are on the low end of excellent. It is recommended to continuously improve your credit.
Credit score range
A Poor Credit Score
If you have a bad / poor credit score then it means you are sitting between the credit score range of 300 to 629, which is were about 22% of Americans are currently sitting. Having a bad credit score does have quite a significant impact on your ability to borrow credit from lenders. Getting anything from an auto loan to an excellent credit card at low interest rates will very difficult to achieve. Auto or home insurance can be higher along with utility deposits that those will higher credit score usually get to skip on will not be likely. Dipping to a bad credit standing usually means you forgot to pay some bills on your credit card or car loan but it isn’t the end of your ability to credit. You can find providers who will be willing to lend and if you continue paying your bills on time your credit can improve over time.
Credit score range
A Fair Credit Score
If you are sitting at fair credit then you are right between bad and good credit. This usually means that you are between the low and mid 600’s. At this credit score range you will have a lot more options available than those with bad credit score ranges. At this point you can start applying for mortgages which typically begin at the score of 620. Auto loans are quite common in this range as well. When it comes to credit cards you begin to have a lot more options as well but not quite to the point where you can enjoy 0% interest rates or high rewards. At this point the most ideal option is to continue to push for a good credit score to open up even more options when it comes to mortgages, loans, credit cards, and more.
Credit score range
A Good Credit Score
A good credit score ranges from 700 to 749 according to the FICO credit range while on a Vantage Score 3.0 you would end up at a B grade. You can check your credit score for free with Credit Sesame to see whether you fall inside the ‘good’ credit range. If you find yourself below the ‘good’ range then you can do several important actions to get yourself back up. First pay your bills on time, watch your balances, don’t go overboard applying for credit, live within your means, mix up your accounts, and finally, look into the future – credit history counts. With a good credit score range you will get a lot of great perks when it comes to applying for credit such as credit cards or loans.
Credit score range
An Excellent Credit Score
If you find yourself sitting at an excellent credit score range then you are on the range of 750 or above according to the FICO range or an A if you are measuring based on the VantageScore 3.0 range. Getting to this position in the credit scale means that your payment history, credit utilization, credit age, credit mix, and inquiries are at the perfect (or excellent) amount. Having excellent credit opens numerous doors to the top credit card offers, best rates of loans, and other offers offered by lenders. This doesn’t mean that you are ‘done’ building your credit, especially if you are on the low end of excellent. It is recommended to continuously improve your credit.
Credit score range
A Poor Credit Score
If you have a bad / poor credit score then it means you are sitting between the credit score range of 300 to 629, which is were about 22% of Americans are currently sitting. Having a bad credit score does have quite a significant impact on your ability to borrow credit from lenders. Getting anything from an auto loan to an excellent credit card at low interest rates will very difficult to achieve. Auto or home insurance can be higher along with utility deposits that those will higher credit score usually get to skip on will not be likely. Dipping to a bad credit standing usually means you forgot to pay some bills on your credit card or car loan but it isn’t the end of your ability to credit. You can find providers who will be willing to lend and if you continue paying your bills on time your credit can improve over time.
What can hurt your
credit score
What can help your
credit score
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Credit Report vs. Credit Score:
What’s the Difference?
FREE Credit Report | FREE Credit Score | |
|---|---|---|
What is it? | Your credit report is a summary of all of your credit history over time. | Your credit score is a formula used by bureaus to determine how creditworthy you are. |
Where can you get it? | You can get your report with Credit Sesame or with a major credit bureau. | You can get your credit score from Credit Sesame or other places such as myFico. |
What kind of information does it show? |
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Who uses which? | Your creditor will typically do a hard credit inquiry to see if there is risk to giving you credit. | Your utility or phone company will do a soft credit inquiry before making a decision if you have to make a downpayment or not. |
How often do credit
scores change?
Example Timeline of Credit Score Changes
More often than not, changes to your credit score will occur in increments. Typically, you will only see changes of a few points each month. Even though your credit score looks like it stays pretty consistent month to month, it can add up to big changes over time. When you open an account with Credit Sesame, we’ll show you your credit score for FREE, all the ways to improve it, and what you can do with a better score along the way. Absolutely free.
Starting to Improve Your Credit Score
When you open a new line of credit, a few immediate changes are usually made to your credit report. Most instantly, a new hard inquiry will probably be added to your report, and your average age of credit history could drop. Due to these factors, opening a new account is likely to drop your credit score in the short term. However, as you begin to diligently pay off your bills, the additional on-time payments, the higher number of total accounts and your now-growing age of credit history will likely outweigh the initial downsides, and your score can benefit in the long term.
Credit Myths
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1 Sesame Cash is a prepaid debit card issued by Community Federal Savings Bank (CFSB). Building credit with Sesame Cash requires you to also open a virtual secured credit card with CFSB that is reported to the credit bureaus. Use money from your Sesame Cash account to create a virtual secured credit card. Your debit card purchases are then added up to create a balance on your virtual secured credit card. As you make these purchases, an amount equal to the balance on your virtual secured credit card is also set aside in your Sesame Cash account to ensure you can make timely payments to pay off the balance on your virtual secured credit card at the end of each month, allowing you to build a positive payment history. Credit Sesame does not guarantee credit score improvement. Any predicted credit improvement from the use of your virtual secured credit card assumes that you will maintain healthy credit habits, including paying bills on time, keeping credit balances low, avoiding unnecessary inquiries, appropriate financial planning, and more.
2 Cash back offers are powered by Button, Inc. Cash back requires the activation of any active offer before payment is made. Offers vary by geographic location and are subject to change. Please review the full program terms for more details.
3 This is a limited time offer. To be eligible for cash rewards, a minimum deposit, every 30 days, must be made into your Sesame Cash account. Rewards earnings are available for credit score improvements of ten points or more within a 30-day reward cycle. Improvements are calculated from your baseline credit score, as determined by Credit Sesame. Please review the full program terms for more details, including the minimum deposit amount for this program term.;