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What does a credit score between 500 and 579 mean?
Credit scores in this range are higher than the lowest credit score of 300, but they’re still a long way off from the highest credit score of 850. In the main scoring models used by US credit bureaus, your score is in either the lowest credit score range (FICO) or the second-lowest range (VantageScore).
A score this low can make it hard to open new lines of credit and can damage your quality of life.
How a poor credit score can affect your finances
Having a credit score makes it very hard to get approved for a loan or a new line of credit, as shown in the table below. Even if you do qualify, you’ll end up paying more money for your credit or loan because your lender will charge you a much higher interest rate.
Loans and credit you can get with a score between 500 and 579
| Credit Type | Loan Type | Eligibility |
|---|---|---|
| Installment loans | Mortgage | Eligible for FHA-backed mortgages, although you’ll have to pay a higher down payment (10%); eligible for some non-qualified mortgages |
| Car loan | Eligible, but you’ll have to pay a higher interest rate | |
| Private student loan | Usually ineligible without a cosigner | |
| Personal loan | Only eligible for high-risk loans, such as payday loans and car title loans, or cosigned loans | |
| Revolving credit | Unsecured credit card | Usually ineligible, except for cards with very high interest rates |
| Secured credit card | Eligible | |
| Personal line of credit | Usually ineligible | |
| Open credit | Cell phone contract | Eligible, but you may need to pay a deposit |
| Utilities (gas, electricity, etc.) | Eligible, but you may need to pay a deposit | |
| Charge cards | Usually ineligible |
A bad credit score can also affect your life in other ways. For instance, it can make it hard to find an apartment and can limit your job prospects because many landlords and employers run credit checks. Employers probably won’t see your actual numerical score, but they will be able to see the negative items in your credit history that contributed to it.
Having a low credit score also means you’ll probably end up paying more for services like insurance.
That all might seem bleak, but it’s not as bad as it seems. There are several ways you can improve your credit score once you understand how credit scores work and how they’re calculated.
Your 500-579 credit score explained in 1 minute
How your 500-579 credit score was calculated
As mentioned earlier, the two main credit scoring models are FICO and VantageScore. Although the two scoring models have some minor differences, both calculate credit scores based on the following factors:
- Payment history: Late payments lower your credit score. The later the payment, the more damage it will do. Charge-offs, collection accounts, and bankruptcies are even more damaging to your score.
- Credit utilization: This refers to the amount of credit that you’re using (also known as your debt-to-credit ratio). A lower utilization rate is better for your credit score. Many experts recommend keeping yours below 30% (meaning you should try not to reach a $3,000 balance on a credit card with a $10,000 limit). VantageScore recommends keeping your credit utilization even lower, under 10% if possible.
- Length of credit history: This is determined by the age of your oldest and newest credit accounts as well as the average age of all of your accounts. Old accounts that you’ve had for many years boost your credit score, whereas new accounts lower it.
- Credit mix: Your credit score will be lower if you don’t have a balanced mix of revolving accounts (e.g., credit cards and store credit) and installment accounts (e.g., mortgages, car loans, and student loans).
- New accounts: When you apply for a credit card or loan, the lender will run a credit check. This will trigger a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries take a few points off your credit score, and the effect lasts for up to 12 months. Actually opening the account can further hurt your score and have even longer-lasting effects.
Usually, if your score is between 500 and 579, it suggests you have one (or both) of the following issues with your credit history:
- Derogatory marks: If your credit report has several derogatory marks (negative items in your payment history, such as missed payments or marks related to debt collection), they can easily lower your score.
- Insufficient credit history: A thin credit file can bring down your credit score even if you don’t have many derogatory marks. It could be that you haven’t used your credit enough to establish a positive enough payment history or that you don’t have a good mix of different types of credit.
The good news is that you can recover from both situations. However, before you worry about improving your credit score, it’s important to make sure you’re not doing anything to damage it.
To do this, follow these tips:
- Pay all of your bills on time.
- Avoid opening any new credit accounts (unless you need to build your credit history).
- Avoid closing old accounts.
- Send a debt validation letter demanding proof of any future debts that anyone tries to collect from you—this is one of your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
VantageScore vs. FICO credit score calculation methods
VantageScore and FICO take the same factors into account to produce your score, but they weigh them slightly differently (which is why you might have different credit scores in the two models). Here are just a couple of the differences between FICO and VantageScore:
- VantageScore groups the length of your credit history and your credit mix into one category called Depth of Credit.
- In addition to your credit utilization (represented as a percentage), VantageScore also looks at your current balances and your remaining available credit (represented as dollar figures).
The tables below show how the models weigh your financial decisions to produce your score:
| Payment History | Amounts Owed | Length of Credit History | Credit Mix | New Credit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FICO | 35% | 30% | 15% | 10% | 10% |
| Payment History | Credit Utilization | Depth of Credit | Recent Credit | Balances | Available Credit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VantageScore 3.0 | 40% | 20% | 21% | 5% | 11% | 3% |
| VantageScore 4.0 | 41% | 20% | 20% | 11% | 6% | 2% |
How to recover from a low credit score
With a credit score of 500-579, it’s likely that you have at least a few derogatory marks on your credit report, such as late payments. Fortunately, it’s possible to recover from these in relatively short order with the right strategies. Look into both:
Quick fixes for your score
To fix your credit quickly, you’ll want to delete as many negative marks from your credit report as you can. This isn’t always possible, but it’s worth a try. Try to:
- Obtain copies of your credit reports, which you can get for free once per year from AnnualCreditReport.com
- Dispute any items you find on your credit reports that seem like they might be mistakes (e.g., overdue debts that you actually paid on time)
- Try to negotiate with your creditors (and any debt collection agencies they’ve hired) to delete your other (legitimate) negative marks; you might be able to convince them to do this asking for a goodwill deletion or proposing pay for delete
To file a credit dispute with the bureaus, use the template provided below.
Credit disputes aren’t always successful, but they’re your best bet for boosting your score quickly. Your score isn’t that far the threshold at which a bad credit score becomes a fair credit score, so if you can remove some of the negative marks on your credit report, it might be enough to push your score back into a decent range.
Long-term strategies to rebuild your credit
Unfortunately, it’s relatively unlikely that you’ll be able to remove every mark bringing your score down (in fact, it’s possible you won’t be able to remove any). To make sure that your score bounces back, you should also look into different methods to rebuild your credit in the long run. You should:
- Focus on rounding out your credit reports with positive information (such as on-time payments). If you don’t have any credit accounts in good standing that you can do this with, look into secured credit cards and credit-builder loans, which are easy to get even with a below-average credit score
- Manage your credit responsibly in the future. Use your credit cards in moderation and always pay off your credit cards in full every month before the due date.
- Prioritize getting out of debt (and stay out of it once you get there).
- Bolster your credit reports with alternative data from a service like Experian Boost or a third-party rent-reporting service, such as PayYourRent or eCredable
Plan on continuing to pursue these strategies even after your score recovers. In fact, these are general credit-building best practices that you should keep following no matter how high you’re able to boost your score.
How long will it take for your credit score to fully recover?
Any and all negative marks on your credit report will fall off in time. Most will remain on your credit report for 7 years (some bankruptcies stay for 10). This means that in 7–10 years, none of the negative information weighing down your credit will remain, and your score will have recovered (unless you incur more negative marks in the future, that is).
In practice, you probably won’t have to wait that long. If you have good luck removing negative marks with the quick fixes listed above, you may see a modest improvement in your score in just a few months. Even if you don’t, your score will improve significantly within 1–2 years, since the older the negative marks on your credit report are, the less weight the scoring models will assign to them.
Credit cards for a credit score of 500-579
Opening a new credit account with a low credit score is difficult, but possible. However, it’ll likely be what’s called a subprime credit card that comes with high fees and interest rates. Because creditors need to compensate for the risk of lending to people with poor credit, most subprime credit cards have significant drawbacks.
Credit cards for bad credit fall into two categories:
- Secured credit cards: As mentioned above, with these cards, creditors mitigate their risk by requiring you to pay a security deposit, which they’ll keep if you default on your debt.
- Unsecured cards with high interest rates: With these cards, creditors compensate for the lack of a security deposit by charging very high interest rates and additional fees (e.g., inactivity fees).
With a bad credit score, you may be eligible for the following cards:
Which should I pick?
Given the choice between those two options, it’s always better to go with a secured credit card. Unsecured subprime credit cards are dangerous because their high interest rates and fees can further jeopardize your finances.
Don’t apply for a credit card if you know your credit score doesn’t meet the company’s requirements. Most applications will trigger a “hard inquiry,” which will cause your score to temporarily drop. To find out if the card issuer has a minimum credit score, check their website or give them a call.
Loans for a 500-579 credit score
Unless your low credit score is a mistake caused by major errors on your credit report, you can expect to remain in the “poor” range for at least the next few months.
Until your score improves, avoid taking out any unnecessary loans to ensure that you won’t sabotage your progress by accumulating debt that you can’t pay off.
Auto loans
There is no credit score too low to get an auto loan, but you might have difficulty getting one while your credit score is in the poor range. You may be able to get a bad-credit car loan, but the interest rate will be relatively high, meaning that the toll it’ll take on your finances and credit score probably won’t be worth it.
According to a 2020 quarterly report by Experian, people with credit scores in the range of 300–580 (referred to as deep subprime borrowers) had an average interest rate of 20.3% on their used car loans, whereas people with credit scores of 781–850 (super-prime borrowers) received an average rate of 3.8%. Waiting until your score improves could save you hundreds of dollars each month and thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.
If you need to buy a car before your credit improves, then consider getting a used car that you can pay for upfront.
If you’re set on getting an auto loan with bad credit, then pay as large of a down payment as you can afford and consider getting prequalified or applying for a preapproval from your bank or credit union to increase your bargaining power.
Mortgage loans
Getting a mortgage is possible with a credit score between 500 and 579, although your options will be limited. The minimum credit score to get a mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is 500. To get an FHA loan, these are things you’ll need to do:
- Pay a minimum down payment of 10%
- Show proof that your mortgage payments won’t exceed 31% of your gross monthly income and that your debt-to-income ratio will be less than 43%
- Choose a mortgage that doesn’t exceed the FHA’s mortgage limit in your area
It’s worth noting that you won’t be eligible for an FHA-backed loan if you had a foreclosure in the past three years or filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in the past two years.
If you want a conventional mortgage instead of an FHA loan, then you’ll probably have to wait until you have a credit score of 620, which is the minimum score many lenders require, in line with the guidelines set out by the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac).
If you’re not interested in an FHA loan or you don’t qualify for one, you’ll probably need to rent an apartment.
Renting with a low credit score
You often need a credit score to rent a house or apartment since many landlords run credit checks on prospective tenants. There’s no universal minimum credit score for tenants, but many landlords look for a score of at least 620–650.
If you’re looking for a rental and the landlord plans on doing a credit check, it’s best to be upfront with them about your low score. You may be able to get the landlord to look past it if you can convince them that you’ll reliably pay your rent on time each month.
