Building Stronger Credit

If you aren’t already checking your credit score regularly, it’s time to start. Some credit card companies and lenders now include the number on billing statements. First Security Bank online and mobile banking users have free access to their VantageScore credit score.*

If you don’t think your credit score can have a major impact on your life, consider all of the ways companies – and even landlords – now use the three-digit number to judge your creditworthiness.

How high (or low) your score is can determine:

How much you will pay to borrow money for a car or home loan
What your car, renters, or homeowners’ insurance premiums will be (in most states)
Whether you’ll qualify for a cell phone and service plan
The amount you’re charged to lease an apartment (and if you qualify)
Whether you will pass a background check for a new job
The interest rate you will be charged when applying for a new credit card
Whether you qualify for utilities (power, water, gas), and how much your deposit will be

Notably, your scores (sometimes called your credit profile) aren’t just used by financial institutions anymore. That’s why it pays to know not just your score but also the steps it takes to improve it (particularly if it’s a long way from where you’d like it to be right now).

How to Find Your Score

Before you work on boosting or maintaining your score, you need to know where to find it. First Security Bank offers 24/7 access to customers through online and mobile banking.

Key Point: It’s also important to note that your credit score is not the same as your credit report, and most credit reports don’t include your score.

What’s a Good Score?

Think of your credit score as a report card for adults on how we handle money. The two main credit scoring systems in the U.S. – FICO and VantageScore – both use a numeric scale from 300 to 850 to determine credit scores. The higher the number, the better the score and the more creditworthy someone is considered to be.

In November 2024, the average VantageScore 4.0 credit score was 702. Generally, a good score lands somewhere between 700 and 749, and an excellent score ranges from 750 to 850. If you have a score in the mid-to-upper 600s, you’ll still qualify for credit in many cases, but the approval process may take longer, and you’ll likely pay more in interest.

Building a Better Score

You can boost your score by following these steps:

Go online and pull your credit reports. First Security Bank customers have 24/7 online access to reports and credit scores through online and mobile banking.
Analyze your reports. Once you download your reports, set aside some time to go through them line by line. If you find an error, dispute it. Even small mistakes, such as a misspelled name, can and should be reported and fixed by calling the creditor listed in the report and asking for an update. If they drag their feet or the error is more complex, dispute the mistake directly with the credit bureaus.
Always pay your bills on time. Even one day late is still considered late, and just one late payment can lower your score by as much as 100 points, depending on how high your score was before the deadline passed.
Pay down credit card debt. It’s not a good idea to use more than 30% of the total credit available to you. Work on keeping your utilization closer to 10%, which can often boost your score.
Keep old credit card accounts open. Your score benefits from longer relationships with lenders. If you are tempted to use older cards that are paid off, hide them in a safe place, but don’t cancel them if you can help it.
Pause before applying for new credit. Why? When you apply for a new card or loan, the lender looks at your history, which could ding your score. Only apply for what you really need.
Mix it up when you can. The mix of credit you have in your file, including student loans, auto loans, credit cards, and mortgages often shows you can manage debt from multiple sources.

Building a solid credit score takes time and effort, but the rewards are worth it.

_{*Credit scores offered through First Security Bank online and mobile banking are not the same scores used to make lending decisions. For more information about how we determine creditworthiness, please contact a lender at your local banking center.}

Meet the author

A little about Kristi Thurmon

Kristi was raised in the Natural State and has lived most of her life in Searcy. She enjoys traveling, reading, drinking girly coffee, taking sewing classes at Make.Do. and volunteering for Main Street Searcy. Otherwise, she is managing OnlyInArk.com and marketing at First Security Bank.