The Highest Credit Score Available

An individual's credit score not only affects whether his applications for credit are accepted or denied, but it also affects the interest rates he is offered. Therefore, having a high credit score can help individuals save thousands of dollars in interest while they repay the money they borrow.

Score Ranges

The highest credit score depends on what type of credit score it is. The credit score developed by the Fair Isaac Corp., known as the FICO score, has a range of 300 to 850. This is the credit score most people pay attention to. However, the credit reporting companies have developed an alternate scoring model called the VantageScore. This has a range of 501 to 990. Therefore, individuals should know what type of credit score they are looking at to get an idea of how it measures up. A score of 820 on the FICO scale is excellent, but it is just a little above average on the VantageScore scale.

Credit Score Components

Both the FICO score and VantageScore take a few areas of an individual's credit history into account when calculating a credit score. To have a perfect credit score, the individual must excel in all of the categories. The FICO score considers payment history, amounts owed, types of credit, length of credit history and new credit. The VantageScore looks at payment history, utilization, balances, depth of credit, recent credit and available credit.

Tips to Improve

The best way a person can improve his credit score is by managing accounts consistently over a long period of time. The individual should have multiple credit card and installment loan accounts but apply for new accounts infrequently. Her payment history should show that all payments have been made on time. In addition, she should owe low balances in relationship to the credit line or the original amount borrowed. Each credit card should have a balance of no more than 25 percent. The closer the balance is to zero, the better.

Considerations

Although the top FICO score of 850 and the top VantageScore of 990 are technically available, few people actually have them. In fact, having the highest credit score available does not even offer many benefits. Most lenders offer their top tier of interest rates to anybody with a FICO score of at least 775, according to MSN Money. Therefore, having a FICO score higher than 775 will not make any difference. With the VantageScore, anything over 900 is considered an A on a grading scale of A to F.